Though buying links may be a good marketing strategy, Google is on the lookout and cautions webmasters against attempting to manipulate the system. Google alone uses over 200 different signals in order to rank web pages and these signals change based on the type of content, industry, user intent, and other factors. There is not a one size fits all approach to SEO and what works for one business may not work for another, even if they’re in the same industry. In the same way a landscape architect needs to understand the elements of the property he is designing for in order to achieve the goals of the project, you need to understand how your website stacks up to your competitors, what gold (or iron) may be underneath the surface, and how your surrounding environment can impact the outcome of your campaign. Having a few 404 errors will not ruin your rankings completely, but they can lower your user experience, which ultimately can affect your SEO performance.

What to Do?

Hopefully your website is laid out in a way that allows users to easily find the content or pages that you want to promote. When you’re browsing the web, the content you come across can come in a number of different flavors. Often, the nature of the content can tell you a little about the owner of the blog/website too. Either this is a website belonging to someone who is mostly interested in their visitors and who doesn’t care whether they ‘rank’ or not; or it’s content that is clearly aimed at Google, with the visitors as an afterthought. Bad content truly can do long-lasting damage to your website, brand and business. The words that make up a query are commonly referred to as “keywords,” a foundational element of SEO. Since the ultimate goal of your SEO strategy is to help people who are looking for your business or products, what more logical place to start than optimizing your site to best match customers' searches?

Optimize websites for search engines

You should also be looking for niche relevant profile opportunities. Is there a prominent industry community that you can get a link from via a profile? If so, these usually go further than general opportunities that would make sense for really any website. It’s important to monitor the backlinks your site is accumulating Although Google Plus might be one of the less popular social networks out there, it’s still part of the Google Suite of applications and does play a part in boosting your site’s search visibility. It is better to have your links spread out amongst a lot of domains with targeted, but diverse anchor text then it is to have a ton of backlinks from one domain. The more comprehensive and targeted your backlink profile​ is, the higher you will rank.

Intrigue your audience to stick around

If you are designing your website yourself and mess up the coding in your website, Google spiders won’t be able to read your site efficiently and this can hurt your rankings significantly. Mobile does not necessarily mean on the go. Studies find that people often grab the nearest device to look something up and in most cases that’s their smartphone. There’s not a one-size-fits-all, or quick-and-easy way to rank fast in Google. SEO secrets boil down to creating great content that will naturally earn authority and that is optimized for both users and search engines, and wrapping that content in an experience and quality website design that fosters engagement. According to Gaz Hall, a UK SEO Consultant : "Putting effort into the offline promotion of your company or site can also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site, make sure its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead, posters, etc. You could also send out recurring newsletters to clients through the mail letting them know about new content on the company's website."

The first indication should be analytics

It makes sense to use the same keywords in titles and headlines, simply because a single page should always define it's topic as exactly as possible. This means there will always be only two or three main keywords any given page will need to be optimized for. According to research by Google, smartphone users have a higher buyer intent than desktop users. They’re focused and ready to buy. It’s your job to be there when they are looking for your products. Content is king when it comes to SEO. You can’t have an SEO campaign without content; it’s the fuel that makes SEO work. Google wants to retain its reputation as a quality search engine, so it’s main goal is to make web browsing enjoyable. The satisfaction and enjoyment of web users will only be met if users are given search results that are relevant, safe, useful and easy to navigate.