Wondering which SEO tactics you should be targeting throughout this year? If so, you’re not alone.
SEO is changing all the time and it can be tough to stay on top of it. Luckily, this list will give you the perfect place to start.
8 SEO Tactics to Incorporate into Your Content Right Now
Whether you’re a small business looking to earn more customers, or a large company that wants to invest more in content in the coming years, these eight SEO tactics will help you meet your goals.
1. Optimize for Mobile
Today, content is nothing if not optimized for mobile. According to Impact Branding and Design, 80 percent of Internet users own a Smartphone, and a whopping 68 percent of companies have integrated mobile marketing into their SEO and content approaches.
Regardless of how you feel about the mobile revolution, one thing is sure: it’s showing no signs of reversing. With this in mind, you must optimize your content for mobile. This can mean using a mobile-responsive template to ensure your links, menus, and content components are large enough to click and read easily on a small mobile screen.
2. Check Reddit for Undiscovered Keywords
Your keyword strategy is essential to the upward mobility of your SEO plan. Unfortunately, keyword research and mining can be limited by your creativity and list of seed keywords. The good news is that there’s one smart and simple way to get around that: Reddit
Reddit, also known as the “Front Page of the Internet,” is an indispensable source for content creators of all types. Not only can it help you connect with your readers, but it can also give you some great ideas for undiscovered keywords in your niche.
Here’s how to use it: type your head term or seed keyword into the Reddit search bar. For example, if your topic is “pet grooming,” you’d type that into Reddit and then search threads for potential keyword options. If you see phrases that pop up again and again, type them into your keyword research tool to see how many searches they get per month. If they seem like good options, add the keywords to your target list for later use in content.
3. Blog, Blog, Blog
Blogging is so obvious for many people that mentioning it often seems excessively simple. If you’re not blogging, though, you should be. Even if you are blogging, you could likely benefit from increasing your frequency this year. In addition to the fact that websites with a blog have a 434 percent more indexed pages than their blog-free counterparts, blogging is also indispensable for eCommerce companies and those who want to educate consumers about products.
Because of this, marketers who blog frequently are 13 times as likely to enjoy a positive ROI as their competitors.If you’re not blogging, 2017 is the time to start. Be sure to focus on high-quality, relevant topics for best results. If you are blogging, consider upping your frequency. According to HubSpot, companies that publish 16 or more posts each month earn more than three times as much traffic as their competitors.
4. Start Linking to Authority Sites
Links are some of the most important SEO tools out there. This is thanks to an old-school Google update known as Hilltop. Unfortunately, linking to low-quality sites won’t do you much good. Instead, focus on linking out to high-quality sites with lots of traffic. Use the Alexa Ranking system to identify these sites, and incorporate links in keyword-rich anchor text throughout your content. Don’t forget to beef up your external link strategy by linking to your internal content, as well.
5. Re-Publish Old Content
If you have old content that’s just sitting around, give yourself a break (and a SEO boost) by re-publishing it. While you shouldn’t just copy and paste an old post into a new window, you can easily break down an old long-form blog post into a series of tweets, create an eBook from a blog series you did, or re-imagine one of your most popular articles as an infographic. Check out our resource on how to repurpose your content correctly for more information.
6. Create “What is” Content
“What is” content is pivotal for the current SEO climate. Here’s why: today, a large portion of Google searches start with the words “what is” or “how to.”By creating content that includes these keywords, and then provides the extensive, in-depth answer your customers are looking for, you can boost your SEO rankings and have a shot at ranking in the coveted “snippet” box.
7. Make it Actionable
In 2017, everything you write should be actionable content. While this isn’t necessarily a SEO tip in the technical sense, it will give your content a SEO boost by making it more valuable and shareable for readers. The more frequently people share your content, the higher Google ranks it and the more visible it becomes for new customers. Focus on instilling a “Take away” in everything you write. Whether you’re telling readers how to solve a problem or which tools to download, they should always walk away from your piece with something solid.
8. Make it Easy to Share
The easier your content is to share, the more likely readers are to take that step. With this in mind, add social sharing buttons to your blog, write a great headline and meta description for your material, and finish it off with a beautiful featured image that will stand out in social media feeds. The more attention you pay to these simple details, the more share-worthy your content will become.
Better SEO Starts Here. It’s 2017, and there’s no excuse to not beef up your content’s SEO value. By doing simple things like making it actionable and easy to share, you can enjoy a wider reach and a more dedicated base of readers, this year and beyond.
Julia McCoy is a bestselling author of So You Think You Can Write, podcaster and an expert content marketer. She’s also the founder and CEO of Express Writers, a leading online content creation agency, with more than 60 content writers and strategists. Julia leads her team to serve hundreds of worldwide businesses with the highest-quality content for their online presence.