So, what can you do to help move the needle forward? Most people invest their time and resources into planning and executing various SEO (Search Engine Optimization) initiatives. However, with so many different variables to focus on, knowing how to prioritize your efforts can seem like an impossible task.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the most common misconceptions about SEO work and what you should focus on to help your website rank higher, depending on where your current pages are ranking.

Addressing Common SEO Misconceptions

Most people are already familiar with the benefits associated with SEO, especially when it comes to helping to bring in more organic web traffic to their website. However, there are many so-called “SEO experts” out there who all think they have the secret sauce when it comes to getting a site ranked higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) in half the time.

Unfortunately, this leads many people to go down a slippery slope of spammy activities that actually do more harm than good. Below are some common misconceptions surrounding SEO and areas to avoid:

You Should Use Your Keywords As Many Times As You Can

Keyword research and targeting is a core component of SEO. By finding the right keyword or phrases associated with your niche, you can potentially start to rank for various terms that can equate to a large amount of search traffic. However, the thought that you should use as many of these keywords in your content as possible is inaccurate.

While it is helpful to use keywords in strategic places throughout your site and in your content, the necessary density % of these keywords has changed considerably over the years. Search engines have become wise to the tactics that many SEO practitioners have used over the past to try to improve their rankings and have changed their algorithms accordingly.

Today, search engines use literally hundreds of factors to help determine the relevance of a website to a user’s query, but keyword choice and placement are only a small part of the larger puzzle. Placing too much emphasis on keywords can harm an effective SEO campaign.

The More Backlinks You Gain, The Better

Acquiring backlinks to your website can be an impactful way to start building authority for your website domain and play an important role in helping you rank your content much faster. However, over the years, there have been a number of black hat SEO services and techniques used to gain as many backlinks as possible to a website in an effort to scale rankings much faster.

When trying to gain as many links as possible to your website, it’s almost always doomed to fail, considering the strict guidelines search engines like Google now have in place when penalizing websites that participate in black hat SEO practices. In fact, having too many links to your website from anything but reputable or high-authority websites can actually have the reverse impact on your rankings.

Although establishing backlinks to your website is an important element of SEO, quality vs. quantity is the key here. It’s better to have one link from a reputable publication or blog than it is from ten unreliable sources. 

On-Page SEO Is The Most Critical Element

On-page SEO is a critical part of a holistic digital marketing strategy. However, it’s not the end-all and be-all of efforts that can help you bring in more organic web traffic. While it’s important, it shouldn’t monopolize all of your time and resources improving.

Most people place their primary focus on on-page SEO due to its relative accessibility. It’s much easier to make changes on your current website and see some quick results when compared to other external efforts. These other off-page SEO efforts, like link building and social media, often take time and prospecting efforts, which don’t always offer the most immediate benefits.

Still, ignoring other important SEO factors and instead prioritizing only on-page SEO is a mistake. It can make it much harder to rank your content effectively in the long-run.

Strategizing Your SEO Based on Keyword Rankings

Because there are so many variables involved with planning and executing an SEO campaign, it’s only natural to feel a bit overwhelmed by the process. But rather than feeling like you need to throw darts while being blindfolded, there are effective strategies you can apply depending on the current positioning of your keyword rankings on certain pages.

Below are some guidelines you can follow while adapting your strategies as your pages start to rank:

Not Currently Ranking or Higher Than 50

All new web pages you create will take time to be indexed and start ranking. In fact, some never rank at all – it really depends on how well you’ve optimized your site and other elements to support your SEO efforts. However, there are steps you can follow when you see your page not currently ranking or in the 50th or higher position on SERPs.

The most critical thing you can do at this stage is take a better look at your keywords and the type of search intent associated with them. Knowing this information is critical and helps search engines prioritize their results based off of how relevant you are when answering this intent.

The various types of search intent include:

• Navigational – This type of search intent is made by users that already know the type of product or service they’re interested in – they simply want to find a specific website or rand. These types of searches usually have a brand name in the keyword phrase.

• Informational – The majority of searches online are informational in nature, with users looking for answers to specific questions. This might mean you’ll want to format your continent into a how-to guide or more educational content around a particular topic to answer this intent effectively.

• Transactional – When a user has a transactional intent to their query, this means they are close to making a purchase. These types of search terms are generally much more competitive to target, considering that they are closely associated with increased conversion rates. An example of a transactional search intent would be “best 60-inch TVs” or “top marketing software.” 

• Commercial – Someone who is using a commercial intent is typically comparing various brands before moving to a decision-making stage. This is typical when looking to review several types of services before committing to one in particular.

Gaining Some Visibility and Ranking Between 11-40

Once you start to see your rankings climb and rest somewhere between the top 11 and 40 results, you’ll want to start shifting gears in your SEO approach. At this stage, a balanced focus on on- and off-page SEO is preferred.

One of the most impactful things you can do at this stage is to put more priority on your link-building campaigns. You’ll want to invest the time and resources necessary to prospect high-quality, reputable websites and design outreach programs to try to connect and secure new partnerships with these sites.

Although this can be time-intensive, the web authority that you can build over time can pay off considerably and start to help improve your rankings even further.

Achieving First Page Rankings Between 1-10

Getting your website pages to the first page of Google’s SERPs isn’t easy by any means. If you’re able to get to this point, you should take comfort in knowing that your hard SEO work is finally being rewarded. That being said, your work isn’t over yet.

It’s important to look at the state of your website and individual pages of content and focus on ways you can improve the user experience. Search engines like Google highly value websites that keep users engaged and avoid high bounce rates and disconnected experiences. Look for ways you can improve your site’s navigation and incorporate elements that help users stay on your website longer.

