January SEO basics: small steps you can take now that help all year
January often feels like a fresh page. Not in a big dramatic way, but more of a gentle reset. A chance to tidy a few things, refocus, and make sure…
SEO; one trick pony, dark art or something else altogether? The truth is that SEO doesn’t have to be painful; and, especially when you dig into holistic SEO, it can be a sustainable and exciting way to grow your business.
What is holistic SEO? Holistic SEO is the practice of enhancing ALL aspects of a website in order to boost its search engine rankings. Essentially, it comes down to meeting your users’ needs in an engaging, safe and straightforward way.
When you get SEO spot on, you will experience better website traffic, higher conversions and a lower bounce rate. But, in order to do this, you need to take a (you guessed it!) holistic approach to your SEO strategy.
This includes:
In this article, I will strive to clear up some of the confusion so that you can get excited about your holistic SEO potential.
Ready? Let’s begin.
A holistic SEO strategy is one that puts a pin in keywords and rankings and instead focuses on the individual finding your content. This is because holistic SEO is about the user: it is built around their needs and experience with your website. This, in turn, will make your website rank higher on Google.
Ultimately, you’re trying to fulfil all of your users’ demands and desires by:
So, how can you do that? Your website should:
Rather than ticking a series of boxes, holistic SEO asks you to design an online experience that feels good – one that your audience will want to come back to, time and time again.
Traditional SEO focuses on creating a page structure where target words can slot in accordingly. It then moves onto link building and continuous ranking and traffic research. It’s aim is a short-term one: cross instructions off of a list and hope that you’ll hit the first page of Google.
The problem with traditional SEO is that it disregards the human at the centre of it all. Yes, it may bring traffic to your site; but, if this doesn’t lead to conversions, then what’s the benefit?
Holistic SEO, on the other hand, looks at what the users are searching for and how. It is heavily built on content marketing and pays close attention to engaging the audience through relevant, evergreen and impactful content. It focuses more on long-tail keywords and link building techniques are used to pull the right people to your website (even if this means lower levels of traffic).
Naturally, this tends to increase the number of fellow websites and social media accounts linking into your site; after all, we only want to direct attention towards content that we actually respect and trust, right?
However, holistic SEO doesn’t ignore the technical aspects of SEO. If you want to rank well, then the same rules apply. So, don’t forget to:
By combining the necessary technical aspects with the human-centred mentality of holistic SEO, you’ll see your site flourish… See, I told you it was exciting!
Before you get your hands dirty, it’s worth taking a moment to ask yourself certain questions about your audience and their needs, plus your own motivations.
With these answers firmly in hand, you can start to build out a robust and actionable holistic SEO strategy.
Holistic SEO gives you a brilliant opportunity to directly answer your customers’ needs. You can do this by breaking your strategy down into the following steps.
Content is King, especially when it comes to holistic SEO. Yes, it needs to be based around keyword research, but above all it needs to be relevant, powerful and enticing. You cannot underestimate the impact of well-written, carefully crafted content. Only the very best content will connect and convert the reader.
RELATED: HOW TO OPTIMISE YOUR CONTENT SEO STRATEGY
Site speed, structure and mobile optimisation is vital: it’s how you are going to keep your users on your site for longer. This is where SEO and UX (user experience) combine. Optimise your navigation panel, run regular speed checks on your site and be TRIPLE sure that your website looks epic on mobile as well as desktop.
It’s impossible to ignore the technical SEO aspects: they’re key if you want to boost those rankings and welcome more of your dream customers to your site. Check that you are covering all of the SEO fundamentals and that you have done adequate keyword research prior to hitting ‘publish’.
RELATED: HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT KEYWORDS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
It’s simple: your website needs to be safe and secure if you want your users to not only stick around, but actually share their personal information with you.
One of the easiest ways to show your site safety is with an SSL certificate. This is a digital certificate that authenticates your website identity, protects your customer information and stops sensitive data from being exchanged; it does this by encrypting all website data. It’s basically the bee’s knees when it comes to website security.
For more information on website safety, read this great blog by Yoast all about WordPress safety.
Cross promotion across different marketing channels is one of the biggest gems in holistic SEO. Online marketing channels (ie Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram) are all content based and so harmonise beautifully with holistic SEO. Share your content far and wide and integrate with both organic and paid marketing to reap the highest return.
Well, I had to leave the sexiest one until last, didn’t I?
The real strength of holistic SEO is that it lasts the test of time; but only if you give it the space and tools to do so. You have to commit to regular data analysis so that you can stay on top of the customer journey. In doing this, you can become more in-tune with blog ideas, website sections and new ‘call to actions’ to experiment with.
Just try and stop us!
Take a look at our Glow Up Your SEO service to find out more about our holistic SEO services. We also have a holistic SEO specialist on the team, and we would be delighted to all get together over a cuppa Zoom tea and have a chat.
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