This compilation of 100 (or so) SEO tips consists of insights drawn from various lectures, workshops, projects and experiments I’ve taken part in over the years. I must emphasise to the reader that these are largely based on my own experiences and views. They should be taken with a pinch of salt as what worked for me might not work for you. I encourage you to undertake your own research and consider your unique circumstances before investing considerable resources into any project, especially one as potentially costly as SEO. I warmly welcome your thoughts, queries, and suggestions; feel free to get in touch.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of significantly enhancing website traffic across a myriad of sectors, mainly doing SEO for localization, but also, SaaS, academia, the public sector and local businesses. These efforts have culminated in millions of monthly visits across over 20 distinct industries.

This article encapsulates the top SEO strategies that have delivered these achievements. My aspiration is that readers, regardless of their SEO proficiency, will derive considerable value from these tips. This guide extends beyond typical advice, tackling practical issues like pinpointing the ideal writers, creating compelling content outlines, and even ascertaining situations where SEO may not be the most favourable strategy for your enterprise.

Delve in, sift through these nuggets of knowledge, and unearth the vast potential of SEO. Remember, this guide is an ever-evolving resource. If you believe I’ve neglected an essential tip, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m eager to continually expand and enhance this resource, drawing on our collective wisdom.

Approach SEO Advice with Scepticism 

The internet is awash with SEO advice, often rooted in personal experiences and anecdotal evidence. Due to the ambiguity of Google’s guidance on SEO, I often rely on the findings from experiments conducted by SEO professionals within the community.

But… some of this information can be dubious, inaccurate, grounded in flawed data or simply not suitable for your business. The key takeaway here is to approach new SEO advice with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Whenever you encounter a fresh SEO tip, cross-reference it with other sources. Strive to understand the foundations upon which this advice is built, instead of accepting it uncritically at face value. Always remember: critical thinking is your ally in the ever-evolving landscape of SEO and digital marketing.

Patience is Key in SEO

There’s no getting around it: SEO is a long game.

It can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years (depending on the level of competition within your niche) to witness significant results.

Resist the urge to feel disheartened if you don’t observe immediate returns within the first couple of months of publishing content. While there might be the benefits of low hanging fruits on your project, patience is a virtue.

SEO May Not Suit Everyone

If immediate results are important, it may be worth reevaluating whether SEO is the right path for you.

If your business is in its infancy and you’re striving to reach the break-even point as soon as possible, SEO might not be the ideal choice – the delay in tangible outcomes may lead to frustration and premature abandonment of the strategy.

In such scenarios, it would be more prudent to concentrate on other marketing channels that can deliver quicker results, such as content marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, outreach initiatives, and so on.

Utilise PPC to Validate Keywords

Unsure whether SEO is the right fit for your business? Try this: establish Google Search Ads for the most high-intent keywords relevant to your sector. Monitor how well this traffic converts, then make an informed decision about whether it would be worthwhile to focus on SEO and organically rank for these keywords.

Employ GSC to Gauge SEO Effectiveness

Although it can take some time to witness SEO results, it is possible to track if you’re on the correct course. On a monthly basis, you can use Google Search Console to verify whether your articles are being indexed by Google and if their average position is gradually improving.

Generate a Wealth of Content

The more content you produce for your blog, the better. I think a good target is over 10,000 words per month, with an optimal range of 20,000 – 30,000 words, particularly if your website is new.

Steer clear of agencies that offer the standard “four 500-word articles per month” package.

No one has ever achieved SEO results with brief, once-per-week articles.

Pick your niche and fill it. 

Enhance Your Writing Team

Have a writer who is excelling? Promote them to an editorial role and have them oversee content operations and edit the work of other writers.

Then, elevate your top editor to Head of Content and have them manage the entire editorial and writing operations.

Begin with Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis helps you to see what’s already working in your industry. You can identify gaps in your own strategy and show areas where you could potentially outperform your competition.

Steps in Analysis:

• Identify Competitors: Recognise the top three competitors in your niche.
• Scrape Keywords: Use tools like UberSuggest, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to understand what keywords your competitors rank for.
• Benchmark: Compare your keywords to competitors to identify overlaps and gaps.

