Not too long ago, search engine optimisation was a comparatively straightforward process. You aimed to get as high as possible in search engines results by using some basic tactics, that included identifying competitive keywords, creating content using these keywords, and pursuing inbound links from as many sources as possible. With the profound changes over the last decade in the way search engines operate and rank businesses, search engine optimisation (SEO) has become much less clear-cut and more complex.
This means that, nowadays, those very basic search engine optimisation tactics just are not sufficient any more. In order for a site to be successful in rankings, it’s necessary for any tactics to be part of an overall search engine optimisation strategy. This “strategy” should always be defined by the type of business as well as both long and short term goals. For example, while some website owners are primarily concerned with their position in the rankings, relative to that of their competitors, the priority for others may be the total sales figure and revenue achieved.
For this reason, the first step in search engine optimisation should be to decide on your strategy or campaign plan, that will be aligned with your particular business objectives. This means starting by defining goals and priorities very clearly. Whether the priority is maximising revenue, maximising conversions, or maximising organic traffic, everyone needs to be working towards the same objective. This being said, all marketing strategies should be consistent and show a uniform branding image or message. Different messages and strategies can be confusing to a potential customer so all branding messages should be aligned.
One search engine optimisation strategy that is being used by many SEO companies currently is one tailored around content marketing. The reason it is used a lot is that many of the Google algorithms have been moving in the direction of rewarding those sites that produce the type of high quality content that meets searchers’ requirements. This type of content achieves much better results than the mechanical use of keyword density. Producing unique, high quality content in the SEO industry is proven to be somewhat of a challenge for many businesses, especially smaller ones without the money and resources to hire a PR (public relations) or content management firm.
On the other hand, others may prefer to adopt a non-content search engine optimisation strategy. The company’s strengths may not be in generating content, but in acquiring partnerships with authoritative sites, or in building communities around its products, for instance by utilising user-generated content. Many sites that adopt this strategy rank phenomenally well.
No matter what strategy you adopt, you still have to take care of the basic tactics of search engine optimisation. Your pages have to be navigable and indexable, and you need to have enough social “shares” and inbound links to convince the engines of the site’s popularity. Nowadays, the sites that get to the top of the rankings are the sites whose owners know where they are going, and have a strategy for getting there.