Almost every year, there's a new inclusion to search engine optimization (SEO). Some additions are novel, while some have existed for years but are frequently polished. But amidst all these surging techniques, the initial forms of SEO were too vague and marketers were prone to using shifty techniques to acquire higher rankings.

That all changed when Google made its search engine algorithm smart enough to discard the shady practices (black hat SEO) and only paid heed to ethical techniques (white hat SEO). Are you new to the search engine realm? You may have mistaken dubious practices as ethical ones and for that, we have curated this brief guide.

Quality Content Matters

Quality content stimulates a successful SEO campaign. Without it, your efforts, brainstorming sessions and keyword extraction, all will remain futile. Content is king isn’t an understatement. The entire foundation of SEO is based on content. How do you determine quality content from average? It’s not the word count or how many keywords you have stuffed into it. These are a few core factors.

• Is it giving value to the readers?
• Will it solve the problem of the searcher?
• Is it relevant to your brand niche?
• Is the content easy to understand and not a bunch of bloated up keywords?
• Does it have any negative or discerning elements?
• Is it too ME-centric?

All in all, your content shouldn’t be too generic. Typing in headlines with ‘top 8 tips’ and ‘the best apps’ just doesn’t elicit attention anymore. People now want to read content that is thorough and covered in detail. Not a mere few tips conjoined together for ranking purposes. It should reflect what the reader wants to read and never the other way around.

Don’t take the Google algorithm for granted. There are 1.9 billion websites at present (as of 2020). Surely, there will be many websites with similar agendas and competition will only bloat further. However, to stay ahead of the competition yourself, pay heed to evergreen content, those that you can repolish for years to come.

Keyword Research

Accurate selection of keywords is the juice of both content and SEO. Without the inclusion of keywords, SEO strategies stay distasteful. Tools for keyword extraction are aplenty but if you are looking for keywords for an internet service provider, it doesn’t mean you would bloat in all the highest rankings keywords in a mere 1000 words.

Why is that? The Google Algorithm faces new updates and changes on a timely basis. In the same way, RankBrain has been tweaked and incorporated with machine learning principles to understand more than mere keywords. It’s now rather an AI system, intricately analyzing website content, understanding the language, tone and even the synonyms used. Unlike before, when RankBrain only depended on metadata and corresponding information.

The use of keyword extraction tools like Ahrefs or SemRush is equally important. It’s just that the process has become more streamlined and human rather than a machine ranking websites solely due to high keyword density.

Simple Website Navigation

With all the technical bits and SEO jargon aside, it’s only self-explanatory for a website user to easily navigate through a website and not have to face any visual obstacles, unstable user experience and end up feeling frustrated.

It has become common for users to abandon websites with complicated user experiences and interfaces. Surely a good user experience cannot be fully subjective and could vary from user to user. That’s why website owners first have to streamline their efforts into UX design and development. How? By understanding user intent, preferences and all the core UX techniques needed to achieve the same.

While you’re at it, it’s also much needed to test out the UX design. While testing so, keep your audience preferences, their buyer personas and their search intent in mind. Don’t be too hasty with your endeavors, however. A/B test varied UX designs out until you secure one that matches up to the given requirements.

Wrapping up

There are ups and downs to every marketing strategy, be it SEO or not. But remember to never deviate from ethical practices and exert your utmost best to get results without practices fraught with black hat SEO.