How to Create an Effective SEO strategy in 2022

For businesses who want to enhance their online presence and keep up with latest technological advances, having an effective SEO strategy is necessary.

SEO is an umbrella term that consists of a range of different strategies. Despite the path you choose, your SEO strategy must have an end goal of improving your website’s ranking on search engines like Google. 

Google handles approximately 2 trillion searches worldwide per year. If you really want to attract more users towards your site, then it is time to invest time and resources into an SEO strategy.

As the majority of businesses are already spending more than $5,000 on SEO – maybe it is time for your business to join the crowd too. 

On-Page and Off-Page SEO

If you are new to the world of SEO, there is one important thing you should know: on-page and off-page SEO. On-page SEO is everything on your website that improves your search engine ranking. It includes usability, keywords, attractive content, headers, and much more.

Off-page SEO typically refers to links on other websites that lead users back to your site. When you make valuable content, others are likely to start linking your site on theirs to let people find more information about a keyword. 

Your SEO strategy should have a combination of on-page and off-page SEO. If you can successfully develop an SEO strategy, then you can easily rank #1 on Google’s search results in regard to a specific query. 53% of all website traffic comes directly from organic search, which is why ranking #1 is the most effective way to get popular. 

How to Create an Effective SEO strategy

When you combine different techniques to rank higher on search engines, it is called having an SEO strategy. SEO is changing every year and it is important to stay up to date with all the changes. Here are the 9 best ways to improve your SEO strategy today:  

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Every SEO strategy starts with a long list of keywords. Keywords are the words that your target market uses to search for a specific query or product. Approximately 8% of search queries are phrased as questions, and the others all include certain keywords. To make your SEO strategy effective, you should have an updated list of keywords first. 

The easiest way to find the keywords that your target market is searching for is to rely on Google search console or even by simply using the Google search bar. By simply navigate to the Google search page and type a word into Google’s search bar, you will notice a drop-down menu that includes a range of different suggestions. These suggestions come from popular searches of customers who typed the same or a similar keyword. 

You might notice that most suggestions are short tail keywords. This means that users are now searching for smaller terms instead of full sentences. When creating an SEO strategy, it is important to keep in mind exactly what short tail keywords the customer is searching for.

A great tip for keyword research is to include a combination of short tail and long tail keywords to cater to every user. While some users might search for smaller terms, others prefer searching with full-length sentences. 

You should have a minimum of about 10 keywords that you want to rank for. If you are working in a niche, then this number might be lower. If you are in a highly competitive market, then the number of keywords can be higher. 

2. Look at Google’s First Page

When you search for a specific keyword, what is the first thing that pops up on Google? There is always a reason why competitors’ sites are ranking better than yours. Once you have your list of new and updated keywords, it is time to see which sites are already ranking high for them. 

Depending upon the nature of the keywords, users might be interested in various features of the content. For specialized keywords, users might be looking for data research and statistics. For DIY guides, pictures can be a great way to attract an audience.

If you are selling a product, then including your shop location can be a useful way to attract local customers. 76% of people who search for a product tend to visit a nearby business during the same day. If you want to capitalize on such opportunities, you need to have a higher search engine ranking. 

Look through Google’s first page and notice any patterns that you might find. Are there list guides? Are other websites using photographs? Take note of these small features that make other sites rank high. 

3. Create Something New

If you keep copying the same content from other sites, then you are not providing value to the user. Your SEO strategy for this year must contain some high-quality content that automatically attracts people.

When you search for a specific keyword, notice if all the articles that rank on the top of the search engine are of the same nature. For example, are they all list guides for example: The best tools for SEO?

If so, then you have an opportunity right there. Instead of creating a longer list of SEO tools, you can create an extensive guide that includes everything a beginner needs to know about SEO. This way, you can add value to your content and help your website rank higher on Google. 

Sometimes, creating a longer list can be helpful too. If you publish a home décor blog, then your target market might appreciate a very long list of fall interior decorations that are available on Amazon. Remember to always think about your target market first – what are they looking for? 

4. Find the Hook

Remember how we talked about off-page SEO? The easiest way to improve your rankings today is to focus on backlinks – quality backlinks – or having other websites add links to your content. 75% of digital marketers use content marketing only to generate inbound backlinks.

