We’re going to kick this off by assuming you’ve already read part 1.
You read it, right? Fess up. Okay, slackers. Go read part 1 real quick and then scoot back here for part 2.
We have the best SEO marketing tips. The best.
At this point, you know the basics—what SEO marketing is and why it matters. We’ve covered helpful content, which is more or less essential. And you’ve got your meta on. Specifically, meta titles and meta descriptions.
Now it’s time to take this SEO marketing behind-the-scenes tour into slightly more sophisticated territory. The following tips are next-level stuff. It’s nothing you can’t handle, though.
Let’s dig in.
Keywords for the win.
Keywords are a big part of your content, meta titles and meta descriptions, but you can do even more with them than that. Welcome to the wonderful world of keyword linking.
As you build out your website, adding more and more helpful content, you should make it a point to use keyword links. And here’s the good news. Keyword linking is dead simple. You don’t have to be an IT Marketing expert to master it.
In fact, I used a keyword link in that last sentence.
The keyword for our home page is “IT Marketing.” So I made it a point to make that phrase (the keyword) a hyperlink to our homepage. And that’s keyword linking—intentionally using another page’s keyword and linking to that other page.
The more helpful content you write, the easier keyword linking gets. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about social media tips, sales tips or your company’s holiday party. Keyword linking is a breeze.
(I just did it three more times. See what I mean?)
Video killed the blogging star.
When online shoppers watch a video about a product, they’re almost twice as likely to buy. That’s the power of video. It’s compelling, interesting, engaging and people like it.
Not only that, but it can work wonders for your SEO ranking. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad(ish) news.
Part of the reason video is so valuable is because it takes time . . . and money. You can’t just launch the camera app on your smartphone, shoot a few minutes of footage, and upload it. I mean, you can, but that doesn’t mean you should.
Not if you’re looking for good SEO marketing results.
You want video with decent production quality. Clean edits, clear sound and a script that flows. And that takes time. (Also, money.) Which is why everyone doesn’t do it. It’s a significant investment.
But if you want the best possible SEO ranking, we recommend video. At TRIdigital, we use video to explain things, to market specific products and services (like the video below), and sometimes just for fun.
Don’t you dare.
This tip won’t require a lot of explanation. In fact, it’s the most straightforward piece of advice we have about SEO marketing.
While it might be easy to cut-and-paste copy from one page on your site to another, never duplicate copy. It hurts your SEO ranking. And even if Google doesn’t notice (it will), it looks lazy and cheap.
Got it? Good.
That’s so toxic.
Backlinks are generally a good thing. When another website links to one of your pages (a backlink), it tends to give your site credibility. That’s an instant boost to your marketing SEO.
Unless the backlink appears on a site with horrible ranking. Then it actually hurts your SEO.
This probably won’t surprise you, but brace yourself. There are mean people out there. Some of them intentionally use bad backlinks (also called “toxic backlinks”) to bring down their competitors’ rankings.
It’s tacky, but it’s true. And worse, you can’t stop people from doing the same to you. But you can catch them after the fact and undo the damage.
Here at TRIdigital, we use SEMrush for backlink audits. (Yup. People have tried to pull this fast one on us. When your ranking goes up, the competition gets more serious about bringing you down.) SEMrush is a solid tool for backlink audits. It’s both affordable and thorough.
If you’re building your brand, you need to protect your SEO marketing efforts. Don’t let those with malicious intent bring you down with negative SEO.
All the best practices
There you have it: the best of our insider SEO marketing tips.
Of course, we didn’t cover absolutely everything there is to know about SEO. There’s just too much info to squeeze it all into two blog posts. Plus, this stuff changes all the time.
If you want to keep up with the newest SEO marketing info, we recommend two things. First, subscribe to our newsletter. (There’s a handy little form at the right of this page that makes subscribing a breeze.)
You can also make the rounds to other SEO experts. We’re fond of MOZ and Hubspot. They’re both authorities in this area, and well worth your time.
SEO marketing can seem like a ginormous mess . . . until you get your feet under you. Once you know the basics, it’s really not that tough.
Take the time to develop your SEO marketing strategy and you’ll be cruising the top of Google search results in no time.