The more you can avoid users becoming uninterested in your content, the less chance that they’ll abandon their search prematurely. This gives impactful ranking signals to Google that can improve your website rankings and keep them there.

Maximize The Impact of Your SEO Efforts

By implementing these strategies and focusing your SEO efforts in the right areas, you’ll be able to see more consistent rankings on your website, improving your visibility and increasing your organic web traffic over time.

The post How to Know Where To Focus Your SEO Efforts appeared first on SiteProNews.

If SEO tricks that fast-tracked results really existed, no one would give them away for free, and more businesses would be seeing stellar SEO performance.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple – nothing that’s worth it ever really is. SEO isn’t about taking shortcuts and hacks, but resource allocation.

The Problem with Hacks

Before we can get to the tried-and-true methods of boosting SEO, we need to cover why the quick tricks and hacks aren’t ideal or reliable for getting results.

Sure, some hacks and tactics are considered golden by a few businesses and showed success early on, but SEO has gotten too competitive for that now. Too many businesses are competing for too few spots – with a bunch of pages – and hacks aren’t good enough anymore.

Really, if anyone can find and apply hacks and shortcuts in seconds, without experience, everyone can. The quickest way to blend into the crowd is to do the same thing as the crowd, and you have virtually no chance of standing out.

Keyword usage is a good example. Some businesses choose to plaster keywords all over their website, hoping they’ll attract people with them. In the past, with lower competition, that worked, but there’s simply too much out there now. Keywords are competitive, businesses are competitive, and keyword usage needs to be targeted, too.

Furthermore, using the same strategies over and over again, without making it appropriate for the specific business, doesn’t yield positive results. Businesses have different needs, goals, strengths, and resources.

So, what does it take in the modern digital environment?

This comes down to knowing who your competitors are, what you have, and what strengths you can leverage. You can’t do it all, so focus on what you do best.

Use Your Business’s Resources for Your SEO Strategy

SEO is about resource allocation, not hacks. Now that we have that down, let’s dive into what that really means.

Everything in SEO revolves around the three pillars:

• Link building and referring domains
• Content development and content marketing
• Technical SEO

Many businesses have strict marketing budgets, especially at the start, and don’t have a lot to throw at SEO strategy. This means that they can’t afford to throw all their budget at every single hack or shortcut they hear about, hoping for positive results.

Instead, it means that SEO strategy needs to be targeted and methodical, putting effort and resources into the strategies most likely to yield positive results.

Even large companies struggle with limited resources, so allocation is a big challenge. So, what combination of SEO pillars will lead to a good ranking?

Leverage Your Strengths

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make after searching for SEO tips or reading case studies is trying to create a copycat strategy without tailoring it to their needs. In doing so, what they miss is what made these cases optimized for the specific business.

Of course, copying some successful strategies can work in certain situations, it’s best to take good ideas and align them with your own business’s strengths.

If You Have a Strong Network…

Some businesses lack the resources for a full-time, in-house content development team or to outsource a lot of high-quality writing. They may have another strong suit, however, which is their network. They can go out into the community and speak and be heard, which can be leveraged into a backlink strategy.

Businesses with a strong community presence can use their network to pitch contacts for guest posts or speaking opportunities to build thought leadership and drive links to their website.

If You Have a Gift for Writing

If your business isn’t that known – yet – you still have strengths at your disposal. We’ve all been there. Most businesses start out with virtually no presence, unless they’re launched by someone who already excelled in their industry and used it to start a business.

Businesses that don’t have the brand equity or exposure for backlinking can invest more into content and technical SEO. Maybe you have a team that can produce content for you, or you can delegate some responsibilities and produce it yourself.

The goal of content strategy is to build a library that is thorough and comprehensive, boosting ranking by keywords and making the site more relevant.

If Technical Knowledge Is Your Strength

You may not enjoy writing (or don’t have time), and may lack a community presence, but if you have technical skills, you can use them to your advantage. You can create and launch a website quickly and make sure it follows all technical SEO best practices.

This solution is good for tech-savvy owners or technical teams that can create websites, databases, and optimized user experiences quickly, and usually works well for tech startups.

Technical SEO always requires strong technical skills that can build the web assets you need, but it also means doubling down on those skills and creating optimized websites in the complex Google world.

If you have technical knowledge, you probably know how to get Google to properly index your pages on your website, even if your website is huge already. You can also make sure that all your pages are properly optimized and use the best keywords.

For example, if you have a website with 100,000 pages and decide to launch a new component, how can you make sure Google can properly index it? How can you make sure that each page is optimized for the right keywords?

Technical B2B SEO is complex and challenging, but if it’s done right, it can significantly boost your SEO. Over time, certain relevant keywords can rank for your business organically.

Combining Three Strategies

SEO is about honoring your strengths and leveraging the tools and resources you have, not throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. You won’t win with every single strategy, and you’ll burn through your time and budget quickly.

Focus on where you excel – isn’t that good advice for all aspects of business management anyway?

Allocate your resources according to the pillar of SEO that makes the most sense for your company, or use a bit of all of them. In doing so, you can develop a long-term, highly organized, and resource-allocated SEO strategy that will help you achieve your present and future goals. This strategy can also scale into a self-sustaining campaign that grows with your business.

SEO is always a complex topic, especially for businesses with fewer resources to leverage and limited marketing budgets. This advice should help you identify opportunities to tailor your strategy according to your unique strengths as a business.

Remember, There’s No Shortcut

SEO is frustrating. Hacks and shortcuts may seem like a way to relieve the burden and get the results you want faster. It’s not that simple, though. If you spend weeks devoting your time, energy, and budget to SEO hacks and realize that wasn’t the right direction to take, you could end up in a worse position.

The post SEO is Not About Hacks and Optimizations – It’s About Resource Allocation appeared first on SiteProNews.