What Makes a Successful SEO Strategy?

When it comes right down to it, the measure of a successful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy is fairly simple – it improves your site’s search engine rankings and increases organic web traffic. What’s not as straightforward though is just what it takes to pull that off. Here, we delve into the four cornerstones of what makes a successful SEO strategy, giving you a better idea of how to give your brand a helpful boost in the ever-evolving search engine algorithms.

On-Page SEO 

On-page optimisation is all about signaling to search engines that your webpages are well tailored to what your audience is searching for while also providing a seamless user experience. Here are a few things that go into on-page SEO: 

Keywords

Keyword research is the bread-and-butter of any SEO strategy. By figuring out which words and phrases your audience is searching for, and then ensuring your website pages are strategically built to cater to your audience’s queries and needs, you’ll be one step closer to improving your visibility. 

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions 

A title tag is a chance to put your website’s best foot forward on the search engine results pages. It should include a keyword, give context to the webpage and be less than 60 characters (unless you want it to get truncated. Which you don’t). Similarly, you’ll want your meta descriptions to be between 155-160 characters while giving a brief but engaging summary of the page content – with the aim to encourage click-throughs.

URLs

Just like title tags and meta descriptions, you should always aim to have your site URLs tell users and search engines what the webpage is about by including keywords related to the page topic. Keeping URLs short and sweet is also important. 

Header Tags 

Using punchy yet descriptive, keyword-rich header tags (H1, H2, H3) gives search engines an understanding of what your content is about, as well as helping users to quickly break up chunks of text on a webpage. 

Content 

It’s safe to say that no website would get very far without content. After all, how would users know what your business even does without some well-written landing pages? But the best copywriting content – the kind that pushes your site further up the SERPs – will be sure to incorporate these techniques: 

Keywords 

Just like with on-page SEO, when it comes to content, you’re going to want to incorporate keywords and phrases throughout your web copy – but in a way that feels natural and not forced. This isn’t always as easy as it looks.

Cater to Search Intent 

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. If they’ve clicked through to your site, then they are after something – an answer, an explanation, a problem they want solved, or help making a decision on a product or a service. The content on your website should satisfy this intent. 

Easy-to-Read

Content that waffles on isn’t going to keep users’ attention for very long. Your web copy should be concise yet compelling. Avoid long sentences. And be sure to steer clear of paragraphs over 300 words – section them into subheadings instead. 

Technical SEO 

This involves optimising all the back-end elements of your site to help search engine crawlers index your site effectively. Typically this covers things like:

• Page load speed

• Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) security 

• Mobile-friendliness 

• Website navigation

• Hiding duplicate content 

• Fixing indexing issues

• Structured data 

As you’d expect, technical SEO requires technical knowledge. That is exactly why working with  a Sydney digital marketing agency might be a bright idea if you really want your SEO strategy done well. 

Off-Page SEO 

Off-page optimisation refers to actions that occur outside of your website that affect your search engine rankings. It’s all about boosting your website’s authority and trustworthiness by having other reputable sites, users and pages promoting your site, either directly or indirectly. This can be achieved a few ways: 

Backlinks 

Think of this as the backbone of off-page SEO. Having other trusted websites link back to your own gives an indication to search engines of the quality of your content. The more high-authority websites you have linking to your content, the better you’ll rank. 

Social Media

Granted, social media metrics such as likes, shares and mentions don’t necessarily have a direct influence on off-page SEO. But that doesn’t mean they don’t come with their own set of indirect benefits like bolstering brand awareness, reputation and authority. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter as well as other social networks can offer a great way for your brand to gain traction in the digital space. 

Influencer Collaborations

Because influencers have already built up a trusting audience of their own, partnering with them can lend your brand a nice bit of credibility, as well as increased awareness. Not only that, but having an influencer promote your product or service on their own channels can help you to reach audiences that you may not be able to reach on your own. 

Hiring a Professional SEO Strategist 

Four cornerstones might not seem like a lot, but don’t be fooled, we’ve only scratched the surface of what it takes to pull off a successful SEO strategy. Keyword research alone is a process that can take years to learn and master. Becoming familiar with SEO metrics like search volume, clicks and traffic potential so you can narrow down keyword ideas, plus knowing how to use the latest keyword research tools – it’s no small task. 

So why risk leaving your SEO strategy to chance? Why not leave it to the experts you can trust? At G Squared, our digital marketing agency Sydney team is committed to working closely with you to understand what drives real business results for your brand. From here we use industry best-practice to put together a data-driven SEO strategy catered specifically to you, boosting web traffic that converts in high value customers. Get in touch with our Sydney digital consultancy company today!