Simply put, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does not have an on or off button. It’s a complex game that requires foresight and patience to net positive results, and you simply cannot automate the process.
However, it isn’t difficult to get ahead if you take a practical approach. It’s possible to automate analytics, keyword, and conversion tracking, but in the end, you must still interpret that data accurately.
In this post, we’ll guide you on incorporating SEO into your content marketing. We’ll give you three reasons why you should take a more hands-on approach to your SEO over the long-term, and how to go about taking some action.
Let’s get started!
As we said, SEO is not a toggle switch on your website, but there are several elements you can leverage initially that are easily forgotten about. From installing plugins to analytics, there are several actions you could be forgiven for putting to the back of you mind once set.
[Tweet “Even one-off tasks need to be maintained for SEO.”]
Hold onto your horses though, because this is technology we’re talking about. Software gets updated, implementations change over time, and even the simplest of these need attention for proper maintenance—otherwise, you risk violating current SEO standards.
While there are nearly infinite ways you could be optimizing your site, we’ll keep to the fundamentals here. We recommend having the following in place at bare minimum, and that you follow these maintenance guidelines for best results:
Taking the time over maintaining these will go a long way to ensure you’re ahead of the game.
Don’t get us wrong—general optimization is important. However, each page of your website needs optimization for its own unique keyword too.
This involves writing natural sounding content that fits your keyword goals for each and every page. It’s a simple (though time-consuming) task that you shouldn’t neglect. What’s more, relevance and freshness are both ranking factors on search engines, meaning your content needs to be up to date at all times.
Managing to keep all of your website’s pages up to date sounds like a Herculean task. It can be, but you can start by strengthening your weakest links:
If you dedicate to updating your ten weakest pages every month, it won’t be too long before your site is up to speed!
Alright, so now you’re maintaining your website regularly and have audited each page. What’s next?
Well, Google changes its algorithm all the time—by that we mean between 500–600 updates per year. Bing is another important player, particularly with its firm grasp on the voice search market. The rise of this technology will continue to change how search works, similarly to conversational style search.
[Tweet “Google updates its algorithm between 500—600 times per year.”]
With this in mind, it’s important to watch for any algorithm changes, because your search engine rankings could take a dramatic hit. If that happens, you should able to find what’s changed, and fix your site accordingly.
Just to ease your mind, you’re not expected to stay up with each of the hundreds of updates Google pushes out per year. That would drive you insane, and would not be an effective use of your time. Instead, you can use a monitoring tool such as the Clickx App, which watches the status of target keywords in search results for you.
Most of the time, everything will proceed as usual—but sometimes, you’ll see inexplicable changes. When that happens, check in on industry publications (such as Search Engine Land, Moz, and Search Engine Journal) to see whether there is a change you should adjust to.
On a larger scale, search engine algorithms fall into line with industry best practices. These are the guidelines that drive changes to the underlying framework, and by following them, you’re future-proofing your work as much as possible.
However, the only reason these practices get updated in the first place is because of new technology or the abuse of old algorithms. It means if you don’t look to update your strategy, your site will fall behind your competitors.
To give you an idea, mobile best practices were not initially a concern for developers. However, with the rise of smartphones, mobile is now an integral piece of the puzzle. To that end, Google recommends responsive design, presumably serving AMP on the side.
Meanwhile, buying backlinks was once the easiest way to boost SEO juice. These days, Google blacklists anyone who participates in such schemes. If you want backlinks, you need to earn them instead.
If you’re also monitoring your SEO algorithm updates, you can kill two birds with one stone. Best practices are the sorts of things you can check on annually, and as the rapid development of technology continues, touch base with the SEO publications we mentioned earlier. You may be surprised to find you only need to make incremental adjustments. Even so, it’s good to calibrate your approach to the most accurate information out there.
SEO is not a magic button that can be pushed to skyrocket your site up the search rankings. It’s the culmination of various on-going efforts, all striving to please the search engine gods. Get one wrong or forget about a vital piece, and you may find your site booted off the front page.
Understanding why SEO isn’t something you can flip a switch for will help you to formulate and act upon a strong plan. Here’s a handy checklist to review:
What aspects of SEO are you forgetting to maintain? Let us know in the comments section below!