Let’s face it: SEO and search marketing are dense subjects which are complex enough when it’s your dedicated job, let alone when it’s yet another responsibility that’s been dumped on the marketing department. Search is an industry in constant flux filled with technical terminology and conflicting advice that is often hard to follow.
So where does that leave the in-house marketer who’s suddenly wearing the SEO hat? Well, the first thing is not to panic: you’re actually in a strong position if you can cut through the noise and simply concentrate on the basics.
With detailed knowledge of your customers and objectives, here are three simple tips to help rock in-house SEO:
1. The Keyword Trap
Keywords are critical to ranking in search engines, but the idea that ‘more is better’ will do more harm than good. Not all keywords are born equal and when you do your research don’t just look at keyword popularity or search volumes in isolation. A real SEO-wizz will consider their competitiveness and what you’re likely to rank for once you get it right.
Top Tip: Don’t stuff your meta titles and body copy with the same, or very similar, keywords but make sure they read naturally and are completely unique to each page. Beyond Google’s keyword research tool, I’d also recommend trying Moz’s keyword analysis tool. This will show you how competitive your keywords are, and allow you to refine your tactics.
2. Build it and they will come
With the right keyword mix on your most important pages, the more adventurous marketer may decide to start building out landing pages with a more granular keyword focus.
A well-earned tip of the hat to that go-getter, but again what seems so simple in essence needs to be considered carefully. Just creating dozens or hundreds of these pages and sparsely populating them with token content in the hope of catching Google’s eye won’t do you any favours. You need to make these pages easily findable on your site and useful to your potential customers. Google’s algorithm is smart, and getting smarter, and it will recognise and reward those marketers who provide genuinely useful and relevant content.
Google itself says it best: “Provide high-quality content on your pages… this is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site.”
Top Tip: Make sure all your landing page copy is unique and over 300 words so that search engines have enough context to understand the page. Include the right keywords but not just the core terms. If you want the page to rank well, make sure it is linked from prominent areas of your site otherwise people won’t find it and Google might ignore it.
3. Earn Links, Don’t Build Them
Once you’ve got all of your lovely landing pages purring away, most marketers will then try and turbocharge a site’s performance by building as many links as possible. More links means better rankings, right?
Well, no! Much like keywords, all links are not equal. Quality will always outweigh quantity because Google rewards trusted links from authority sites. Buying links, advertorials or link swapping is a false economy, and offenders will be penalised by Google’s algorithm.
The solution? Do what you do best and be a marketer. Start looking at ways to create genuinely useful and linkworthy content that will add real value to your wider industry and appeal to your target customers. If you can start creating regular content that is genuinely shareable then the links and rankings will follow.
Top Tip: To come up with great content ideas, do your due diligence. Find out what resonates with your target audience, what they’re sharing, where they hang out online and which influencers they revere. Once you answer these questions, find out what you competitors are up to by using tools such as Buzzsumo and Open Site Explorer to see what content is truly popular. This initial research will pay dividends later on and allow you to create a logical calendar of content that deserves links and has real viral potential (some good old fashioned PR outreach and social advertising also goes a long way!).
So, the one piece of advice for any would-be SEO ninja? Focus on usability and quality. Resist the urge to cut corners or take the path of least resistance because in SEO as in life; if it seems too good to be true then it probably is. Finally, if you’re ever second guessing yourself or overthinking a solution then just be natural: write for humans rather than search robots and you’ll reap the rewards.
By Kevin Mullaney, Head of Digital at Flagship Consulting.
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