SEO Marketing: Putting It All Together
We covered a ton of information in this guide, and I can understand if you feel a bit overwhelmed. Let’s make things simple and quickly touch on the most important points so you can walk away feeling relieved and excited about your journey with SEO for marketing.
Black Hat Vs. White Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is using slimy tactics like buying links, stuffing keywords, and duplicating content. While these things work in the short-term, they won’t work long-term. You might see a boost in traffic and revenue for a month or two until Google figures you out and blacklists your site for good.
White hat SEO is the way to go. It takes longer, but it implements the right tactics that will pay you for years to come.
Keyword Research and Selection
Having the right keywords on your website is the main way Google figures out what the site is about. Using tools like Ubersuggest can help you find the right keywords that are relevant to your topic.
Make sure you don’t force them where they don’t belong, and remember creating quality content is most important above all else.
HTML
Title tags, meta descriptions, alt text, and headers are important pieces of the SEO marketing puzzle. You’ll use these to tell Google more about your content and what readers can expect when they land on your site.
Site Architecture
The architecture of your site focuses on the design and functionality of it. If users can’t navigate the site easily, it loads too slow, and certain elements are hard to get to, it will be more difficult for Google to navigate the site as well.
Trust
People need to trust your site, and having features like SSL certificates and HTTPS is the industry standard now. You can’t have a website without these and expect to rank because Google expects this.
In addition to the backend stuff, you want to have trust signals on your site that show people you’re a professional and not looking to scam them in any way.
Links
Link building is crucial but difficult and requires a lot of time and effort. The good news is, there’s a lot of people out there doing it wrong. This opens the door for SEOs who are willing to go the extra mile to build links the right way.
Don’t get spammy gigs on Fiverr that promise 10,000 links. They’re scams. You need to build each link manually on sites in your niche that have their own traffic.
Personal
Make sure you understand your audience and what they want from you. Every customer has an expectation when they land on your site, and it’s up to you to fulfill that need or desire.
Social
Social media and SEO marketing work well together, so don’t neglect the social aspect because it can provide a nice boost to your SEO efforts. It takes a lot to rank on Google, and getting ample social shares can really help show Google you’re in it for the long haul and willing to do whatever it takes.
EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness)
This is a gut check you can use to ensure that your content is connecting well with people, based on a criteria Google uses for real-world evaluators.
Create content that shows a level of understanding on a topic and reflects a reputation for a top source of information about it. Ask yourself whether the content you are putting out there is helping you build that reputation and allowing your readers to trust you on the topic.
SEO and Google Algorithm Updates
SEO may often feel unapproachable or impossible because of the term “algorithm.” An algorithm is a series of operations a search engine uses to calculate and rank websites based on when someone uses a specific search query.
You may have heard algorithms are always changing, and, to some degree, that’s true. Google makes what they call “core updates” multiple times a year to better serve those searching online. You can explore a history of Google algorithm updates on the Moz website.
However, while Google may often make tweaks, your main concern should continue creating high-quality content, using relevant keywords, and building reputable backlink relationships. You shouldn’t try to “game the system” when it comes to Google’s algorithms, as a major reason for the continual updates is to weed people who do that out. You could actually hurt your rankings by focusing too much on the algorithm and not enough on your content.