Use the information from your competitive analysis to refine your keyword strategy. Incorporate what works for your competitors, but also look for unique angles or untapped opportunities.

Comprehensive Keyword Research

Comprehensive keyword research is essential for painting an accurate picture of the market you’re operating in. It allows you to understand what potential customers are searching for, and where your opportunities lie.

First step is to create an initial keyword list. Use brainstorming, customer feedback, experience, and Google autocomplete searches to create an initial list of keywords. Utilise keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to refine your list. Consider the intent behind the keyword. Is the user looking for information, a product, or a local service?

Use metrics. Look for metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click (CPC) to understand the feasibility of ranking for those keywords. Aim to create a balanced list of 100 to 300 keywords that span head terms, body terms, and long-tail keywords, depending on your niche.

Use Backlink Data to Prioritise Content

Just as an academic paper gains credibility from being cited, a website gains authority by accumulating high-quality backlinks from reputable sources. This helps in building your site’s domain authority, which is a ranking factor for Google. 

You’ll need to buy the data from a tool like Ahrefs to get the backlink profile of the top three pages for your targeted keyword. Check the quality and relevance of the backlinks.

Use this information to prioritise keywords with a relatively easier path to earning high-quality backlinks. Your target should be keywords with lower competition, higher traffic, and medium-to-high buying intent should be prioritised. The backlink data will give you a more nuanced understanding of the ‘competition’ metric.

Avoid the Overuse of SEO Tools

Be wary of overindulging in SEO tools. There are hundreds available, and if you’re a fan of SaaS, you may be tempted to experiment with dozens simultaneously.

Whilst it’s true that most of these tools are useful in some manner, for effective organic SEO, you don’t really need that many.

In most cases, all you’ll need are:

• SEMrush/Ahrefs
• Screaming Frog
• RankMath/Yoast SEO
• An outreach tool of your choice (Snov).

When you sign up for these tools I’d advise using a credit card from a provider such as privacy.com. That way you can turn off any virtual cards and won’t get tied to a contract. 

Explore Some of the Optional Tools

In addition to the tools mentioned earlier, consider trying the following two, which are popular and used extensively within the SEO community:

• Surfer SEO – aids with on-page SEO and the creation of content briefs for writers.
• ClusterAI – a tool that helps simplify keyword research and save time.

Establish a Procedure for Writer Assessment

It’s a given that you’ll be inundated with applicants when sourcing writers, but regrettably, the majority will not meet the mark.

I’ve posted jobs on ProBlogger and received between 300 – 500 applications (most of which are useless).

Shifting through such a lengthy list and scrutinising writer samples is not a task you’ll relish.

I suggest the following process:

1. Employ a virtual assistant to handle the process of assessing and shortlisting writers.
2. Develop a systematic approach for evaluating writers. Rating writers based on:

• English proficiency. If their samples aren’t articulate, they’re not suitable.
• Quality of samples. Do the samples offer engaging, comprehensive content or are they monotonous, brief copy-and-paste jobs?
• Technical knowledge. Does the writer have experience writing about complex subjects? It’s important to find someone capable of researching a new topic and simplifying it for readers.

• The virtual assistant should continually assess new applicants and direct relevant ones to the editor.
• The editor then scrutinises the shortlisted writers, assigns trial tasks and hires those who excel.

Source Writers from Reliable Websites

The question, “Is UpWork any good?”, is continually asked on social media platforms.

In my view, UpWork isn’t quite up to scratch.

While there are undoubtedly skilled writers available there, they are generally sparse.

Use the following alternatives to source writers:

• Cult of Copy Job Board
• ProBlogger
• LinkedIn headhunting
• Utilising UpWork specifically for headhunting (as opposed to posting a job advert)
• Your local university (interns)

Full-time Writers

If you aim to seriously ramp up your content production, consider employing your writers full-time. This is especially applicable if you’re a content marketing agency producing substantial volumes of content regularly.

However, for personal blog SEO, freelancers typically suffice.

The Importance of Topic Authority

Google takes note of your website’s authority on a particular subject. For instance, if you have 100 articles on digital marketing, you’re likely to be seen as more of an expert on the subject than someone with 10.

