Great content and backlinks are still the most powerful tools in your toolbox

It’s clear that there is a link between the websites which rank highly for a certain keyword and whether or not that keyword appears in its URL. However, this is unlikely to be the only factor that determines whether or not a site can rank well. Cornerstone content (in short: assigning one main page per content and linking that from related pages) shows how internal linkscontribute to your site structure. The reason you want natural, helpful, informative links is that you don’t want to have to constantly replace links ignored by the search engines and you don’t want to suffer from penalties and downgrades. Link acquisition should happen without anxiety. It is imperative that website owners and site developers engage in user testing. Without actually measuring what users are doing when they visit a site, one can’t possibly know how a website is performing.

Write with your audience’s questions in mind

Sometimes you just can’t target a specific keyword on a product or service page of your website – it just won’t fit and look natural. In these instances you can always take advantage of having a blog. Do a quick Google search for that keyword and check what other pages rank. If you are getting links from a site that has high PageRank with many other links pointing to it then those links will boost your site's popularity. You’ve seen what links you and your competitors have. Now it is time to start building up your profile. As with any strategy, you need to set goals, and make sure it aligns with your overall marketing focus. eyword Research is the first and foremost step that should come to your mind while beginning with your optimization mission. It is simply, researching and zeroing down on those words which, a user will probably search (in any given Search Engine), which directly (or sometimes, indirectly) relate to your business/products/services.

Link reclamation

If you are serious about your website, at least install Google Analytics or any other preferred statistics app. Collect data about your visitors, and find out what the customer journey on your website is. Find out what pages people like and which pages they dislike. If search users commonly misspell a keyword, you should identify and use it. Google is one of the masterminds in online searchability. Therefore, this search engine is an important gateway in helping your business be found through being searched for on the web. In milliseconds, search engines assess a number of elements — images, keywords, content, metadata, links, etc. — before delivering results. Ever wonder how a small handful of lucky websites make it to the first page of Google’s search results? It’s because they were deemed the best resources for your search query — using an unimaginably complex version of the system described above.

SEO demands linkbacks. Content marketing introduces linkbacks.

When you write headlines, it is not absolutely mandatory that you use keyphrases, but you get a decent bump in the search engines for putting them in headlines which are bolded with a larger font than the other text and capitalized. Does the content add an enormous amount of value or is it thin and veiled in an attempt to merely rank for a keyword? Is the content unique? You can't skimp on quality. Not today. Realize that meta keywords are only used by your competitor to see what you want to rank for. Google still doesn’t use them. We asked an SEO Specialist, Gaz Hall, for his thoughts on the matter: "Link Building is arguably one of the easiest steps to Search Engine Optimization, since links don’t really need to be written or phrased in a certain way."