How strong is your SEO strategy? How do you even know if it’s any good or not?

SEO is the backbone of any online business. After all, Google alone accounts for 3.5 billion searches a day.

You could have the best product in the world but no one will buy it if they don’t know it exists. Visibility in the endless online sea is what you should strive to achieve.

It’s difficult to master, though, even for people who know SEO like the back of their hands. You will make mistakes, even with the modern tools available. What you can do is listen to the veterans and pick up what they’ve learned.

To move forward in the nonstop race of online businesses, here are 15 expert SEO tips:

1. Use the Right Anchor Text

Keep in mind that anchor text informs search engine crawlers what the linked page is about. If you add links to any random set of words, you could be misinforming the reader and the search engine at the same time.

In recent years, the classification of “good” anchor links changed. There is now a strong focus on five anchor text styles:

• Exact match of your keyword or key phrase
• Partial match of the keyword or phrase
• Brand name as anchor text
• Naked links
• Generic anchor text

By mastering the use of the right anchor text you can avoid heavy penalties. Google’s 2012 update, Google Penguin, now penalizes sites that use the wrong anchor text because they may serve as a form of over-optimization or spamming.

2. Regular Content Update

A common misconception about SEO is that it’s all in the code and that you’re done with once a site is up and running. Yoast founder and SEO Joost de Valk explained in an interview that this is far from the truth.

The expert SEO tip here is that you have to keep your site updated. Whether you run a personal blog or something for business, you have to keep adding content.

You have to keep adding blog posts, update tags, adjust your site’s design, and add new elements to it on a regular basis. Let search engines and people know that the site isn’t dead.

3. Strong Title Tags

Title tags are among the most powerful SEO tools available and you have to craft them with both regular people and search engines in mind. Give users an idea what the page is about and give search engine crawlers the relevant information to index.

Keep your titles short but informative. Expert SEOs state you should aim to keep your titles between 65 and 70 characters. Anything longer than that might get abbreviated or cut off when they appear in the search engine results page.

4. Brief, Meaningful Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are short summaries that inform people and search engines what the page is about.

They expound on the work achieved by a strong title tag. You do get more space to work with – approximately 150 characters – so use it to your advantage. Google expanded this to 300 but keep it short to avoid your meta descriptions getting truncated.

According to Stone Temple Consulting CEO, you have to earn the featured snippet position on the search engine results page. A strong snippet can boost you from position 5 on the SERP to position zero, especially if your description becomes the featured snippet.

5. Stop Spamming

Don’t shove an unnatural string of keywords everywhere on a page. Don’t post naked links to directories and social media to draw in traffic.

In short: don’t spam.

Google’s updates penalize spamming and your site can get blacklisted if you continue to do so. If you want to build your link profile, focus on blogging. Start a blog on your site and try to guest-blog on authoritative sites to build traffic naturally.

6. Image Titles and Descriptions

Don’t place pictures and then do nothing with them. You have to give them some attention too.

Pictures, by default, often have titles consisting of random characters so take the time to rename them and make their titles relevant to the page’s content. Give them the right description and alternative text to inform people and search engines about them.

7. Keep the Site Fast

Another expert SEO tip is to keep your site as fast as possible. When in doubt, make your site faster.

Contrary to popular belief, the average attention span is not shrinking due to the Internet. There is some truth, however, in the saying that you have to grab people’s attention as fast as possible before they bounce out of your site and look for relevant information somewhere else.

This is why expert SEO tips often dictate a fast site. The average advice is to keep loading times under 3 seconds. Place information at the top of the fold so that readers don’t lose interest in finding what they need or want.

8. Don’t Ignore Social Media

There are over 2 billion Facebook accounts and 800 million Instagram accounts. YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing platform and you have to take into account people on Twitter, SnapChat, and Google Plus.

Social media can become a powerful way to drive traffic to your site. The more traffic your sites gets, the higher it will rank on search engine results.

9. Blog! Blog! Blog!

There is the common saying that content is king. There is no stronger truth when it comes to expert SEO tactics.

Search engines love blogs. It gives you anywhere from 200 to 1,500 words on average to talk about a topic you should be an authority on. Not only does it educate your visitors but it also gives Google’s crawlers something to rank.

Don’t have a blog yet? Stop everything else right now and get started. Blogs guarantee your site always has new content, more inbound links, and builds engagement with your visitors. It gives content to share on social media and more items to grab Google’s attention.

10. Conduct Keyword Research

Expert SEO strategies start with proper keyword research. Use Google Keyword Planner, MOZ’s Keyword Explorer, and KWFinder.

But don’t stop there.

You shouldn’t settle for the binaries and keyword phrases that a lifeless tool gives you. Take the time to get on Reddit and look for things people ask for on a regular basis. It does take manual effort and time but it guarantees better, personalized results that hit a particular niche.

11. Local and National SEO

Almost every expert SEO strategist will tell you to focus on local SEO because it’s a centralized, niche market. While this is true, and you should focus on local SEO if you’re a small business enterprise, you shouldn’t ignore national SEO either.

National SEO is a tighter competition, yes, but it helps build your brand. It’s also a necessity if you aim to ship products to any point in the country. This is where a strong PPC campaign and social media marketing become big factors to consider

12. Master the Small Technicalities

There are a lot of little technical know-how when it comes to an expert SEO strategy. You should aim to master all of them as soon as you can.

Some of these small factors to consider include:

• Crafting good URL’s
• Utilizing the Yoast plugin for WordPress
• Making search engine-friendly permalinks
• Optimizing site navigation
• Using a category-specific RSS feed plugin
• Avoid using session ID’s in the URL

Getting a good grasp of all these and more will keep your site clean for both search engines and users.

13. Invest in SEO Tools

Don’t settle for the free tools you can get. Invest in the full version of important SEO tools to gain access to the important analytics and data you need to boost your site’s performance.

Some of the tools most expert SEO strategies list down include:

• KWFinder
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Ahrefs
• Yoast SEO plugin
• Browseo

These tools will guarantee you can see factual numbers instead of doing any kind of guesswork. You need to see real data to identify where your site is not performing well and to formulate a strategy to target these weaknesses.

14. Don’t Ignore PPC

Pay-per-Click ads are not a thing of the past. Focusing attention on PPC does not mean you’re ignoring organic SEO either. Organic SEO and PPC strategies work hand-in-hand to boost your site’s ranking and gain more conversions.

This is one aspect where you do need to consider hiring an expert SEO tactician, like 180fusion. They can help you craft the right PPC campaign that won’t drill a hole in your pockets.

15. Give More Focus to People, Not Ranking

At the end of the day, don’t focus on ranking. Don’t focus on bounce rates, click rates, and page views. Those are all important but they aren’t the main focus.

Click rates and high SERP ranking doesn’t earn you profits – people do.

Your primary concern should be your consumers.

Does your site navigate well enough for the average mobile user? Did you even consider digital marketing for mobile markets? Does your site cater to the needs of your target market?

Learn Other Expert SEO Tips and More

The aforementioned expert SEO tips will help you stay one step ahead of the competition. These will help you maintain visibility and earn sales.

But these aren’t the only factors you have to master. You can learn more with us!

We can show you how to build your site’s reputation. We can show you how to master the art of creating masterful inbound links. Don’t waste another second and learn how to boost your performance!