This is partly why content volume is crucial: the more quality content you publish, the sooner Google perceives you as an authority.

Concentrate on One Niche at a Time

If your blog spans multiple topics such as sales, accounting, and business management, you’re more likely to rank higher if you have a significant number of articles on a single subject (e.g., accounting) rather than having an even spread across all topics.

Concentrate on one niche rather than diluting your content team across various topics.

Don’t Get Bogged Down in Details

Technical SEO is undeniably important but it shouldn’t consume all your attention.

There are countless technical tips available on the internet, and while most do have their merits, Google won’t penalise you just because your website doesn’t load in an instant or you’ve missed a meta description on a page.

Especially if you’ve nailed the SEO fundamentals:

• Ensure your website runs as swiftly as possible. There are plugins for wordpress to help with this. 
• Generate a wealth of quality content.
• Regularly acquire backlinks for your website.

You’ll still rank, even if your website isn’t 100% optimised.

Hire a VA

There’s a lot of tedious SEO tasks that can consume your team’s time needlessly. My recommendation is to employ a full-time VA to handle these.

Tasks you might want to delegate include gathering contacts for link-building outreach, uploading articles on WordPress, etc.

Google Isn’t the Be-All and End-All

Despite Google’s dominance as a search engine in numerous parts of the world, there exist countries where other search engines prevail. ChatGPT (and the whole AI thing) need to be considered as well. Bing has made a comeback recently as it has added ChatGPT functionality. 

Below are some of the prominent search engines and the countries where they are most popular:

• Google: Google is the most popular search engine globally. It’s the most used in a vast majority of countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, India, Brazil, Mexico, and many more.
• Baidu: Baidu is the most used search engine in China. It’s optimised for the Chinese language and heavily censored according to the country’s regulations.
• Yandex: Yandex is the most used search engine in Russia. It is also popular in some parts of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
• Naver: Naver is the most popular search engine in South Korea. It offers numerous features tailored specifically for Korean users.
• Yahoo! Japan: Despite Yahoo’s decline in most parts of the world, Yahoo! Japan is still a popular choice in Japan, second to Google. You’ll need a VPN if accessing from outside Japan.
• Seznam: Seznam is a local search engine in the Czech Republic. Although Google is popular there, Seznam still holds a significant market share.
• Sogou: Sogou is another Chinese search engine. It’s not as popular as Baidu but still has a significant user base in the country.
• Bing: Bing, owned by Microsoft, is the second most popular search engine in several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. However, it does not dominate the search engine market in any particular country.

This is of particular interest to your customers if you are localizing websites for different regions around the world. 

SEO Is Alive and Kicking

SEO is not obsolete and will continue to be crucial for many decades to come. Every year, articles talking about the demise of SEO abound.

Simply disregard them.

Local SEO? Concentrate on Service Pages

If your focus is on local SEO, concentrate on creating service-based landing pages rather than on content.

For example, if you run an accounting firm in Boston, you could create landing pages with titles such as ‘accounting-firm-boston’, ‘tax-accounting-boston’, ‘cpa-boston’, and so on.

Bear in mind, there’s no need for you to rank on global search terms – they won’t generate leads for you. Even if you ranked on a term such as “financial accounting,” it wouldn’t have a substantial impact on your profit margins.

Delve Deeper into Local SEO

In relation to local SEO, there’s a great deal more to know than what I’ve discussed in this guide. Local SEO can be quite different from generic SEO advice (for example, you might not necessarily need blog content for local SEO). To understand local SEO better, conduct your own research and follow the guidance you discover. Don’t overload yourself with generic SEO information – it may not be as beneficial for you.

Shun Vanity Metrics

Don’t be led astray by vanity metrics.

The impact of your traffic on your bottom line is what should be your concern. While impressive graphs and substantial traffic might be pleasing to the eye, they’re meaningless if the traffic doesn’t carry the correct search intent to convert to your product/service.

If SEO Is Proving Difficult, Engage an Expert

Struggling to leverage SEO for your business? When unsure, hire an organic SEO consultant or an SEO agency.

The primary advantage of engaging an SEO agency or consultant is their experience – they’ve successfully navigated the waters of SEO numerous times. They may be able to identify issues an inexperienced SEO might overlook. 

