If you read Part I of Beyond the Rankings, you know that my focus for this two-part post is that keyword rank is not the whole story when it comes to SEO accomplishments. In Part I my focus dealt with the ancillary benefits of strong SEO tactics which helped turn a SERP in your favor by way of press releases, blogs, social media profiles, and more.
Now, the business of making yourself sit down and write quality content is tough enough, let alone ensuring you optimize your blog and take the time to write unique content in the form of articles and PRs and submit those to sites. There is a reason we have so many clients turning to us for these services. With content alone, we spend an average of 18 hours per month on each client. With all other tactics included, it balloons to the 40-50 hour range.
That can be a tough number for a small business looking to take SEO in-house, and that’s how long it takes us as an SEO agency. For someone just getting his or her feet wet, it can be enough SEO water to drown in. I’d like to expand briefly on four main areas of SEO work necessary to a top-notch campaign and give some insight as to how these affect keyword rankings and go beyond keyword rankings as best SEO practices.
Keyword Selection
I said in the first part of this post that there is more to what shows up on a SERP (search engine results page) than just your target domain. Well, there is also more to the story of selecting a targeted keyword list than quickly listing your favorite phrases about your business. It’s often the case that search terms for which your site should be appearing are not phrases you would ever come up with on your own. We put a lot of time and expertise into this phase of our SEO campaigns. In order to get a maximum return on effort, the main targeted keywords need to offer a combination expected traffic and surmountable competition.
Beyond the rankings: We usually choose keywords with a variety of difficulty. While 10 of your keywords are on the first Google SERP and six are not, that doesn’t mean failure. Some terms take longer to optimize, and SEO must be considered as a long-term, ongoing form of marketing rather than a one-time project.
Unique Content
Writing unique content on the site we’re optimizing, custom blogs, and press release and article platforms is important. I still believe content is the foundation of any SEO campaign.
Beyond the rankings: Off-site content is an important form of natural link building. It helps the list of targeted keywords almost immediately. It also helps rankings even more in the long run when executed appropriately. Blogs especially have potential to pay off big in the long run, as it is really a second domain and site for your business that will continue to gain authority over time and it regularly updated with content – it’s what search engines love. Again, this takes experiences and knowledge of best SEO writing practices and the various platforms. As mentioned in the first part of this post, these off-site content efforts can increase your SERP presence as well.
Organic Link Building
A lot of our clients would pick up a shovel if we mentioned that Digging can be valuable for SEO. Expertise is essential to know the right virtual tools to use, and good link building takes time. A lot of it. Through experience, we use many best practices that we have found work for us, particularly with our car dealer SEO clients.
Beyond the rankings: Our organic link-building services really bring a lot to our campaigns. They do affect rankings some in the first few months with a client, but from my experience, the effects of link building begin to take effect in a major way after six months or so. Again, it all comes back to long-term vision with SEO. If every keyword is not in the top spot on Google, we’re happy if our best efforts are taking place because they will eventually pay dividends.
Auditing
Not to be overlooked, the SEO work going into a campaign needs to be checked to ensure accuracy, professionalism and effectiveness. Does all of your link-building anchor text match your keyword phrases and link back to the appropriate URL? Is every piece of written content proofed for grammar and effective backlinks? Are there 404 errors on your site? Are keywords generating traffic? These and many more questions about a campaign need to be answered regularly to ensure SEO is on the right track.
Beyond the rankings: Auditing is necessary even when keyword rankings look great. There is always something that could be better or something that could happen to bring rankings down. Catching problems early is crucial, and the time and expertise used for regular auditing is well worth the investment.
" John is an expert on SEO strategies and content writing. He is an amatuer photographer and hopes to take up either Bocce or advanced calculus within the next year. " |
