SEO can be a puzzle to many emerging marketers, content writers, and founders.
But not to these folks on this list.
I scoured top experts in the field of SEO to give you some of the best tips and strategies that you may have overlooked or just need re-emphasizing (because yes — they matter!)
Let’s get right into it.
Tip 1: Use Google Operators to Find Content Ideas
Google Operators are a powerful tool that can be used to quickly retrieve data from SERPs. Below are a few for you to find content ideas and gaps your site can fill.
- site:quora.com intext:[insert keyword or topic] — Find content ideas on Quora.
- site:reddit.com intext:[insert keyword or topic] — Find content ideas on Reddit.
- site:researchgate.net intext:[insert keyword or topic] — Find scientific papers & referenced content for specialized niches.
Use these operators for:
- Retrieving indexed content about a specific topic on a specific platform or site.
- Get deeper articles, questions, or threads for additional content ideas.
Name: Nico Bortoluzzi
Title & Company: Founder & SEO Consultant @ SEO LYNX LTD
Social Media: LinkedIn
Tip 2: Use Original Quotes in Articles
I rarely see people adding original quotes to their articles, which makes no sense. Expert opinions provide a unique insight, guaranteeing that each article offers your readers completely original and real-world wisdom. And when applied to an entire content library, you’re on the fast track to being a leader in both thought and Google rankings.
HARO makes it a breeze to get top-quality quotes. Just post what you need and from whom, and your inbox will be flooded with high-quality quotes.
Name: Sam Szuchan
Title & Company: Founder @ SamSzu
Social Media: LinkedIn
Tip 3: Keep Your Content Fresh & Updated
Marketing and SEO experts often place their focus on publishing new content while hoping that the already published articles will continue their lives peacefully. However, writing a blog post and leaving it for years is not a viable option in many industries. In a constantly-changing environment, you must ensure your content is always relevant.
These updates can include changing the year, removing old content, checking for broken links, and much more. Schedule a check every three months, if possible, and pay attention to industry trends and your top-ranking pages so you can help them perform even better.
Name: Shubham Singh
Title & Company: Content Manager & SEO Lead @ DemandSage
Social Media: LinkedIn
Tip 4: Perform In-Depth On-Page SEO Audits
On-page SEO is extremely overlooked by many writers and editors. Without proper on-page SEO, ranking for your primary target keywords is nearly impossible. Many companies use a cheap plugin and publish blog posts when they get a certain score.
The best way to ensure your on-page SEO is being done well is by using an on-page SEO checklist. It will help your team maintain the best SEO practices and ensure consistency throughout the website.
Examples of factors to consider for on-page SEO include optimizing headers, meta titles, satisfying search intent, and more.
Name: Nathan Gotch
Title & Company: Founder @ Gotch SEO
Social Media: LinkedIn
Tip 5: Implement Content Clusters
If you’re serious about SEO, you must focus on content clusters.
A content cluster is a group of content pieces (usually blog posts) related to a specific topic, and it’s also a great way to show Google that your website is an authority on a particular subject. In return, you enjoy more organic traffic and a higher position on the SERP.
So how do you create a content cluster?
The first step is to identify a topic you want to focus on. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to create several pieces of content (blog posts, eBooks, etc.) that are all related to that topic.
Finally, you’ll need to ensure that each piece of content links back to at least one other component in the cluster.
This will help Google understand how all content pieces are related and will ultimately lead to better search engine rankings.
Despite having some very high DR links to one of my blog posts, its rankings got stuck at pos 9–12 and never moved above that.
As I implemented this strategy, my main blog post started to rank, and the traffic rose significantly.
Name: Palash Nag
Title & Company: Founder @ The Mistaken Man
Social Media: Linkedin, Twitter
Tip 6: Add a FAQ Section to Your Articles
The FAQ section is a great place to capitalize on Google’s rich snippets.
With a simple WordPress plugin, you can add the schema necessary to be featured in the dropdown FAQ answers that appear in search results. To find questions worth answering, look at the “People Also Ask” results for your target keyword or the “Questions” tab under Keywords explorer in Ahrefs.
You can take the SEO value of your FAQs to the next level by optimizing for voice search. Try to answer each question in a concise and easy-to-read format, but still without missing any vital information.
According to Backlinko, the average search answer is only 29 words and reads at a 9th-grade level. As voice search continues to grow, this approach will allow you to capitalize on the trend.
Name: Daniel Anderson
Title & Company: Founder @ The Money Maniac
Social Media: LinkedIn, Twitter
Tip 7: Content Velocity Matters
Content publishing velocity is one of the essential factors that determine how often you appear in organic searches and how much your traffic is increased. Simply put, the faster you publish content, the faster you can increase the organic traffic and the overall performance of your website without compromising on the quality.
However, you need to make sure the content velocity makes sense for your website and give your content time to mature.
Track your efforts, follow trends, see which articles perform best and make sure you have a content plan for at least one year ahead.
Obviously, you can make changes, but it’s still essential to have some structure and a solid plan so that the articles will have enough time to grow and positively influence your website’s organic traffic.
Meanwhile, you can work on the backlink profile, update your site structure, decrease page load time, and improve overall optimization. All of this combined will all begin to impact your rankings and traffic within weeks, and the published content will do its work in the background.
If you can’t write that much content, you can always try some AI content writing tools.
Name: Bhujal Patel
Title & Company: Founder @ My Digital Kube
Social Media: LinkedIn
Tip 8: Don’t neglect internal linking
Internal linking is essential to every website, but unfortunately, it is often neglected. The marketing and SEO department should focus on link building, optimizing the content, and ensuring the format is correct. However, internal links are also needed — to help your readers find more relevant content and keep them on the website, and also for search engines so that they can crawl more efficiently.
Many people don’t like it because it can be very time-consuming, but you can just optimize the process by using a WordPress plugin. For example, it helped me reduce the time spent on internal linking by more than 50%.
That’s a wrap!
SEO is constantly changing and evolving, so it’s essential to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques. Here is just a glance from experts in their field.
However, it’s important to note that SEO isn’t static. Just because one strategy works for someone doesn’t mean it’ll work for everyone.
You should always consider your business goals first and execute based on your needs. Set hypotheses, experiment, and double down on the things that work.