10 Actionable SEO Tips From Industry Leaders
Search engine optimization is no easy task and for that reason, most of us struggle with it. There is the constant struggle of finding the perfect keywords, Google algorithm updates, competitors trying up you one by creating even more in-depth content, and all this while trying to keep your sanity when everything just feels like an uphill battle. Thankfully we took the time and contacted some of the most well-known professional content creators about their favorite SEO tips and asked them to share those tips with us. So let’s jump right in and see what the professionals say are their favorite SEO tips so you can use them for your website.
1. Always check the SERPs
My favorite SEO tip is so simple: Try to target keywords where the ranking articles are not directly targeting the keyword or are simply user-generated content like Quora or Reddit.
If you want to dig deeper, take a look at the ranking articles to see if their on-page SEO is poor. For example, it might be short articles (thin content) or content that’s clearly written by spam AI. Identifying keywords where there is SERP weakness is the most important part of our jobs
Chris – Niche Safari
2. Never sacrifice user experience
Never sacrifice user experience (UX). If you ever have to choose between serving an algorithm and serving your reader, choose the reader. Over time, the algorithm will change, but humans will still be humans.
Google is, in its own way, attempting to become more UX-focused. A high return-to-SERP rate tells them that your content isn’t actually answering the query. Serving the algorithm may get you on page 1, but only serving the reader will keep you there.
3. Nail your keyword research
My number one tip would be to nail your keyword research as early as possible in your blogging journey as it’s the foundation for organic traffic and getting it wrong makes everything else more difficult.
4. Structure your keywords
Here is a tip that has really helped my newest project get off the ground! When starting your new website structure your keywords in a list starting with the lowest search volume and competition levels first, working all the way up to the highest search volume and competition last.
Now it’s time to start writing (or outsourcing!) in the same order. I have found that by doing this you will get quick and easy win traffic at the start which will allow Google to start its tests and also allow you to quickly start building authority within your niche. As you work your way through your keyword list you should find that because you hit the ground running it should be a little bit easier to rank for the higher volume and competition keywords down the line.
5. Write as you would write to a friend
When most people start writing for their sites, they immediately reverse back to their college days and write long (tedious) dissertations. This can be a significant barrier for SEO writers because you spend most of your time editing your own work. Being able to get out of your own head and put yourself in your readers’ shoes needs a lot of practice.
Still, everything changes once you can do that and write as you talk to your best friend. Engagement goes up, shareability increases, and Google rewards you for it. If you’re stuck with this, run everything through HemingwayApp.com to force yourself to unlearn your bad writing habits and instead write for internet (and often mobile) readers. Your writing needs to inform, sure, but don’t forget to entertain!
Joe – Niche Campus
6. Target long-tail, low competition keywords
The most important part of SEO I think is to target long-tail, low competition keywords (especially questions). If you can deliver some good content that answers the query quickly and succinctly you’ve got a good chance of ranking, even without building links!
Alex Cooper – WP Eagle
7. Nail your On-Page SEO
Ensure that you have your target topic adequately represented within the Meta Page Title, H1 heading, page URL slug, and the first paragraph. Also, make sure you create internal links to other relevant content on your site. Finally, add schema code to your posts especially if you have FAQs, how-to guides, and navigational breadcrumbs.
Keith Mint – Minted Empires
8. Revise and add to your content
One of the most overlooked things in SEO is how important it is to go back to revise/add to your content once in a while. If you think about it from Google’s perspective, of course, they reward the most current content or articles that get revised over time. Information is always changing, regardless of the niche.
In terms of how often you need to revise content? In my opinion, that depends on how competitive the query is. If you write a post optimized for a very long and obscure keyword, it’s possible that it would only need a revision every five to ten years. However, if you’re writing about a more competitive keyword with information that changes often, it may make sense to revise it once every two weeks.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you track your movement in the SERPS and if you see a post-fall in rankings, review what is outranking you and see if there is a way you can revise your content to climb back up.
Ron Stefanski – One Hour Professor
9. Don’t think SEO in terms of “keywords”
The most important ranking factor for all search engines is relevance. Yet the number one SEO mistake most bloggers make is that they write content that doesn’t answer a specific search query.
If your content isn’t the best resource on the web for any particular search query, then it won’t rank. On the other hand, if it is the best resource for one or more search queries, it likely will rank at or near #1, even if you don’t get every other SEO factor perfectly right.
To do this effectively, we don’t think about SEO in terms of “keywords.” Instead, choose what you write based on search queries and topics. Instead of thinking about what words people are using in their searches, think about what questions they’re asking. That way you can write content that answers their questions and solves their problems.
This approach wins us top rankings and massive traffic consistently.
Ricky Kesler – Income School
10. Manage your site structure to benefit from links
With many sites focusing on informational content you want to have your plan on how you will get any relevant link juice from those posts to your money content. Money content tends to need some power behind it to rank so building a logical structure for “best” content can allow for nearly any link to your blog to reach those high-value money pages.
Use WordPress pages and their inherent tree structure to your benefit and you will have a self-built and powered engine to maximize the performance of “best” content without all the costs to buy links directly to them.
Josh Koop – White Hat Blogging
BONUS – Don’t forget your schemas
Schema(often called schema) is a semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that you can add to Schema markup is a set of metadata that you can add to your HTML to improve the way search engines read your content and represent your page in the SERPs.
Adding Schema to your content can greatly boost your SEO by helping search engines understand and parse structured data such as biographical information, reviews, FAQs, recipes, and prices.
Search engines now look for the schema to help them display rich search features such as bio boxes, people also ask, and recipe cards.
If your site isn’t using schema correctly, google may pass you up and display information from a competitor in the SERPs because it can better understand the structure of their content.
Adding schema data is straightforward, the easiest way is to use a tool such as All In One SEO.
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What next?
So now we know what you should focus on content-wise, but what next? What should you do after you got that awesome blog post on your blog or site? Well, the next thing to do is to check your technical SEO. For that, we recommend reading our “Ultimate Guide To WordPress SEO For Beginners” where we explain step by step how to set up your WordPress technically to succeed in your SEO endeavors.
Comment below and tell us what you think was the best SEO tip and don’t forget to subscribe to our email list to stay in touch with the latest tips, tricks, and guides related to WordPress.
Great article, thank you for featuring me in it!