The 3 Pillars of Effective SEO
The following is adapted from Faster, Smarter, Louder: Master Attention In A Noisy Digital Market.
Search-engine optimization (SEO) is a key part of any successful inbound marketing strategy. It’s a tried-and-true way to drive traffic to your website through search engines — mainly, Google, which owns about 90 percent of the US market. The more you optimize your content for SEO, the higher up on Google’s search-results listing your website will appear.
In other words, SEO should never be an afterthought — though it shouldn’t be your only focus either. Instead, find a way to strike a healthy middle ground by building your SEO on the side while using some form of paid marketing to bring in traffic.
Aim for Organic Search Traffic
In most of the websites we come across, organic search traffic is one of the highest-converting channels of traffic. When people click through to your site as a result of an organic Google search, there is implied authority and trust. With ads, you can buy your way to the top. But if you’re the first entry below the paid options, they’ll know you earned that spot. At least according to Google, you have the most relevant answer to a given question.
Always strive to bring in more organic search traffic. But how can this be done?
The Three Pillars
To master SEO, we recommend you follow these three pillars:
Technical
When you focus on SEO, keep in mind that it’s about a lot more than having the right keywords. These days, good SEO is the result of having a good website that is crawlable, indexable, mobile friendly, and otherwise technically sound. So don’t let it slide. Make SEO part of business as usual from the moment you start building your website. Make sure you build the right structure on your website using the right platform, and you’ll save yourself a lot of costs down the road — and take a big leap in terms of potential opportunities.
Content
Your content has to be readable. You can’t play word soup to try to get all the keywords in. Like any business, you must add value. If you want to be found for certain keywords, you need content that exists on your website that is targeted around those keyword sets.
Maybe you’re trying to game the search engines (which we don’t recommend). Maybe you think keyword density matters to the rankings (not as much as you think). Either way, if this is your focus, you’re missing the core point of all this, which is to provide value.
That said, keywords are fine if you’re leading with value. If you can do both, the results will be a whole lot more successful and less risky than trying to hack your way there.
External Links
Guest blogging can do wonders for your brand’s credibility, but it’s also an essential SEO strategy. Keep in mind that the established websites in your industry have larger audiences than you do. Guest content leverages those audiences and boosts your visibility in search engines.
First, do your homework and identify the site you want to write for. You’re looking for the right audience that’s the right size with the right authority and credibility.
Next, reach out to the site owner or editor and offer to create content that fulfills these two criteria:
- You know through your research that readers will find it valuable.
- You have expertise on the subject.
Once you’re approved, it’s time to start producing. Make sure to link back to relevant websites supporting your claims, especially ones with good data that explain something more in-depth than you did in your post. If you’ve created great editorial content on your own site, link back to that as well so people can learn more about you and read more of your content — thus enabling you to attract that audience to your business.
Done right, guest blogging drives referral traffic through to your site that you otherwise would not have reached, demonstrates your expertise, raises your credibility, and builds direct links to pages on your website.
Is there a right number of backlinks? Yes and no. From an SEO perspective, search engines love links. They love to crawl a link and hop to another blog post or site that’s relevant. In that way, backlinks assist in crawling and indexing of new content and send freshness indicators to old content to indicate it’s still relevant and important to Google.
Perhaps a better way to look at links is to think of them as votes. For every link you get from across the web, someone is voting in favor of the quality of your content. However, not all votes are equal. In terms of the halo effect, the links from higher-authority sites like Forbes shine a lot brighter than those from Joe Blogs.
However, as valuable as links are, it’s even more important that your content is readable. The goal is always to add value. If you adhere to effective SEO practices and create high-quality content, the credibility will follow.
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For more advice on effective SEO, you can find Faster, Smarter, Louder: Master Attention In A Noisy Digital Market on Amazon.
AARON AGIUS is the CEO and co-founder of Louder.Online, a global agency that has worked with brands like Salesforce, IBM, and Coca-Cola. Named as a leading digital marketer in a Forbes article, Aaron leverages his thought leadership and speaking engagements to help businesses optimize their efforts and accelerate their growth.
GIÁN CLANCEY is the CMO and co-founder of Louder.Online, where her passion for science has fueled countless world-class data-led marketing campaigns for global brands. Growing up in a large family taught Gián the power of close, authentic relationships, which she uses to fuel passionate engagement with employees and stakeholder communities.
