Want More Traffic and Links? Try These Top 10 SEO Hacks!

by Robert Clough

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process. The results are slow but lasting. However, there are a couple of things you can do to get more traffic and links fast. Start with these 10 SEO hacks – they are guaranteed to work!

SEO is absolutely essential to an effective web presence.

No matter what industry you’re in or what your goal is, getting people on your page and listening to what you say is valuable.

How though, do you improve your overall search rank and visibility?

Use these ten easy to follow SEO hacks to learn the basics of supercharging your traffic.

1. High-Quality Content

If you take anything away from this article it should be this. Creating content that is interesting, useful, and well written is the single most important SEO hack you’ll find.

Your content has to incorporate all three of these aspects. Usefulness and accuracy is the first step. By creating content that provides real value to your readers you make it more likely they’ll return.

This useful content has to be written as flawlessly as possible. Nothing destroys authority for a reader like frequent grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Finally, your content needs to be interesting. Content won’t convert if your readers don’t want to read it.

2. Utilize Long-Tail Keywords

Effectively using keywords is the cornerstone of SEO. Sad to say, a lot of bloggers, marketers, and writers don’t use the most valuable keywords for their niche.

Say you have a blog focused on organic pet food. It would be very difficult to rank with phrases like best dog food, healthy dog food or organic dog food. If you instead focus on highly specific terms, like grain-free handmade organic dog food, you can achieve a higher ranking.

Long-tail keywords are also more valuable from an ROI perspective. Consumers searching with long-tail phrases have already done some research. They’re more likely to make a purchase than someone with a general term.

3. Do Your Research

Keyword research is absolutely essential. It allows you to find out exactly what people are searching for. You can even find out how popular a certain subject is over time and the level of difficulty you will have ranking for it.

One of the best Google search hacks you’ll find is Google’s own keyword planner tool. It allows you to discover how often a particular keyword is searched and suggests related keywords.

By combining it with other free and paid tools you can quickly create a list of valuable long-tail keywords related to your niche.

4. Localize Your Results

Many small businesses only provide services in a limited geographic area. It doesn’t make sense to try to rank for national keywords when you only operate within a hundred miles of your home base.

Adding in location-specific terms can really help you gain traction in your area. Someone providing HVAC services to the central Colorado area would want to focus specifically on Denver SEO rather than national topics.

5. Effective and Beautiful Mobile Optimization

Well over half of all searches now come from mobile devices. What this means is that sites that are only desktop optimized are at a significant disadvantage.

Not only does your site need to look good on mobile, it has to function well. Time after time it’s been shown that mobile users don’t stick around on sites that load slowly.

Google has recognized this and now includes mobile-specific measures as a major part of its overall search ranking. If you don’t effectively optimize your site for mobile, you will see a drop in your organic ranking.

6. Read the Comments

One of the most valuable resources for a site owner is user comments. Having an active userbase that comments on your content can be a veritable gold mine.

These are people who are interested in your niche providing you with free feedback about what they want to see. Check your comments frequently and see if any of the suggestions or requests users make would translate well into new content.

7. Use Infographics

Infographics are rapidly becoming one of the top ways to convey information. They’re eye-catching, easy to follow and provide information faster than comparative text-only content.

Knowing how to create useful and properly optimized infographics gives you a significant leg up over text-only competition. This is especially true for mobile and social media marketing.

Infographics are tailor-made for social media posts. They draw the eye, don’t take a lot of time to read, and can provide a useful place for linking to the rest of your content.

8. Check Out Successful Competitors

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Nowhere is this truer than in SEO. One of the best ways to find out what readers in a particular niche want is by checking out existing top-level blogs and sites.

Identify their top posts and most shared content. Figure out what questions they’re answering then try to improve on their answer. You can also identify areas that they haven’t covered sufficiently but that your keyword research shows are valuable.

This kind of research makes it easier for you to get your content on point and prevents you from trying to rank for overly competitive keywords.

9. Fully Harness Social Media

More and more consumers are beginning their search for information on social media. Rather than looking for a recommendation online, they search among their friend group.

This is extremely useful in SEO hacking. It allows you to get both organic and paid results through natural sharing and advertisements. Combining this with your highly effective content and well-made infographics make it even more effective.

10. Use SEO Hacks on Multiple Mediums

Always try to diversify your marketing efforts. Google is certainly king as far as search engines go, but there are other useful sites.

If you sell any kind of product ranking on Amazon can be very beneficial. Studies have shown that more people begin their search for products on Amazon than on Google. They use different algorithms but most of the same SEO principles apply.

Ebay is another great resource for product based marketing. By spreading your net as wide as possible within your niche, you maximize potential returns.

Focus on Quality

Most of these SEO hacks come down to one thing, excellence. Proper formatting is important but if you don’t produce high-quality content that provides real value it doesn’t matter.

You can learn more about SEO and content marketing by reading some of these other useful articles.

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