If you’re not able to rank on the first page, try to write another article, focused on a (even) more long tail keyword. Make it a little bit more specific, more niche. And see how that goes. You can de-index any types of content that have less than 100 words. This might be the #1 suggestion for most businesses that have not done any SEO. For WordPress websites you can use the Yoast SEO plugin for this. Let’s not forget the speed of your site, not just because we all browse the web a lot more on our mobile devices, over not-so-broadband networks, but also because a fast site makes Google and in most cases your conversion rate happier. The Featured Snippet section appearing inside the first page of Google is an incredibly important section to have your content placed within

Link building, of course, is a science in itself

Google has made it apparent that site speed matter in search rankings, and today, with a bigger emphasis on the user experience than ever before, site speed will continue to be a critical ranking factor. A negative SEO strategy involves crawling a website. This “forceful” crawling of the website puts strain on the web server, causing the website to slow down or even crash. Though buying links may be a good marketing strategy, Google is on the lookout and cautions webmasters against attempting to manipulate the system. In link analysis, search engines measure who is linking to a site or page and what they are saying about that site/page.

Find Questions That Your Buyer Persona is Asking

Remember, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it. Use the rel=nofollow tag in the links to websites that you do not trust, you think maybe using spamming techniques or you do not want to help in the search engines. Some SEO professionals have been predicting the demise of links for a several years. But there’s little evidence to support this trend so far. Take an aspect of your niche that people find difficult and create the most comprehensive tutorial there is on the subject.

A Crackdown on Low Quality Links

Over the years, Google has continued to improve their link algorithms, including Penguin, and they continued to use manual penalties to crack down on link schemes as well. If you’re goal for a guest post is to receive a backlink in return, then you would want to make sure their website has a number of good quality backlinks. The number of quality backlinks a website has will determine how powerful a link you will get. Paid links are like paying someone to be your wingman to impress a girl rather than having a genuine friend by your side who can vouch for how great you really are! Gaz Hall, from SEO Hull, had the following to say: "Keywords are still an important part of SEO, but relevance can often be figured in more abstract ways."

Add valuable insight to your creative content

When writing your articles, you need to keep in mind two things: first is your reader, next are the search engines. You need to make sure that both aspects are taken care of. Make it easy for your readers to understand and digest what you have to say. SEO is all about getting more search visibility, yet there's no way I (or anyone else) can guarantee you a certain ranking or position for any specific keyword. There are too many variables at play, even with keyword and competitive research in hand. While designing a new house, don’t you want to ensure that it’s foundation is strong enough to hold the house, and is logically designed to make it easier to go around and yet keep it beautiful? The same concept goes for your the website. A good site structure is all about keeping its navigation and logic simple, yet intuitive. It can take months to see a real impact from SEO, and if your site is fairly new (ie. you just launched and have little to no content), it will take even longer to see noticeable results.