But how do you create an effective SEO strategy that can help you achieve that kind of success?

Its way more complex than choosing a few keywords or fixing bugs on your website.

You also need to ensure that youre well aware of the latestSEO trends.

12 most important pillars of an effective SEO strategy

While this might seem daunting, it isnt.

You just need to have a clear understanding of your brands primary goals.

Better information can help you make more result-oriented decisions.

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To get a better understanding of your brands needs, determine:

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However, you should probably prioritize issues that have greater impact your sites SEO performance.

RankBrainis an AI-powered processing algorithm that uses machine learning to filter through millions of search results.

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It helps Google deliver the most relevant search results that match users search queries.

RankBrain is smart enough to quickly devalue your content for keyword stuffing.

Find and target the right keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that people are searching for.

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They also help search engines like Google understand what your content is about.

Getting your keywords right makes it easier for Google to list your content in response to related searches.

But Google now uses smart algorithms that penalize sites for keyword stuffing.

So you’re gonna wanna sprinkle your keywords in such a way that they sound natural.

Optimize your content with a mix of local keywords, branded keywords, long-tail keywords, and short-tail keywords.

attempt to choose the ones that have low competition yet high search volumes.

Create great content

Great content lays the foundation of SEO.

Google values high-quality content that answers user queries effectively and meets theircontent guidelines.

This update primarily targeted theYMYL Your Money Your Lifeniche.

Google now considers E-A-T parameters for content, website, as well as the creator.

At the same time, you also need to build credibility and trust.

People love to engage with interesting content and often share it in their circles.

Sites that deliver poor user experiences are likely to rank poorly in search results.

Now that Google has moved to amobile-first indexingmethod, page speed is even more important.

This is because mobile users often face limitations of unstable data pipe connections and unit configuration.

They need pages that load faster and provide relevant information in no time.

Slow page speeds can have a negative impact on SEO.

Make your site mobile-friendly

Google owns92.86 percentof mobile searches in the world as of March 2018.

And the number of mobile search users is expected to further increase to215.8 millionby 2019.

To better optimize search results for mobile users, Google has moved to mobile-first indexing.

Your mobile site should include quality content with crawlable text, images, and videos.

confirm that all pages have their respective meta descriptions and structured URLs.

you should probably optimize your sites page speed to meet mobile internet connection limitations.

Google lists authoritativeness and trustworthiness as the primary indicators of page quality.

And the best way to build authority and trust is through link building.

Backlinks continue to be one of the strongest indicators of authority on Google.

But ensure that these links have a good link score or page rank.

Theyll help you improve your rankings and drive referral traffic to your site.

Also, remove any low-quality toxic links that can be harming your sites rankings.

Another important thing to note is the anchor text used in your backlinks.

Previously, brands used to stuff the anchor text with a keyword to rank in search results.

However, thePenguin Update 4.0requires you to diversify your anchor texts and make them look more natural.

Install a SSL certificate

Google values online security.

When you install a site-wide SSL certificate, it makes your website more secure for users.

This includes collecting passwords, debit or credit card details, or other personal details.

Google started marking HTTP sites asunsecuredfrom January 2017.

And it also gives a slightranking boostif your site runs on a secure HTTPS connection.

If you have not made a move to HTTPS yet, this is the perfect time to do so.

Schema markups can make your web pages appear more prominently in SERPs for all kinds of content.

so you can take advantage of schema markups, visit GooglesStructured Data Markup Helper.

Choose the punch in of data you want to markup, paste the page URL, and start tagging.

Highlight important information by adding markup items.

Once you finish marking up, create HTML and add the created schema markup to your web page.

One of the most important parts of a good URL is its readability.

Your page URLs should be easy-to-read for humans.

They should clearly tell people what content they can expect when they visit your link.

It is good to incorporate your target keyword in the URLs.

you’re free to canonicalize them using 301 redirect or rel=canonical.

You should keep your URLs short.

A 50-60 characters URL is good enough.

If you have URLs with more than 100 characters, you should consider rewriting them in a better way.

Use hyphens to separate words, not underscores.

For example, https://yourdomain.com/buy-leather-shoes is the correct way to write your URL.

Monitor performance

Even the most well-planned strategies can go haywire if you dont measure their impact.

for optimize your website for the best results, you better monitor your performance consistently.

it’s possible for you to use platforms likeAlexaorPro Rank Trackerto get useful insights about your websites performance.

These platforms can help you track and monitor your sites traffic, top-performing content, and competition.

Pro Rank Tracker allows you to track your websites rankings in search results over time.

With detailed analytics, you’ve got the option to further optimize your site to improve results.

This will help youteach Google what your business doesin a better way to drive more traffic and sales.

The best-performing SEO strategies are not just keyword-based.

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