The Perfect SEO Strategy For 2020

6 min read
3-Jul-2020 10:15:00 AM

The majority of SEO strategies have a strong notion attached to it. That notion is that your website content needs to be keyword - heavy. However, a lot of the SEO processes have changed and 2020 is all about how you can do it differently. Plenty of businesses have adopted SEO these days and are trying to do it right. The first step to remember is to not focus on keywords.

What most brands think SEO still is

SEO is creating content using the keywords your customers are searching for. It is also in a lot of cases known as keyword marketing.

While the ultimate goal is still to increase organic search volume, not only is this method laborious, but also incorrect.

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What SEO actually is

A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy involves planning and implementing steps that improve search engine rankings. It helps the flow of more organic users to the website. When a brand organizes its web content, search engines can better grasp user intent when they’re searching.

Tip: If you arrange your web pages by topic and use keywords under each of those topics, search engines pick up your content more easily and you can rank higher on the engine.

Search Engine Optimizers are proficient at designing content in a way that makes it rank higher and give it the highest possible organic reach. They are, in essence, very advanced content strategists and help not just the brand but also users by making you easily searchable and answering questions a lot better. There are three important types of SEO practices that a strategist can get expertise in.

  1. On-page SEO: This focuses on the piece of content that is on the page and how to best optimize it to boost website ranking through particular keywords.
  2. Off-page SEO: This strategy focuses on backlinks i.e. all the links that guide a user to your website. The number of backlinks, how they are used and who or which publisher is carrying them, lends credibility to your website in the eye of the search engine. This makes your website rank higher.
  3. Technical SEO: This SEO focuses on the technical aspect of your website like the code. The more sound the set-up is on each page, the higher it ranks on the browser.

Every website does not need to use all of the above-mentioned strategies. It is the optimizer’s duty to understand what SEO suits the industry in which a company is and which SEO will benefit you in the long term. Every business does not optimize in the same way. It has to be search-friendly, customer-friendly, and should add the right value to your business.

The following steps can help you form the best strategy for your business:

  • Design a list of overlying topics and corresponding long-tail keywords
  • Build distinct pages for each topic
  • Create a blog and blog every week
  • Have a link-building plan
  • Examine the search engine and optimize for search intent
  • Track, analyze, and update your content constantly

Design a list of overlying topics and corresponding long-tail keywords

While keywords are at the heart of SEO, the first step is to make a list of topics that you would like to cover month-over-month. These topics can be your short-tail keywords associated with your offering and can be generated using different SEO tools like Google’s Keyword Tool, Ahrefs, Wordtracker, etc. Short tail keywords have a lot of businesses associated with them. Those can be associated with your over-arching topic. Long-tail keywords have less competition and are easier to add to your content. A large number of these can support your short tail-keywords and topics. Use the below graph to understand the difference between the two types of keywords.

 

Source: backlinko.com


Each short-tail keyword is called a pillar and the long – tail keywords are larger clusters that provide support to the pillars.

Build distinct pages for each topic

Now that your pillars (or topics) are in place along with the long-tail keywords they need to be backed by, you can start by creating a separate web page for each pillar. SEO has now become all about architecture. If your website can be read better by the search engine because it’s neat and organized, it can rank higher. It may be difficult to make your website rank higher for a bunch of keywords at the same time because there is competition but when the prominence of your website increases, more people will land on the pages you want them to.

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Create a blog and blog every week

Blogging is attached to certain misconceptions like it is only meant for creative writers who have something new to say or it is meant for businesses that have credibility. However, blogs are one of the best ways to improve your ran. They are after all individual webpages for different pillars. They make your business credible since it gives the brand a voice and also makes it searchable more easily. However, you might want to refrain from keyword stuffing as you can get penalized for that and it would lower your rank. You must blog every week so that you can build authority. All the blogs do not have to belong to one of your pillars or narrowed-down topics. It could also be anything that adds value to people. For example, if you own a co-working space, you don’t have to always blog about co-working and your products. You can talk about something more topical like “Best way to remain productive while WFH through COVID-19”

Have a link-building plan

Blogs also allow you to link back to the page where the product or service offering is (the established pillar page) and within each blog, you can include links of other blogs as well. For example, let’s say one of your pillars is Social Media and you have a blog on it. Another pillar for you could be SEO and when you’re writing about SEO, you can add a link to your social media blog in your SEO blog to establish a connection. Along with that, you can link each of your blogs to their relative pillar pages as well.

While this method is the first step towards effective SEO, link - building is the process of attracting inbound links to your website. They are also called backlinks and be anywhere on the web. This also creates validation for your website in the eyes of the engine. An effective strategy of how you can lin back to your website puts you at a higher rank.

Examine the search engine and optimize for search intent

When you’re starting your SEO keyword research, it is very important to understand how the search engine works. You can take Google Search for example and see what pops up as you start typing your short-tail keywords. You need to see what searches are being prompted and determine what patterns are visible and form your pillars based on that. You need to have strong pillars and content to make sure you’re on the same tangent as the users doing the search online. There are chances that you have very accurate keywords and pillars but they may not work if those are not the words that the users are using. The intent is seldom more important than what the user actually types in the search bar.

Track, analyze, and update your content constantly

Staying on your feet and relevant is a significant part of all types of digital marketing. You cannot have a few well set-up pages, keywords, and blogs and hope that they will hold up forever. People are constantly innovating ways to stay relevant and that keeps their brand going. To make sure your rank does not drop, you must track your content and see what is working and what backlinks are being clicked on. Google Analytics is extremely advanced and can answer any questions you have regarding your on-going strategy. You also need to analyze the results to see what’s working best and better what is not working. More than anything you need to make sure your content is up-to-date and relevant for users. You cannot hope that a ‘2017 social media best practices’ blog still holds high value in 2020.

Follow all of these step-by-step and you’re golden when it comes to SEO. Once you make SEO a part of your marketing campaign, your business should see a heavy increase in website traffic and potentially, sales. Discover how ThinkFuel’s SEO services can help you Grow Better!

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