SEO Strategy in 2017: What to Look For

Although many things have changed about search engine optimization and internet marketing over the years, one thing has stayed nearly the same. As Google’s search algorithm changes, its main goal is to do a better job of finding the type of content that people really want when they search for any term. Gurus and geeks across cyberspace try to decode the 200+ factors that go into high SERPs, but the elusive “secret” to getting those top spots still causes much confusion.

Why not ask Google itself?

In a recent interview, Google’s Search Quality Senior Strategist, Andrey Lipattsey, stated clearly that quality SEO comes from quality content and inbound links. Neither of these evaluations are earth-shattering because they are what responsible website owners should have been focusing on for years.

A lot of discussion surrounds whether on-site content or off-site links are more important. Some have ignored the idea of link network building entirely, but they probably do not get the type of organic traffic they could otherwise.

Link Building for SEO

When building your own website’s collection of backlinks, consider these practices as smart ways to improve your overall SEO efforts and rank higher on Google and other search engines.

1. Get as many links to multiple pages on your website as possible.
2. Use a relevant keyword choice for the anchor text of all links that point to your site.
3. Focus on link building strategies on high-quality websites instead of using a machine gun approach to spread your links everywhere.

Even though links contribute greatly to positive optimization results and keyword ranking, focusing on them alone will not bring the levels of success necessary to truly succeed online. Other factors like page authority rates and the amount and quality of content you share, also have a considerable effect on the chance that your website or blog shows up on first-page search engine results.

Content Still Rules for SEO

Search engine optimization and content marketing intertwine so much so, that some people consider them to be part of the same practice. SEO, however, focuses on specific technical practices such as keyword choice, link anchor text placement, and proper tagging. Content marketing takes a broader approach that affects the whole business in a more organic fashion. One could argue that content marketing is part of SEO, but SEO is also part of content marketing. Differentiating the two is not as important as knowing how to utilize them to further the interests of your website and business.

Use SEO technical practices to make your content more powerful and effective. An artfully written blog post might attract readers who are already on the page and may convince them to share it with their social media friends, but no one will find it if the proper keywords or backlinks are not in place.

Use content marketing to boost SEO efforts and give them something to focus on. While getting a website link on an authority site is quite a boost to search engine optimization, if that link leads to an empty page, it will utterly fail to do its job. Content provides the foundation of a multifaceted marketing plan that uses SEO in order to connect the parts and create a sum greater than any of them.

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