The more backlinks that you have, the higher your website will rank on any search engine. Backlinks are actually one the most important Google ranking factors – things that determine how you would be ranked. 

Finding the hook is not an easy task. You need to go through multiple websites and see what pieces of specific content are linked. In some industries, this can be extensive data and research statistics. In others, blogs like ‘ultimate guides’ or ‘buying guides’ are becoming fairly popular. 

Once you determine what kind of content is being linked, you need to add that content to your own site. This is known as the ‘hook’ in SEO jargon. The hook will make your site more attractive to other content creators who can link your site on their content for users who want to gain more information about a specific query. 

Remember that adding hooks to your content means investing a considerable amount of time and effort into creating valuable content. If you want to generate backlinks, then you need to have a well-researched and well-written post that provides unique information that is not already available everywhere. 

5. Implement On-Page SEO

After you are done generating backlinks for your off-page SEO strategy, it is time to move to on-page SEO. Three of the most popular strategies include internal linking, short URLs, and semantic SEO. 

Internal linking might be an old concept, but it still works amazingly well. You should have at least one high-authority page on your site that has a considerable amount of organic traffic and backlinks. Use that page as an opportunity and link your newer pages that need traffic. 

Remember that the content you are linking together must be relevant. An easy way to do this is to create hierarchies of content and organize them effectively by adding internal links. This way, navigation through your site becomes easier and a typical user can find all the information they need in one place. 

Using shorter URLs makes your website rank higher on search engines. It is recommended to only use one or two words in your URL – preferably the main keyword of your content. Longer URLs tend to rank lower on search engines since the abundance of keywords makes everything confusing. Even if you have a long title, make sure that your URL is kept small and precise. 

Lastly, semantic SEO means using a wide range of keywords that are related to one target keyword. You can find related keywords on Google by using the Suggest feature or by scrolling down and reading through the “Searches related to…” section. Google really makes it easier for us to build effective SEO strategies. 

6. Focus on Search Intent

Your SEO strategy needs to be focused on the consumer. What is your typical user looking for? The keyword and content that your target market is searching for is known as the search intent. 

You can create the most valuable content yet have a low ranking if you do not focus on search intent. If your target market is looking for bite-sized content, then you should focus on list posts and small guides.

If your target market is looking for details and statistics, then you need to create longer posts that provide all the information about a topic in one organized space. 

If you have older posts that are not performing well on search engines, perhaps it is time to change things up a little. Search your target keyword on Google and notice the type of sites that are ranking high. Once you get an insight about the search intent, it is time to modify your content accordingly and appeal to the users directly. 

7. Be aesthetic

Contrary to popular belief, aesthetic is very important in content marketing. Like all other forms of marketing, your content needs to be appealing to the eye in order to catch people’s attention.

Even if you have the most valuable content in the industry, you are unlikely to rank high if your website is designed poorly. To overcome this problem, investing in web design might be a great idea. 

With that being said, web design does not have to be a new major expense. Instead, you can integrate a range of DIY strategies to your content to make it look 10x more attractive.

Visual content like graphs and charts are very easy to understand and users love them. Instead of writing down complicated statistics, simply convert your data into a graph or chart and make things easier for everyone. 

When a user first clicks on your website, they should be greeted with an appealing banner. Invest some time into developing a theme and color palette for your site. By keeping everything neat and organized, users can form a positive and professional image about your site. 

If you are writing guides and DIY articles, screenshots and photos are your best friend. The easiest way to guide people is to visually demonstrate what they need to do. Pictures speak louder than a thousand words – and they also contribute towards a great SEO strategy in 2021. Using relevant pictures and screenshots can help guide your target market better. 

Other types of graphics and visualizations are also great ways to introduce complicated concepts. Not only do they look great, but they also present information in a light and easy manner. 

8. Update your site regularly

Everything that you posted in the early years might be obsolete already. If you are writing time-specific content, then you need to improve and update your content constantly. You don’t need to delete all your old content and start writing 500 new posts, though. Even updating your existing content can work just as effectively. 

Instead of reposting the same content every year and calling it “new,” it is important to invest some more time and energy into research. Perhaps your old screenshots or data have become obsolete, and now might be the perfect time to update them.

There could also be new technological advances being made and it would be great if you added these new details to your post. The more value that your content provides to the user, the more likely you are to succeed with your SEO strategy.