S-E-O. The 3 letters may sound simple but get more and more complex as and how
one starts digging deeper into what they mean and can do for businesses.
Today, the majority of brands, be it big or small, are trying their best to build an
effective SEO strategy. Some manage to succeed without many resources while
others fail miserably despite the big budgets.
If you want to have an SEO strategy in place but don’t know how to ensure that you
don’t fall in the latter category, here’s an ultimate step-wise guide that you may want
to look at before you begin.
Step 1
The key is in the keywords!
Doing keyword research is like eating dahi-cheeni – The first thing you must do
before stepping out to get something done. Well, if you want to go all out to get a
good SEO ranking, then definitely do your keyword research well. There are many
keyword research tools available online. You can use any of such research tools and
get a list of short-tail keywords for your content. Once that is done, you can start
making a list of long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are 3 or more words and are
more specific in nature. They drive more qualified traffic, that is, audiences searching
for more specific content. Once you identify your short and long-tail keywords,
integrate them into the heading, subheadings, body text and image alt text.
Step 2
Content is king!
Anyone can create blogs, articles, infographics, videos, guides, lists and more. But
creating content that is interesting and relevant to the audience is a different
challenge altogether. Here are the 2 kinds of research to be carried out which will
help you create content that strikes a chord.
1. Research keyword competitors
Search results show who you are competing against. Businesses that repeatedly show up in the search results for your keywords are your biggest competitors. Once you see their content, you will understand the quality of work you need to create. Your aim needs to be to create content that outranks them in every way possible, so that you stay ahead in the game of SEO.
2. Research content types that rank higher
Check for what type of information and format is ranking higher and follow
just that. For instance,if you can clearly see that how-to blog posts are
doing better than infographic posts, then you know what kind of
information and format to use already.
Step 3
Link to the hearts of your audiences!
Internal links and backlinks can do wonders for your site.
When you have internal links, they lead the users to the other pages of your site. For
your pages to appear in search results Google must crawl and index them. Internal
linking helps Google discover these additional pages, and crawl and index them.
Also, it helps users stay engaged on your site longer thus helping you rank higher.
Backlinks on the other hand send new users to your site and make them trust your
site as a reputed one. Editorially given natural links by industry professionals like
bloggers, manually built links by asking customers or influencers, and self-created
links in directories, forums, blogs, press releases etc. are ways in which you can
ensure you have backlinks on your page.
Step 4
Brag in the tag!
The first thing that users do to filter the listings and decide what to click on is the title
tag. The title tag gives the users a preview of your content. If you don’t have an
appealing title tag, users are likely to click on your competitors’ links that have tags
which are more attractive. Following is a checklist for how your title tag should ideally
be-
- Word limit of 60 characters
- Includes core keyword
- Includes attention-grabbing words
- Includes clear and concise information
Step 5
URL should ring the bell!
URLs are extremely important as they provide the users and search engines with an idea of your page. Your URLs should be optimised in a way it gives the right context to your page. If your URLs look something like this – www.brandbazooka.com/cfec5c29, then it should look something like this – www.brandbazooka.com/what-is-seo. Why is the latter better? Because it gives a clear idea to the audience of what the page contains.
Step 6
Time is money!
It’s a no-brainer that if you have a site that takes forever to load, users will go back to the search results and find another one. This will lead to a high bounce rate which will, in turn, send a signal to Google, bringing your ranking down. From reducing redirects to reducing image sizes, there is a lot you can do and should do to improve your site’s loading time.
Step 7
Make mobile your ally!
Google uses a mobile-first index. If your mobile version of the site is not right, it makes your site rank lower. Hence a responsive design which adapts to all devices is a must for your site.
We are here!
Voila! You now know the 7 steps to an effective SEO strategy that is sure to drive
qualified traffic and rank higher.
But you also know that these steps may sound really simple, but as and how you
start working on them, they get more and more complicated.
Each of these 7 steps is extremely important and not getting even one right, can
make it difficult for your business to survivedigitally.
But no fear when we are here!
Brand Bazooka is an award-winning advertising and SEO company in Delhi. For over
11 years, we, at Brand Bazooka, have worked with numerous reputed national and
international brands and helped them achieve their marketing goals. Our team of
seasoned and committed SEO experts has helped many clients get a higher ranking
and get the kind of website traffic that they aimed for. We can help you too.
If you are looking for SEO services in Delhi or a local SEO company in Gurgaon,
then get in touch with us today!
