The Three Elements of a Successful SEO Strategy (and Why You Can Ignore Most Ranking Factors)

Table of Contents

• Why you can ignore most Google ranking factors
  • Content
  • Backlinks
• The 3 components of a killer SEO strategy
  • On-page SEO strategy
  • Off-page SEO strategy
  • Technical SEO strategy
• Take the first step to creating a killer SEO strategy

For over 90% of internet shoppers, the purchasing process begins with a search engine. As a result, every firm must have an SEO strategy in place.

However, when it comes to developing that approach, things can become tricky. Google is quite advanced now, and clients are more difficult to please than ever. So, how do you stay up with the algorithm and the people it is meant to serve?

Why you can ignore most Google ranking factors

Google’s algorithm is frequently updated, and ranking elements are always changing. It is now estimated that Google utilizes between 200 and 10,000 variables to evaluate a piece of material. Fortunately, you don’t have to keep track of all of them (or even most of them).

And this is because, despite the fact that these ranking elements appear to be many and very frequently, they are all based on one simple principle that has stayed constant since the dawn of search engines: what is excellent for user experience is good for SEO.

Finally, Google bases its ranking variables on what it believes will provide the user with the most relevant results.

So, how does Google determine what is relevant? There are primarily two factors:

Content

The results displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) are all examples of content. All of these pages were developed by businesses with the goal of informing, entertaining or selling visitors.

If you want to rank well, you must have pages that rank, and they must be of good quality in order to outperform the competition. High-quality indicates that they satisfy search intent as well as feasible.

Simply said, search intent is: “What is the user seeking for when they perform a Google search for X term?”

For example, if a user searches “how to tie a tie,” they will see the following search engine results page:

It’s chock-full of videos and diagrams on how to tie a tie because this type of content performs the best job of satisfying search intent, which is: the searcher wants to learn how to knot a tie.

On the other hand, if you search “affordable ties,” you’ll get the following SERP:

This search engine results page consists primarily comprised of transactional pages. Images and videos are not permitted. Why? Because the searcher’s purpose is plainly to find a low-cost tie to purchase. Not to learn what a low-cost tie is, how it works, or its history. They want to go shopping.

When assessing search intent for a keyword phrase, consider the following: What do searchers desire when they look up this term? What is on page one (blog posts? Product pages? Videos?)? Which type of blog article (Listicle? Is it a news storey or a guide?)? How can I improve my content to outperform what’s on page one in order to better please searchers?

Once you’ve determined which keywords your target audience uses to obtain answers pertaining to your business and sector, you can use those keywords to develop an effective, comprehensive, high-quality content marketing strategy that users and search engines will appreciate.

Backlinks

Google wants to ensure that when it serves results, they come from a reliable source. Moz.com, for example, is a more reliable source than a small blog operated by an inexperienced search engine optimizer.

Google assesses this authority and trust by examining all of the situations in which other sites have linked to Moz.com and small SEO blogs. Backlinks are links that lead from other websites to yours.

Because Moz is a trusted source of knowledge that has been around for a long time, many sites have directed their users to blog posts, guides, and other pages on the Moz site to learn more about SEO. Moz has a large number of backlinks.

Because the little SEO blog is newer, does not have the same degree of exposure, experience, or publishes the same level of quality content, the number of links to it is likely to be much fewer.

These backlinks are regarded as upvotes by Google. When there are a lot of links pointing to a piece of content, Google assumes it’s of high quality. As a result, the greater the number of backlinks a page or site has, the higher it will rank in search engines.

The 3 components of a killer SEO strategy

The majority of the hundreds or thousands of Google ranking variables revolve around content and backlinks. Once you understand that, you don’t need to be an SEO specialist to enhance your rankings; anyone can create an effective SEO plan using the three components listed below.

On-page SEO strategy

On-page SEO focuses on increasing the physical content of your web pages. Your home page, pricing page, product pages, about page, and so on are all just blank canvases waiting to be filled with content. They include photographs, articles, videos, and other media to entice visitors. Here are the SEO tactics you’ll need to increase search traffic and Google ranking:

Conduct extensive keyword research to determine the terms that your target audience is using to find your service, product, etc. This contains both long-tail keywords with strong intent and short-tail keywords with high search traffic. This strategy can be aided by keyword tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush.

