Knowing which areas of SEO to emphasize most and which areas to pay lesser attention contributes to your SEO efficiency. It is vital to acquire the skills of directing your efforts at the right places so that it yields the right results. With time, we get habituated to some ways of doing SEO and stick to those habits without caring about the returns. It can be bad for the campaign because unless you know the returns and weigh it against your efforts, you will never be able to make improvements. The problem is that the SEO habits we develop over time create some comfort zone which we do not want to step out from. However, it is time to evaluate the old habits to figure out the returns from it and develop new habits that can pay back well.
SEO means regular engagement, and we must devote 100% time for it. In reality, this does not happen because, in the course of the campaign, we tend to develop a special interest in some specific areas like on-page and off-page SEO, technical SEO, etc. As a result, there is a lack of attention to many other areas that actually dilutes our overall attention to SEO. To broaden the scope of content and context driven SEO without spending extra hours but making better use of the available time, here are some recommendations from for Joel House SEO Canberra building new habits.
More depth in research
Doing various kinds research is integral to SEO because it all begins with keyword research to determine the trending keywords in the industry niche and then you must research a lot to know the elements that click for your competitors so that you can follow that path to get the desired results. Link building also requires research to develop the right link building strategies. Since SEO is continuously evolving, it entails focusing on the whole instead of specific details in some areas only, and you must lay more stress in the ways of performing research by developing good processes and habits. Since the research impacts your SEO tasks, you must research in-depth to gather more insights instead of relying only on some specific keywords and terms.
To dig deeper during research, you must use some tools along with the available data. It should help to understand the context in more detail while continuing with the fundamental guidelines of research.
More focus on measurement
It is not just enough to use analytics for SEO, but you must devote more time to it. The plain truth is that everyone uses tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, etc. to gain insights but seldom spend as much time that they should devote to it. It is more routine to view some analytical data but to gain an edge in SEO, you must measure much more and many more diverse elements than what you are doing currently. You must use the analytical tools in the way a biologist inspects samples under a microscope with complete and undivided attention.
You must gather as much data as you can from every nook and cranny so that you gain more ability to measure performance and make ongoing improvements. More data collected would give you the power to add more custom dimensions and find insights that would never appear during weekly or monthly data mining.
Expand the scope of learning
Everyone has access to various resources for learning in order to understand what is happening in the SEO world. Learning happens within the process of implementing SEO as we gain more SEO experience. The process of learning is gradual, and the speed is not just enough. The pattern of occasional learning or learning, by the way, does not help anymore because it must match with the speed of change of website technology as well as trends in digital marketing. This makes it imperative that learning must be a part of the daily curriculum of SEO marketers.
You must expand your scope of learning by going beyond the campaign based learning process only. The more industry news you are able to access more would be the learning, and you must build channels of learning from the industry sources by arranging to access article feeds from the social media and having it in your e-mail. Choose channels selectively that is not much crowded so that you can focus on the content without distraction.
Begin with the business goals and work backward
The competition does not remain confined within the SEO domain but extends much beyond within the bigger landscape of digital marketing that also includes new entities like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, chatbots, voice and more. However, we must avoid all distractions and pay full attention to serve our stakeholders by understanding and working for things that they care about. The thrust must be most in the area of aligning search with the business for realizing the business goals. This clearly points to the fact that any SEO exercise should begin with the business goals first to understand what we want to achieve and then work backward to develop suitable SEO strategies for achieving it.
Create the goals for sales, leads, revenue, and ROI first and then move back to develop suitable SEO goals like rankings, traffic, average position, etc. that align with the business objectives. This would ensure that you build the SEO campaign from the ground to make it completely business oriented.
Get the context right
Stay updated with the latest SEO trend that upholds the need for getting the context right. Keywords are important, but it loses worth if not dealt in its proper context. The same applies to content that has a deep contextual relationship. To extract full value from keywords and content, you must view it in the right context that points to what users are actually looking for. And when you understand the pulse of the audience, you can read their minds better and serve them with the most relevant content that answers their queries most comprehensively. And as you serve them with more relevant and useful content, you start gaining authority that places you on a higher pedestal over your competitors.
The time has come when you must think about the context first to discover user intent and then take up keywords, links, and technical matters to drive the right priority when creating the SEO plan.
Technical competence matters a lot
Despite giving considerable importance to content and context, nothing will work for you if you do not balance it with the right dose of technical SEO. You might build a lot of links, publish lots of quality content and do a lot of keyword research, but none of these will be effective unless you provide the right technical support. Mastering the technicalities of SEO becomes a critical factor in ensuring that all other SEO efforts bear fruits.
The website features must be attractive and user-friendly so that visitors spend longer time on it that helps them to discover more about the website and generates more leads and conversions. Navigation must be smooth and the design intuitive that prompts users to take the next logical step. You must create speedy pages with proper optimization, resolve issues of duplicate content and indexing, disavow bad links, and look into other details of technical SEO.
Go beyond SEO
Although you are doing SEO, it does not mean that you can isolate the campaign from the experiences and learning that happens in traditional marketing and advertising world. Rather, you must integrate the campaign with other marketing channels. To leverage your efforts, you can go for paid searches that are akin to traditional advertising, which can help to gain SEO mileage. Expand your marketing horizon by coming out of your comfort zone and take steps to gain insights from traditional marketing and offline experiences. Although SEO might seem a bit technical, its roots remain embedded within the principles of traditional marketing, and you should embrace whatever good experience you have in other areas to enrich the SEO campaign. Connecting with other marketing channels can help you with links, content, etc. that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Take a balanced approach in SEO
Normally, we like some SEO aspects more than others, even if you are a master of the craft. No matter whether the content is your forte or you are more comfortable with on-page and of-page SEO over technical, it is necessary to create a balance in your approach by overriding your preferences. Instead of relying too much on a few selected aspects to get the results, it is always advisable to focus on all aspects of SEO and then make intentional choices on some areas that you feel more inclined to.
Taking a restricted approach with a focus on selected SEO areas can backfire when you face competition from some new entrant that takes a more balanced approach, or some algorithm updates can throw you off the track.
Having your finger in most of the SEO elements will augur well for the campaign.
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