You should always look to improve the capability of your own company. 

Participate in the Community

Got some SEO queries that need answering?

SEO professionals are remarkably helpful and easy to reach!

Join these Facebook groups and post your question – you’ll likely receive multiple useful responses!

• SEO Signals Lab
• SEO & Content Marketing
• The Proper SEO Group.

Stay Updated with SEO Developments

SEO is an ever-evolving field – Google constantly introduces new updates that significantly influence the approach to it. It’s crucial to stay in tune with the latest SEO developments and Google updates. A good source of information is the Google Search Central blog.

Enhance Organic CTR with PPC

Want to maximise the potential of your rankings? Implement PPC ads for your top keywords. Individuals who initially encounter your ad are more likely to click your organic listing subsequently.

Content & On-Page SEO Tips

Craft Content That’s 50% Longer

As a rule of thumb, I recommend generating an article that’s roughly 50% longer than the best-ranking article for the keyword you are targeting. 

But use common sense. If you’re operating in an intensely competitive niche and all the top-ranking articles are already ‘ultimate guides’ consisting of thousands of words adding more length will be subject to the law of diminishing returns. 

Take the VPN niche, for instance. All the articles ranking for the keyword “best VPN” have a word count of around 10,000 – 11,000 words. That’s an ideal word count – exceeding it won’t necessarily provide additional value for the reader, and it may not be worth the effort to create the content.

Short can work

Occasionally, a short-form article can accomplish the task much more effectively. For example, if your target keyword is “how to tie a tie,” the reader anticipates a concise and simple guide, probably under 500 words, not “The Ultimate Guide to Tie Tying for 2023 [11 Top Tips and Tricks].”

SEO all Content

Written content isn’t always the most effective approach. At times, videos can perform considerably better. For example, if someone is keen to master the correct deadlift form, they’ll likely be seeking a video tutorial.

Don’t Neglect the Basics

Ensure you follow the fundamental SEO optimisation tips for all your web pages, including articles. These can include including the keyword in the URL, utilising the correct headings, and more. A simple way to handle this is by employing RankMath or YoastSEO.

Employ Specialised Writers

When hiring content writers, it’s important to find individuals who specialise in creating SEO-focused content. A writer may be eloquent and creative, but without a solid understanding of SEO practices, the content produced may not effectively attract organic traffic or rank well on search engines. The writer’s role extends beyond just crafting content; they must also strategically incorporate keywords, meta descriptions, and other SEO elements to maximise reach and engagement.

If your content needs involve localization, translators can serve as invaluable assets for writing. Skilled translators don’t just literally translate content; they also adapt cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, and even SEO requirements to make your content locally resonant. Some translators are also open to ghostwriting, offering a dual benefit. They can adapt your existing content for new markets while maintaining the style and tone that aligns with your brand identity.

If you’re in the hiring phase, consider the following: start by looking for writers who not only have a portfolio that matches your brand’s tone but also showcase clear instances of successful SEO writing. If your business has international reach, or you’re considering expanding, keep an eye out for bilingual or multilingual writers who have translation experience. 

Utilise Content Outlines

In relation to writers – provide them with a content outline summarising the article’s focus and the type of topics it should cover. This is far more effective than merely giving them a keyword. By doing this, it’s more likely the writer will produce something that ranks. 

When creating content outlines, I recommend including:

• Target keyword
• Related keywords to be mentioned in the article
• Article structure – which headings should the writer use and in what sequence?
• Article title

Seek Writers with Niche Expertise

Attempt to find an SEO content writer with some prior experience or knowledge about your niche. Otherwise, it may take a month or two for them to become proficient. Alternatively, if finding a writer with niche knowledge is challenging, look for someone with experience in technical or complex topics. Writers who’ve previously covered cybersecurity are likely to successfully cover other intricate topics.

Consider Your Audience’s Knowledge

When crafting content, consider your audience’s level of understanding. If you’re writing about advanced finance, there’s no need to explain what an income statement is. Conversely, if you’re writing about income statements, it’s advisable to start from the very basics.

Employ Grammarly

Your life will become significantly easier by using Grammarly. 

