The Best SEO Strategies That Actually Work Today

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For all the time, energy, and expense you pour into your business, you don’t just want any search engine optimization practices. You need the best SEO strategies that deliver results.

Though SEO is now old enough to drink beer and have kids in school, building an effective strategy isn’t any easier than in the past. In fact, it’s gotten more complicated in some respects.

Dig into our list here about what SEO strategies still work and the more recent tactics you should invest in.

Image Source: WordStream

Key Takeaways:

You have to stay on the lookout for the top strategies to succeed at SEO.
The top SEO strategies include measuring your results, optimizing for mobile, focusing on the user experience, and targeting the right keywords.
Your SEO plan needs consistency and regular updates, as well as attention to metadata, link-building, and readability.

Keep Searching for the Best SEO Strategies

One of the best SEO strategies is to keep looking for effective SEO strategies. Sometimes clients who come to us already have a robust SEO strategy, but the methodology is not up to date.

Core principles stay the same in marketing. Still, you need to keep current with how to apply them in the modern marketplace.

SEO will never be a set-it-and-forget-it part of your marketing plan. Keep on the watch for ways to make it easier with the right tools, techniques, and partners.

Image Source: HubSpot

Write Content for Humans by Humans

We know that talk about artificial intelligence replacing humans is all the rage. (Face it, people have been fretting over the robots taking over for the last century.)

While we can’t blame anyone for looking for an easy shortcut, Google’s algorithm prioritizes content that comes from real people. Providing genuine, relatable information to your readers will always be among the best SEO strategies.

Think about it: What are you trying to accomplish, anyway? The goal is to get people interested in your site and your company.

Even if you could fool the algorithm and find your way to the top of search results, readers would ignore you to keep searching for what delivers value.

Google understands this, which is why it prioritizes content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The robots can’t do that (yet 😆).

Generate great material using great writers, and you’ll get great results.

Image Source: FinancesOnline

Optimize for Mobile

The best SEO strategies basically involve a few things: the quality of content and the quality of presentation. (We’ll get to the third one later: quantity.)

The consumption of most online content is through mobile devices, even for businesses. Google has been crawling mobile sites for indexing for years now.

While you may do the bulk of your content creation on desktop and large screens, ensure it looks and responds well on mobile. Enhancing for mobile means keeping in mind voice search and how your target audience can find you that way.

Measure Metrics Meticulously

All your hard work is pointless if you can’t tell what’s working. That would be like playing in a championship sports league and not watching the score.

You can use a spreadsheet to monitor your results. However, we find that you can gauge your progress much easier using analytical tools.

Remember to focus on the metrics that demonstrate success in your case. Those calculations might include conversions, indexed pages, session duration, and bounce rate.

Target Keywords Effectively With the Right Topics

Keywords will always be central to your best SEO strategies and practices. However, you’ve probably figured out that the old technique of stuffing a keyword into an article full of gibberish is no longer effective and even harmful to SEO.

Much like riches being in the niches in commerce, you need to refine your SEO from broad keywords to specific topics that answer questions your audience is looking for.

Start by getting to know your audience and listing topics they’ll want to learn about that have any relation to your product or service. Then use an SEO tool to discover appropriate keywords.

Create long-tail keywords from your topic list. These phrases will be easier to rank for and get higher engagement.

We use this tactic constantly to great success (even in the article you’re reading now.) By focusing on the right long-tail keywords, we drive millions of web hits monthly.

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Don’t Forget About Metadata

Metadata can easily be an afterthought, but you want to give your page the best chance of getting clicks. That’s why the best SEO strategies include meta titles and descriptions that encourage readers to look deeper.

Keep Link-Building

When other sites link to yours, you establish yourself as an authority and boost your SEO. Understandably, creating valuable content is your first step to getting others to link to you.

You should also engage with other brands to create link-building opportunities. Guest blogging is a tactic we’ve embraced at MIG.

By writing for other sites (and returning the favor), you and a complementary business get more content and internal links.

Image Source: WordStream

Keep Improving the User Experience

Great UX is central to the best SEO practices, so make your site look good and run smoothly.

If your pages are reminiscent of an old CompuServe forum, get help quickly! A complicated structure, error pages, and dead links will send readers running.

Image Source: TheStreet.com

Instead, make your pages readable for your audience and easier for Google to crawl. Ease of use helps you climb the results.

You can also improve the readability and UX by formatting your content like Google’s Featured Snippets. You won’t likely dethrone snippets from massive companies, but you’ll get more wins by doing what Google clearly likes.

(Quick hint: Opt for short sentences and direct paragraphs wherever possible.)

Update, Improve, or Eliminate Your Older Content

Updating your content is one of the best SEO strategies that we find clients often forget about. Everything you read above that you should do for your new pages, you also need to do for old pages.

Sometimes you should just dump a poorly performing page to keep from bogging down your site. Other times, a technical improvement, better keyword usage, or inserting the right links can make a huge difference.

Stay on a Regular Schedule

Time and again, our studies prove that you need to publish content weekly at a minimum to get good results. However, two to four times a week is the magic number.

We preach that message consistently here at MIG because it simply works. A steady flow of good content shows you’re a real team putting earnest effort into helping others, and Google loves that.