Effective SEO is the primary method that most successful web marketers use to attract highly qualified traffic to their websites and pages. There are many other methods out there that will allow you to generate traffic, however sitting at the top of the pile of the most effective evergreen methods is SEO.
Regardless of whether you know your stuff when it comes to SEO strategies, you are going to learn something new today. Here’s my top five major focus points with any page that I create.
On Page Keyword Optimization
Permitting that you have chosen a keyword that is winnable in the search engines, and attracts qualified traffic, you will want to make sure that your chosen keyword/s are inserted on page in regular intervals of no more than once every 100 words. This literally is the most basic of all effective SEO strategies, but do be aware that too much can be seen as spam, and too little can be seen as being irrelevant. Make sure that your keyword placement involves correct use of the English language as well, just to keep you covered in the instance where a change in results triggers a human review at Google.
It is also very well worth while making sure that your main keyword appears in the title of your page as well, including in a few variable tags as well such as bold, and even a heading tag or two. This is optional, but for effective SEO, it can help make your page look more relevant and more natural at the same time.
The key here is to make sure that your page looks natural.
Keyword Anchor Links
What is Anchor Text? Its what we click...
Whilst doing your effective on page optimization, look for some opportunities to link out to other relevant pages using your keyword. Whilst this may not make sense to some of you as an effective SEO method, this is a great way to demonstrate relevance, and as a side benefit, helps your readers develop trust in you, as you are not trapping them on site. Remember to link out using the primary keyword, or a variation as such, plus include a title tag in the href link as well for further relevancy.
Image Optimization
I’ve seen some great results by optimizing my images for SEO. The process is simple. Just rename your images using your focus keywords or variants, and include keyword based alt tags for further relevancy. You can also link images off page as well if you would like for further. Just remember for the sake of effective SEO, you need to be natural here, and use a combination of your main keyword and other variants. Using your keyword too much in this instance can have an adverse effect.
Meta Tag Optimization
So… now that you have the basics of effective SEO down pat, and you have optimized your content, don’t forget to optimize your meta title, description, plus your meta keywords. If you are using WordPress, this can be added using the Yoast SEO plugin (which is free and highly recommended). Remember in this instance that optimizing your meta title and description is much more than being relevant. It is about selling your page in the search engines. Consider the keyword that you have chosen, and how you are going to use that in both a title and description to promise what the searcher is looking for, and deliver them to the page.
Sounds simple? It can be difficult, but with a little skill, this can in all essence turn a #2 ranked page into a #1 ranked page just based on the promise that is being made, and the pitch that is used.
As for keyword placement, for effective SEO, use the main keyword no more than once in your title, with a variant if you would like. In the description, use the main keyword no more than once, and use a variant if you would like.
Google Authorship
Details are still emerging about Authorship Markup from Google, which has to be hands down one of the most effective SEO techniques that you can use present day. In all essence, this is a new system in which Google now rewards reputable authors with a profile image next to their results in Google. If that doesn’t sound that tantalising to you, consider the impact of this benefit if exclusivity was enforced, and this was in fact a very difficult thing to earn, being given to only the best authors within certain keywords or markets.
Authorship Markup in action. See why this matters?
What this means is quite simple. People who are searching in Google for something now have people to turn to that have been identified by Google as people that they can trust. A profile image gives an author a huge amount of rank within their market, hence the new term “author rank” that you may have heard being thrown around a bit at the moment.
The key here is to be prepared. Will you be able to earn authorship? Who knows, but if you keep following the effective SEO strategies that I have been teaching, plus continue being the best author in your space, you will be treated like a king in Google’s eyes, and rewarded for your efforts. Follow my in depth Google Authorship Markup Verification tutorial to learn more about this very important process.
Final Words On Effective SEO?
I’ve had successes and failures from my work in SEO. I’ve found methods of SEO that are effective, and others that are not. You will too, and I have no doubt that it will frustrate you as it did me in my early days. It’s not that I dont know my stuff, it’s that effective SEO is an ever evolving game, and one that you must participate in consistently if you are going to succeed.
Consider that above all else, one of the most important areas that you need to focus on in your own SEO is the quality of your content, and what it does for your readers. If you focus on the quality of your content, then I can promise you that you will have little problem ranking highly for the keywords that you want to rank for.
It is about to become a very exciting time for good authors who know and practice good effective SEO, and having learned from me what you have today, you have no excuse to make good stuff happen.
About Ryan T Malone