Utilise Hemingway

Online content should be simple and straightforward to read for everyone, be it an experienced professional with a Ph.D. or a university student looking to explore a new subject. Consequently, your content should be simple, and Hemingway can assist with this by helping to keep your blog content uncomplicated.

Construct Engaging Headlines

Do you wish to entice clicks to your articles? Compelling headlines are the answer. 

Evaluate the following two headlines; which would you select?

101 Productivity Tips [To Get Things Done in 2023]

Productivity Tips Guide

Precisely! For crafting clickable headlines, I suggest incorporating the following elements:

• Keyword

• Numbers

• Results

• Year (if relevant)

Look at what the professionals do. Some of the best headlines are written for Cosmopolitan Magazine. 

Perfect Your Blog Content Formatting

Ensure that your blog posts are well-formatted and steer clear of lengthy blocks of text. There’s a reason why content from sites like Backlinko is so popular – it’s user-friendly and easy to follow.

People scan content before they read it. I bet you did when you were reading this… break up your blog content to include bullet lists, call outs, quotes, images, illustrations. No one likes walls of text. 

Include Relevant Images in Your SEO Content

The keyword here is ‘relevant’. Don’t merely sprinkle arbitrary stock photos of “happy office people” throughout your posts; nobody appreciates those. Instead, incorporate graphs, charts, screenshots, quote blocks, CSS boxes, and other engaging elements. Spend time on your images. Make them good enough so people want to steal them.

Execute the Skyscraper Technique Correctly

Eager to implement Backlinko’s skyscraper technique?

Bear this in mind before you proceed: not all content deserves promotion.

Select a topic that fulfils the following criteria if you want to catch the internet’s attention:

It’s on a crucial subject. “Mega-Guide to Localization” is a good choice, “top 5 benefits of Localization” isn’t. You’re generating something substantially superior to the existing content. The internet is saturated with mediocre content – endeavour to outperform it.

Get the URL Slug Right for Seasonal Content

If you aim to rank on a seasonal keyword with a single piece of content (e.g., “translation trends 2023, 2024, etc.”), refrain from including the year in the URL slug. Instead, keep it to ‘translation-trends’ and modify the headline each year. Make your content evergreen wherever you can.

If you plan to rank with individual articles (e.g., publishing a new trends report every year), include the year in the URL.

Prevent Content Cannibalisation

Content cannibalisation occurs when you have multiple pages on your website that target the same or similar keywords. This can confuse search engines like Google, making it difficult to determine which of your articles should be prioritised for ranking. This fragmentation dilutes the authority of each page and can lead to none of your pages ranking as highly as they could if you had focused your efforts.

To prevent content cannibalisation conduct an audit of your existing content to identify overlapping topics. Decide which article is the most comprehensive or highest-performing and focus on enhancing that one with any relevant information from other similar articles. Employ canonical tags to indicate to search engines which version of a particular page you prefer to be indexed. Another option is to merge similar content pieces into a longer, more authoritative guide or utilise 301 redirects to channel traffic to the most relevant page.

Don’t Excessively Use Outbound Links

Refrain from incorporating too many outbound links in your content. While citing sources is beneficial, it’s possible to overdo it. If your 1,000-word article includes 20 outbound links, Google may flag it as spam, even if all the links are relevant.

Consider “People Also Ask”

To get the most out of the SERPs, you want to grab as many spots on the search result as possible, and this includes “people also ask”

Make a list of the topic’s questions and ensure that your article answers them. 

If you can’t fit the questions & answers within the article, though, you can also add an FAQ section at the end where you directly pose these questions and provide the answers.

Optimise For Google Snippet

Optimise your content for the Google Snippet. Check what’s currently ranking as the snippet. Then, try to do something similar (or even better) in terms of content and formatting.

Get Inspired by Viral Content

Want to create content that gets a lot of shares & links? 

Reverse-engineer what has worked in the past. Look up content in your niche that went viral on Reddit, Hacker News, Facebook groups, Buzzsumo, etc., and create something similar, but always significantly better.

Avoid AI Content Tools

No, robots can’t write SEO content. 

If you’ve seen any of those “AI generated content tools,” you should know to stay away. The only thing those tools are (currently) good for is creating news content.