• Satisfy the searcher’s intent. Once you understand why visitors do specific search queries, you can devise a strategy to generate content that meets their needs.
• Better content will help you outperform your competitors. Going above and above is as important as satisfying intent. Outranking your competition frequently necessitates the creation of lengthy, in-depth textual content, as well as attractively designed photos and videos. Google Analytics can assist you in determining which material is performing well and which is not.
• Produce targeted content. Don’t make material on a variety of unconnected topics. Google wants to know that you’re an expert on the topic you’re writing about. Topics connected to your industry, business, and product should be the focus of your content strategy.
• Improve the click-through rate of your SERPs. Meta titles and meta descriptions are the titles and descriptions that appear on search engine results pages. Although meta tags are not a ranking factor in and of themselves, click-through rate (CTR) does influence SERP position. The more appealing your page title and description, the more probable it is that people will click on your result.
• Make it simple to skim your content. You can use HTML title tags to structure your material so that it is easier to skim. H1s should only be used once to describe a page, H2s should describe concepts inside that H1 category, and H3s and 4s should describe even more precise ideas within each of those H2. Bullets and bold words within H3s and 4s make it much easier for readers to find what they’re looking for.
• Improve the quality of your photographs. Use keywords related to the image to name your image alt tags. This information is used by Google to calculate the relevance of your content.
• Make your website simple to navigate. Similarly to how you should organise your written material, you should structure your website in the same way, from one broad page or category (such as the homepage) to more particular pages and content that users may navigate through to get what they’re looking for.
• Link your stuff internally. Internal links from one of your web sites to another assist users in finding what they are looking for. For example, if a blog article addresses a concept that is covered in greater depth in another post, it is excellent SEO to link to that page so that viewers can learn more about that concept if necessary. Internal links also assist search crawlers in finding and indexing all of your pages. Make sure your anchor text includes your target term for the greatest SEO results.

Off-page SEO strategy

Your website is not the only place where SEO is carried out. Off-page SEO refers to improving elements that contribute to your search ranking but are not on your pages. This is the element of SEO that is primarily concerned with building backlinks to your website. These are some SEO tactics for success in this area:

• Increase organic traffic by creating high-quality content. Backlinks are generated primarily through content marketing. When your material is high-quality and valuable, readers will want to share it with their networks as well as read it.
• Participate as a guest blogger. When you blog on someone else’s website, you expose your content to a new audience, which increases your chances of acquiring new visitors and sales. It may also result in a backlink from the site to which you contributed.
• Distribute your material via social media. Although social media links are not a ranking criteria, there is a strong association between high-ranked pages and social links. This makes sense because the more a piece of content is shared, the more prominent it becomes, increasing the possibility of backlink generation.
• Implement link-building methods. Some tactics are solely focused on link building. Among these are methods such as linking to vendors and partners, restoring broken links, and others described in this SEO checklist.
• Participate in local SEO. Local SEO is useful in boosting offline foot traffic for small businesses that do not perceive e-commerce to be a primary development avenue. Claim and optimise your Google company page, get listed on directories, create location-specific content for mobile, and more are all local business tactics.

Technical SEO strategy

Technical SEO is concerned with ensuring that your website works well. It is about optimizing a website’s infrastructure in order to delight both users and search engines. In this section, useful SEO strategies include:

• Send Google an XML sitemap. An XML sitemap is a map of your site’s links that search engines can use to crawl and index your pages more efficiently. Google Search Console allows you to achieve this (and much more related to controlling your search presence).
• Make a file called robots.txt. This tells search crawlers how to digest your content and which pages they should avoid crawling.
• For duplicate content, use canonicalization. When you have two pieces of content that are identical, Google will only crawl and index one of them. Canonical tags notify Google which page you wish to crawl and index so that ranking power isn’t shared by two.
• Make use of schema markup. This type of labelling markup improves the organisation of your content for search engines and can result in rich snippets on SERPs.
• Improve the page’s speed. Google has made page speed an official ranking criteria. Consider using AMP to create fast-loading websites, and reduce page weight by removing unneeded pictures and JavaScript.
• Make a URL that is both user and crawler friendly. This means it’s brief, has a straightforward file path, and is simple to grasp.
• Make mobile design a priority. Google has committed to mobile-first indexing, which means that your mobile site will be crawled and indexed first. If you do not prioritise mobile design, it will have a detrimental influence on your search engine rankings.

Take the first step to creating a killer SEO strategy

The first step in developing your SEO plan is to evaluate the SEO of your website. Do you want to track the effectiveness of your on-page, off-page, and technical SEO efforts? Get an immediate SEO audit by filling out the form below. Alternatively, schedule a free consultation to learn how SEO can increase traffic value by 7x.