10 Actionable SEO Tips You Need to Know

You need not be an SEO Agency to have a great SEO strategy. Here are 10 of the best SEO tips and tricks you need to know to supercharge your Search Engine Rankings...1. Find a Relevant Keyword Topic

First, you want to find a solid keyword topic; don’t overthink this one. You don’t want to pick something so complicated that no one will ever type it into a Google search bar. Think simply and think like a user.

Once you have a base set of keywords, you can use the Keyword Magic Tool to perform your research. Choose those with an appropriate number of searches each month...not the highest volume either.

Refer to the pro tip below as a guide:

KEYWORD GUIDELINES

• Very low monthly searches (<10) = Extremely low relevance...consider another term.
• Low monthly searches (10-50) = low relevance & may be too tight of a niche...but considered, especially for boosting blog posts.
• Good monthly searches (50-250) = good relevance & good volume...definitely on our list.
• Higher monthly searches (250-1,000) = really good relevance and really good volume, but you will have more competition.
• Very high monthly searches (1,000-5,000) = volume is very high, so your keyword is a little too broad. However, if you have aggressive SEO campaign, you could a keyword that defines your organic traffic.
• Extremely high monthly searches (5,000+) = volume is way too high,, so your keyword is too broad. However, if this keyword has a high value or relevance "to your client, " then consider adding it to a PPC campaign instead.

MORE KEYWORD HELP: If you need a little more background on finding the best keywords, have a look at 5 Techniques to Find Longtail Keywords.

2. Find Where Your Competition is Lacking

Your SEO competitors may not always be your direct business competitors. Search Google for one of the keywords you selected in Step 1. Now, review the SERP. These are your SEO competitors.

Once you have established who you are competing with, see what information they have and - more importantly - what they are missing. What topics are they covering? How are they using the keyword? How do they measure up to your business or website? If they are similar, you are in the right keyword ballpark. If not, head on back to Step 1.

3. Get Writing

Now you have developed your list of keywords and determined the best opportunities, it’s time to dig into your content strategy. But you can’t slap a few words together and hope to make an impression.

If you want to stand out from what's already on the web, you need to create something that is better than what is already out there. Take a unique approach, be interesting, and infuse your company’s personality into your writing. If you want to gain attention from your readers, do something worth their attention, like inserting a great infographic that illustrates your content in a more meaningful and compelling way.

4. Include Your Keyword in the Title of the Page

When Google finds pages that fit with a user’s search term, it first has to scan your page and determine what’s relevant so it knows how and when to recommend your page to search traffic. As with any reader who may look for the main points of a webpage, blog post, or article, it will go straight to the most important text first, which would be the page or blog post title with an H1 tag.

Say your keyword is “SEO Tips.” You'll want that exact keyword – not a variation – to appear in the page's title. Your headline should read “10 Great SEO Tips,” not “10 Tips for Great SEO.” While any reader could see they are pushing more or less the same idea, the second title will not trigger an immediate connection for your keyword. 

Additionally, you can’t just use the keyword by itself as you won’t establish an emotional connection with your reader.

5. Use Keywords in the Title Headers

If someone is skimming your blog post, they will move from the main title to the headers of the content. Note using H2, H3, H4, etc. for the header text is good. Based on the same points we made in Step 4, you will want your keywords and keyword variations (LSI Keywords) to appear throughout the post’s headers.

Not every header needs to contain a variation of the keyword, especially if it doesn’t flow naturally. While you want your keyword to appear on the page, it doesn’t benefit you if inserting the keyword makes it awkward or difficult to read.

Remember, you are also writing for your reader (a human) and not just Google (a machine algorithm).

6. Use Keywords in Image Filename, Alt Tag & Title

This is the point where things might get a little scary for someone who isn’t a marketer or web developer. Setting good image practices isn't reserved solely for SEO companies and should be adopted by all site owners.

It’s important to give your images good attributes - alt tags and title tags. You can easily add these HTML tags via a CMS platform like WordPress.

These tags strengthen your content message's focus on search engine spiders and help improve its accessibility. Alt-tags are identified as the text that will appear in place of the image if the image fails to load. Then add, at a minimum, the “alt-tag” as a phrase that describes the image.

Example:

Alt tag = “Kitten” (bad)
Alt tag = “Cute little kitten playing with a red ball of yarn” (much better)

As an added tip, you will want to rename any images used in your post to the keyword and keyword variations where possible. Additionally, the image name and a carefully crafted alt-tag can help get your image(s) listed in a Google Images search on the same topic.

7. Change the Post URL to Reflect the Keyword

The next place you’ll need to include your keyword is in the post URL. When you create a page or post for your website, you will want it to be relevant to your topic and include your keyword.

NOTE: this is automatically done for you in WordPress and is good practice for your SEO. Shorten it up a little for page titles that are too long - without cutting the keyword.

8. Use Internal Links

We call the internet the “web” for a reason. It works as a web connecting people, pages, images and ideas to one another using relevant links to do so. Internal links will encourage your readers to move to another “related” page on your site and help your website stand out in a Google search.

As we all know, Google is ridiculously smart, and we can make it even smarter by mapping out the relationships in your content.

9. Acquire External Links

When Google goes to create a list of search engine results, it will prioritize the pages with the most useful information. When several resources link to one page, Google will assume that the page is worth reading and push it towards the top of their index for the related keyword term.

If you want your information to be viewed as valuable and credible, you should seek authoritative backlinks from other websites that would be willing to promote your content. Build relationships and connect with companies, website owners & bloggers who support your content enough that they are willing to link to you. You, of course, should also share your content socially and via email marketing.

Backlinking is not for the faint of heart and often is where people fall short. Having a solid backlink strategy is vital for high search engine rankings. Know that a backlink from the right authority blog can skyrocket your rankings. So if the content really is King, then high authority backlinks are the Supreme Exalted Rulers.

10. Use Yoast SEO

If you are using WordPress, it’s simply a free plugin download. Once setup, it will help keep you on track as you construct web pages or blog posts by ensuring your focus keyword is being used properly, whether in your headings, body content, URL, etc.

Yoast will also help with your search engine results snippet by letting you manage SEO meta tags such as the page title tag and meta description.

Think of Yoast SEO as your on-page SEO coach.

Over to You

When creating your search engine optimization strategy, keep these 10 best SEO tips in mind, and you will be on your way to a great SEO foundation. Run through this list with each page you create to see if you have covered all your SEO bases.

As you create more and more great content with good SEO practices in place, your content will be more readily available to search engine results.