I’m leaving this tip in… although ChatGPT is getting better and better. It can be part of the content creation process (but only part). Just like localization, you still need a human in the process. 

Avoid Bad Content

You will never, ever, ever rank with one 500-word article per week. 

There are some SEO agencies (even the more reputable ones) that offer this as part of their service.

This is a waste of time.

Update Your Content Regularly

Check your top-performing articles annually and see if there’s anything you can do to improve them. 

When most companies finally get the #1 ranking for a keyword, they leave the article alone and never touch it again…

…Until they get outranked, of course, by someone who one-upped their original article.

Want to prevent this from happening? Analyse your top-performing content once a year and improve it when possible.

Experiment with Click-Through Rates

Do your articles experience a low CTR? Why not try out different headlines to see if you can enhance it. Keep in mind the definition of a “good CTR” is highly dependent on the keyword. In certain situations, the first ranking can capture 50% of the traffic, while the others might account for less than 15% (and the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of the SERPs).

Link-Building Tips

Links Matter

“Do I require backlinks to rank?” is possibly one of the most frequently asked SEO queries. The response to this question (and all other SEO-related inquiries) is that it relies on the niche. If your competitors lack substantial backlinks, there’s a good chance you can rank by simply creating superior content. If you’re in an incredibly competitive niche (like VPN or insurance), amazing, quality content is merely the minimum expectation. What distinguishes top-ranking content from the rest is backlinks.

Occasionally, Purchasing Links is Inevitable

Regrettably, in some niches, such as gambling or CBD, buying links is an unavoidable reality. In such scenarios, you’ll either need a substantial link-building budget or an extremely innovative link-building campaign (perhaps create a viral infographic or news-worthy story based on intriguing data).

Foster Relationships, Not Just Links

The most effective link-building is fostering relationships. Compile a list of websites in your niche and cultivate relationships with the people who run them, instead of just bombarding them with standard messages like “hey, I have this amazing article, can you link to it?”. If you resort to spam, you risk damaging your reputation, which will make further outreach significantly more challenging.

Tried-and-True Methods

Ultimately, the most fruitful link-building techniques are the simplest ones:

• Direct Outreach
• Broken Link-Building
• Guest Blogging
• Skyscraper Technique
• Generating Viral Content
• Guest Blogging with Infographics

Don’t Just Request

When conducting link-building outreach, don’t just request links – provide something in return. This can significantly boost the response rate to your outreach emails. For instance, if you have a SaaS tool, consider offering the bloggers you’re reaching out to free access to your software. Or, if you’re doing a lot of guest posting, offer the website owner a link from your guest post in exchange for linking to your site.

Steer Clear of Link Resellers

That person messaging you on LinkedIn, attempting to sell links from a Google Sheet? Don’t be taken in – most of those links are from PBNs and are likely to have a negative impact.

Give Fiverr a Wide Berth

In relation to spammy links, avoid anything sold on Fiverr – nearly all the links on there are worthless. You get what you pay for. 

Prioritise High-Quality Links

Remember, not all links are made equal. A link is considered of superior quality if it:

Is not from a PBN.

• Doesn’t feature a multitude of outbound links. If the page links to 20 other websites, each of them receives less ‘link juice’.
• Possesses numerous quality backlinks.
• Belongs to a site with a high domain authority.
• Is relevant to the topic it’s linking to. If an article about pets has a link from an accounting blog, Google might find it somewhat suspicious.

Evidence-Based Content Proves Effective

Evidence-based content can yield incredible results for link-building. For instance, OkCupid used to publish compelling data and research based on user interactions on their platform, and it invariably went viral. Their reports gained coverage by dozens of news outlets, resulting in an abundance of effortless links.

SEO is a Form of Marketing

Exercise innovation and creativity in your link-building endeavours. The best link-builders won’t divulge their techniques. If they did, half the internet would adopt the same method within a week, thereby making the strategy trite and considerably less potent.

To achieve superior outcomes with your link-building, you’ll need to innovate – contemplate how you can make your outreach stand out from the norm. Experiment, assess, and refine until it works!

