People have been saying, for some time now, that search engine optimization (SEO) is dead.  This has especially been said since the time Google has rampantly brought out algorithm updates.  However, the truth of the matter is that SEO is still alive and kicking major organic traffic to the websites. There is no confusion over the fact that the industry has changed, and those days are a passé when one could get away with simplistic SEO strategies or content with overt keyword stuffing.  Today, it is imperative for a search engine optimizer to consider the relevance of content.  Yes content is the king to drive organic traffic and Quality content is the key driving factor for search engine rankings, and one cannot succeed without proper focus on the same.  Alongside this, it is also imperative to search for the right SEO keywords.  Only when your content targets the right keywords, does it translate into increased organic traffic on your website.  There are various other such strategies that need to be integrated into your SEO efforts to make it successful.  At the same time, certain strategies have to be shunned too.

If you are not familiar with basic SEO or If you have a budget to bring a paid SEO services for your blog or website, try to get a quotation for the SEO Services.  However

Today, I am going to discuss about 10 such strategies which can make or mar your SEO efforts:

BE TRENDY: When you are searching for relevant SEO keywords, it is important that you keep the trends in mind.  There are certain keywords that are most searched during particular periods only.  Hence, the keyword ‘Christmas gifts’ is expected to be searched the most during the months of November & December.  Google has a tool named ‘Google Insights for Search’, which can be used to identify such trends, and that can assist you in knowing exactly how your keyword is searched, across the year.

USE SLANG: Many business owners still determine their targeted keywords on the basis of their understanding of the market.  However, these keywords do not always reflect the real sense of the market.  People tend to use slang or jargon while searching on search engines, and it is important for you to know the audience’s language while choosing keywords to target.

CONSIDER VOLUME: When you select keywords, you should also focus on their search volume.  There are times when one looks at a good keyword phrase, and believes that it is ideal; however, only the search volume makes a keyword ideal or otherwise.  You should aim to target a large number of people, and that can transpire by including, in your list of targeted keywords, those phrases which have high search volume.

NO STUFFING: Keyword stuffing is a thing of the past; the modern concept is about natural writing.  Most SEO experts believe that there is no optimal keyword density; instead, the focus should be on ensuring that the content is well written and has a proper flow. Those written pieces which look unnatural and stuffed might run the risk of losing favor with search engines. Today people believe in the quality content so most of the articles are publishing with a minimum of 1000 words.

KNOW YOUR COMPETITION: You should keep an eye on what your competition is doing; however, the focus on competition shouldn’t be so much that your strategies look tantalizingly similar.  Competitive analysis should not be considered as the risk of losing uniqueness.

AVOID TEXT HIDING: many of my SEO analysts say Text hiding is a new technique and its working to bring the webpage in SERP rank. If you joined the SEO industry before 2009, you would know the number of people who used the hidden text strategy.  However, such a strategy isn’t smart anymore and can be slammed with negative SEO by search engines. But its ok to provide a button like click here to read more to redirect to the complete article.

IMAGE TITLING: Search Engines cannot index images, and they detect the intent of your image via ‘Image Tags’ or ‘Alternative Image tags’.  Hence, you should make it a point to write these tags meticulously, and necessarily include your SEO keyword in the same.

BE GEOGRAPHICALLY INCLINED:  The geography of the people has a bearing on the way they make searches, and the kind of keyword phrases that they search for.  Hence, it is imperative to consider the geography of one’s target audience while determining one’s SEO strategy.

OPTIMIZE ON-PAGE: Many SEO experts tend to put relentless effort on off-page optimization, but on-page optimization also has a role to play, and can impact the rankings of a website.  Therefore, you should carefully evaluate your page title, H1 Tag, image file name, meta tag, and others from the SEO point of view.

WEEKLY EVALUATION: It is essential that you keep a track of your rankings on a weekly basis.  Daily tracking of the same might happen to be too short a duration to derive any concrete insights, and doing it on monthly basis might make you miss some important trends that transpired on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

LINK BUILDING: Link Building is one of the major techniques in the Off-Page SEO strategy.  Link Building for your website will help to get increased Domain Authority (DA) along with direct traffic. Google will now consider the number of backlinks to the website to rank in the SERP. There are many ways to build the link for your website. Click here to see the methods.