If you're anything like me, then you're looking to understand why certain things work the way they do. Don’t worry if you don’t have any formal training or education in your chosen area, Google will take into account the “amount of life experience” that makes them an expert on the topic and will value this as “everyday expertise.” Analyze search engine rankings and web traffic to determine the effectiveness of the programs you’ve implemented, including assessment of individual keyword performance. Though search engine rankings keep on changing from time to time (it’s normal), make sure that you have built your site in the right way and regularly posting quality content to drive a steady stream of traffic to your pages.

Keyword groups are ready already

Google is increasingly understanding what content actually means, rather than just what it says You should not try to‘trick’ Google. A blog is one of the easiest ways to create a regular stream of SEO content. In general, blog posts are more engaging and more likely to attract links than product pages, so they can be a great way to build some authority for your site. The length of your posts is also an important consideration. Back in the days of spammy-SEO, almost every post was 500 words long. Today, you’ll have the most success by writing posts that are longer and more in-depth. Imagine that your reader is going to sit down with a cup of tea and really dive deep into the subject – that’s the kind of experience that you should be delivering! So how do you determine your competition? What should you be looking for?

What search engines cannot see

Google delivers results based on the geographic location of the searcher, which is determined by the IP address of the user. You have to keep in mind that in order to have people purchase or sign up with your products and services, you have to convince them first. You would know if a person is almost convinced if he is constantly revisiting your site from time to time. To have a person revisit your site, you need to give him reasons to; and, one of which is by providing the site with new and updated content. While the page meta data (page description and keywords) are not nearly as important as they used to be, they still count. Take advantage of them by putting your keyword or phrase there. Assess your existing link profile, and the profiles of your competitors with aHrefs. Pay special attention to DR (Domain Rank or authority) and the number of referring domains.

Carrying out competitor research is crucial to any SEO campaign

To prove your value and make the most of your SEO knowledge, you need to sell management on the idea of investing in it. Backlinks are the foundation to Google’s algorithm. Once you have a good site structure in place, you need to focus on acquiring backlinks. While many old-school SEOs believe that link building techniques are now largely ineffective (or at least less effective than they once were), links are still critical to getting high rankings. We asked an SEO Specialist, Gaz Hall, for his thoughts on the matter: "Even just a few changes will have a significant impact on your website’s ranking. Don’t forget – it will still take time to see your hard work come to fruition!"

Use both internal and external links to add further value

Using SEO best practices should be a part of your foundation when it comes to creating content, not only on your website, but with your social media posts as well. How are you going to ensure that your site stands out, that it’s set apart from all of the other existing sites? This is the key to building decent backlinks in order to rank highly in search engines. Always ensure that your keyword or phrase appears in the first 100 words of your page, if not the first sentence. This is more important than keyword frequency. Great content marketing is essentially the bait you put on the end of your hook to attract the fishes. And SEO, in this analogy, is the fishing rod. SEO and Content Marketing work together to not only reel in your audience, but also keep them revisiting your page and engaging with your website (all good stuff).