Give HARO a Go

HARO, or ‘Help a Reporter Out‘, is a service that pairs journalists with sources. You receive a daily email detailing journalists in search of experts in specific fields. If you pitch them correctly, they may feature you in their article or link to your site.

Adding in for 2023. Help a B2B Writer or https://helpab2bwriter.com/

Connects writers and source together. New service (not many know about this).  

Don’t Dismiss No-Follow Links

Contrary to popular belief, no-follow links aren’t worthless. Google interprets no-follow more as a guideline than a rigid rule. There are case studies demonstrating that Google can overlook the no-follow tag and still reward you with higher rankings.

Kick-Start with an Expired Domain

Launching a new website? It might be worth considering the purchase of an expired domain with existing backlinks in a similar niche to yours. The right domain could substantially accelerate your ranking speed.

Avoid Wasting Funds on Ineffectual Links

Links marked as “rel=sponsored” don’t contribute to PageRank and hence, won’t elevate your website’s rankings. As such, steer clear of purchasing links from media sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and so forth.

Champion Your Content

Beyond link-building, concentrate on organic content promotion. For instance, you can re-share your content on Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc., and concentrate on driving traffic.

Such activity may result in you gaining links as well. I received approximately 95 backlinks to my SEO case study article due solely to successful content promotion. Numerous individuals encountered the article online, appreciated it, and linked to it from their websites.

Initiate Expert Roundups

Desire to establish relationships with influencers in your field, but unsure of how to proceed?

Develop an expert roundup article. If you’re in the sales sector, for example, you could pen an article titled ‘Top 21 Sales Influencers in 2023’ and reach out to the highlighted influencers informing them of their inclusion. Believe me, they’ll appreciate the recognition. They’ll share your content. 

Don’t Overrate .edu Links

.edu links are often overrated. According to John Mueller, .edu domains typically have an excess of outbound links, and as a result, Google disregards a significant portion of them.

Cultivate Relationships with Your Customers

A less frequently mentioned link-building strategy: If you’re a SaaS company investing in SEO, you can nurture relationships with your customers (those within the same topical niche as yourself) and mutually assist each other in building links.

Reciprocal Links Aren’t Necessarily Negative

Reciprocal links aren’t as problematic as Google may suggest. Certainly, they can be detrimental at scale (if trading links is your sole activity). However, swapping a link or two with another website or blog is completely benign in 99% of instances.

Avoid Overdoing Outreach

Don’t undertake outreach for every single post you publish – only the significant ones.

Many people aren’t interested in your outreach emails. The likelihood is they’ll be even less interested if you’re asking them to link to your latest phenomenal article (for example, the top 5 benefits of adopting a puppy).

Technical SEO Tips

Utilise PageSpeed Insights

If your website’s speed is extremely slow, it will inevitably affect your rankings. Employ PageSpeed Insights to assess your website’s current performance.

Load Speed is Crucial

Whilst load speed doesn’t directly impact rankings, it does affect user experience. If your page takes 5 seconds to load compared to your competitor’s instantaneous loading, the average Googler is likely to abandon your page and select your competition instead.

Maintain a Low Crawl Depth

The crawl depth of any page on your website should not exceed 4 (meaning, any given page should be reachable within a maximum of 3 clicks from the homepage).

Opt for Next-Gen Image Formats

Next-generation image formats such as JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP can be compressed far more effectively than PNG or JPG. Whenever feasible, utilise next-gen formats for images on your website.

Hide Irrelevant Pages

Conceal the pages you don’t want Google to index (e.g: private, or unimportant pages) through your Robots.txt. If you’re a SaaS, for instance, this would include most of your in-app pages or your internal knowledge base pages.

Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Google applies “mobile-first indexing.” This means, if you don’t have a functioning mobile version of your website, your rankings will seriously deteriorate.

Implement Lazy-Load for Images

Lazy-load your images. If your pages feature a lot of images, it is essential to activate lazy-loading. This permits images that are out of view, to load only once the visitor scrolls down enough to view the image.

Activate Gzip Compression

Activate Gzip compression to allow your HTML, CSS, and JS files to load quicker.

Tidy Up Your Code

If your website loads slowly because it is requesting 100+ external javascript files and stylesheets from the server, you could try minifying, consolidating, and inlining some of those files.

