SEO is a vast kingdom, but instead of one king, there are many authorities. Three of these are the business, the searchers, and the search engines. In some ways, these SEO aspects are foundational and need to be properly understood if you want your business to be successful both online and offline.
The good news is that they are easy to understand when taken individually and highly effective when implemented together. Creating an effective SEO strategy is the best way to fortify your online presence and build your brand, but remember to keep it updated and continually relevant.
The Business
Metrics
If you’re running a serious business, you need to have goals, metrics, and KPIs; otherwise, your business project looks more like a hobby. When it comes to effective SEO, you need to look at the core business goals and marketing goals to establish the best SEO strategy.
To determine the metrics of your business, you need to understand the precision of the goal and create a time-frames for measuring it. The goals must also be realistic and not over-ambitious. It’s a good idea to have regular meetings and updates to ensure your business stays on track.
Competitors
Most companies understand who their competitors are in terms of their products and services, but there are other things to consider when it comes to SEO. For example, there are many more companies and websites offering quality information on your products and services on the internet.
The first step to identifying your internet competitors is to search for your keywords. These are the words and phrases that you expect your customers to search for, the ones that are most closely related to your product. The top hits on the SERPs page are your direct competitors.
Brand Identity
There are two types of content you can create for SEO: evergreen content and timely content. You might decide that a balance is needed, but when you create evergreen content, it needs to align with your brand identity and add value and strength to your brand.
When you create evergreen content, make sure you are discussing the right subjects, these are the core subjects of your brand. Also, make sure this content is well-researched and on-brand because it needs to support your brand for years to come.
The Searchers
Search Intent
Search intent is vital to successful SEO; you need to know what your target audience is searching for in relation to your product and then create content that caters to that. To find your customer’s search intent, do a quick search for your ideal keyword and study the SERP.
Search intent is important for SEO because the words and phrases customers use determine the search results. For instance, if you sell mushroom coffee, a customer’s search intent might be “caffeine-free coffee,” which should be one of your primary keywords.
Brand Affinity
People trust big brands, which is why big brands always lead with their logos; when customers see this logo, they automatically know the quality and substance of the content. However, if you’re a smaller brand, it’s better to use Guest Post Tips and let the quality of content speak for itself.
Smaller businesses that don’t have an established brand yet have more work to do to convince customers that their product is the best on the market. However, with an effective SEO strategy, you can begin to build brand awareness and confidence and move towards a brand-centered approach.
Location
Localization is an important factor in a successful SEO strategy since people in different regions search for things in different ways. Therefore, part of your research into your target audience needs to include the local culture, language, and search behaviors if you want to create effective content.
But location is not the only requirement for localization; you also need to consider the area’s language and dialect. In addition, your business and brand need to speak the same language as your customers for brand building and SEO purposes, so make sure your website is well translated.
The Search Engines
Business Model
If you want to understand SEO, then understand the business model of major search engines like Google and what they care about. In so doing, you can optimize the content of your website to be recognized and rated by search engines and therefore findable by customers.
A video on YouTube called A Trillion Searches, No Easy Answers gives you an excellent overview of Google’s business model, helping you to understand their strategies today and where they expect to go in the future. SEO is all about staying one step ahead.
Links
Links are the internet’s word of mouth, and they have become more and more important to search engines over the years. Google recognized that links are an excellent way to identify a web page’s quality since a link back to this page is a vote of confidence for the content.
Backlinks are the gold standard of linking for SEO purposes, but that doesn’t mean outbound links and internal links don’t have a place either. A variety of links in your SEO strategy is required to direct searchers to undervalued content and increase brand awareness.
Updates
Google might be the largest search engine on the planet, but it’s not the only one. There are lots of major search engines with their individual business models and ways of adapting SEO practices. Therefore, it’s important to stay on top of any updates and change your SEO accordingly.
The best way of doing this is to understand the search engine’s business model and stay abreast of any changes they make. If you can adapt quickly to SEO changes, it gives you a competitive advantage and helps to make your website better quality and more visible.
Conclusion
The three Kings of SEO are the business, the searchers, and the search engines. These foundational aspects of an SEO strategy are not only important to understand if you want to build a successful online business, but they are also important to adapt to regularly.