Employ Rel-Canonical

Have duplicate content on your website? Use rel-canonical to indicate to Google which version is the original (and should be prioritised for search results).

Install an SSL Certificate

Not only does an SSL certificate aid in keeping your website secure, but it’s also a direct ranking factor. Google favours websites that possess SSL certificates over those that don’t.

Use Appropriate Anchor Texts for Internal Links

When linking to an internal page, include the keyword you’re attempting to rank for on that page in the anchor text. This helps Google comprehend that the page is indeed associated with the keyword you’re linking it with.

Utilise GSC to Ensure Your Content is Interlinked

Internal links can significantly affect your rankings.

So, ensure that all your blog posts (especially the new ones) are properly linked to/from your previous content.

You can verify how many links any given page has via Google Search Console.

Bounce Rate is NOT a Google Ranking Factor

This means, you can still achieve a high ranking even with a high bounce rate.

Don’t Worry About a High Bounce Rate

Speaking of the bounce rate, you’ll observe that some of your web pages have a higher-than-average bounce rate (70%+).

Whilst this can sometimes raise concern, it’s not necessarily so. Sometimes, the search intent behind a specific keyword implies that you WILL have a high bounce rate even if your article is exceptional.

For instance, if it’s a recipe page, the reader gets the recipe and exits (since they don’t require anything else).

Google May Disregard Your Meta Description

More often than not, Google won’t utilise the meta description you provide – that’s normal. Instead, it will automatically select a section of the text that it deems most relevant and use it as a meta description.

Despite this, you should always add a meta description to all pages.

Disavow Spammy & PBN Links

Monitor your backlinks and disavow anything that’s evidently spammy or PBNy. In most cases, Google will ignore these links anyway. However, you can never be sure when a competitor is deliberately targeting you with excessive spammy or PBN links (which might put you at risk of being penalised).

Implement The Correct Redirect

When permanently relocating your pages, use 301 redirects to pass on the link juice from the old page to the new one. If the redirect is temporary, use a 302 redirect instead.

Rel-canonical in A/B Testing

Testing two pages in an A/B test? Use rel-canonical to show Google which page is the original.

Steer Clear of Amp

Avoid using Amp.

Unless you’re a media company, Amp will negatively impact your website.

Get Your URL Slugs Right

Keep your blog URLs concise and precise.

Good Example: translation-case-study’

Bad Example: ‘translation-case-study-2023-0-to-200,000’

Evade Dates in URLs

An outdated date in your URL can damage your CTR.

Readers are more likely to click/read articles published recently than those written years ago.

Social Signals Matter

Social signals impact your Google rankings, just not in the manner you might think. No, your number of shares and likes does NOT affect your ranking at all.

However, if your article goes viral and people use Google to find your article, click on it, and read it, then yes, it will impact your rankings.

For instance, if you read my SaaS marketing guide on Facebook, then look up “SaaS marketing” on Google, click on it, and read it from there.

Regularly Audit Your Website

Every other month, crawl your website with ScreamingFrog and see if you have any broken links, 404s, and so forth.

Opt for WordPress

Uncertain which CMS platform to utilise?

99% of the time, you’re better off with WordPress.

It boasts a plethora of plugins that will simplify your life.

Desire a drag & drop builder? Opt for Elementor. Wix, SiteGround, and similar drag & drop options might be detrimental to SEO.

Properly Check Rankings

When verifying how well a post is ranking on Google Search Console, it’s crucial to check both Page AND Query to get the accurate figure.

If you examine just the page, it’s going to provide you with the average ranking on all keywords the page is ranking for (which is almost always going to be irrelevant data).

Conclusion

And that concludes my tips – thank you for reading!

Now, let’s look back to Tip #1 for a moment.

Recall when I mentioned that a significant portion of what you read about SEO is grounded in personal experiences, experiments, and the like?

Well, the tips I’ve outlined are part of MY experience. It’s likely you’ve done something that might differ (or completely contradicts) my advice. If so, I’d be truly grateful if you’d share your insights. SEO is a perpetually changing field, and we’re all eager to see the future impact of AI. Best of luck in all your endeavours. 

Keep in touch.