Every modern business on the internet is looking for new ways to improve their SEO tactics and results. While the quest for optimized keywords and popular content is always ongoing, there is also always another way to boost your results with a good digital marketing strategy.
These days, we all know about putting your keywords in the title and making your websites easy for search engine crawlers to navigate, so the real challenge is finding ways to improve your results that you haven’t tried already.
Today, we’re here to help you do just that. While we can’t predict what you really have and have not tried yet, we have racked our brains and scoured the internet for helpful suggestions that aren’t repeated in every third SEO tips article on the web.
Let’s take a look and see how many of these SEO tactics you really haven’t implemented in the past.
7 Effective SEO Tactics to Implement Now
1) Link Reclamation
One of the leading aspects of SEO is the link network from one valuable content page to another. The most powerful kind of links for your business’s SEO results are links on other reputable sites that lead back to your pages.
As the search engines crackdown on illegitimate ways to take advantage of this rule, an ideal way to boost your number of incoming links is known as Link Reclamation.
With this technique, you start by scouring the internet for places where your website or content is referenced without a link.
From here, you can reach out to the original writer and politely request that they add a link back to the referenced pages. This can be a very effective way to turn already valuable nods to your expertise in SEO and page ranking.
2) Lead Gathering Through Google Accounts
When a lead comes to your website and considers joining the mailing list, what is the one thing they must do every single time? Enter their email addresses.
Unfortunately, typing in the address is a very typical balking point where people who would have been good leads begin to second-guess the value or wisdom of signing up.
This is a decision-making hiccup you don’t have to put your leads or your mailing list through. Instead, incorporate the ‘login through Google’ feature so often seen for customer website accounts.
This is a quick and easy one-click way to connect with your leads who are regular Google users. And let’s face it, most people are regular Google users.
Naturally, this tactic also works with other common account APIs. Facebook, for example, has its own Google-like integrated login and many websites are using it for account creation.
But very few people are putting these login API features to work in the lead qualification process. This is your chance to get ahead of the game. Slide past that balking point of entering an email address by making lead entry an automatic one-click interaction.
3) Transcribe Video Content for On-Page SEO
Everyone knows that video content is among the most powerful SEO tactics you can bring to your inbound or outbound campaigns. However, all of the content of a video is an audio-visual file; something that search engine crawlers can’t read.
Team after team has agonized over how to get decent SEO equity from video content. They tried long, descriptive titles or posting transcript segments in the description but these only created sloppy and less appealing YouTube listings.
As it turns out, the answer is simple and it’s surprising how few brands have figured it out.
All you have to do is transcribe your videos and put those transcripts to use.
The first thing you should do with video transcript is to create a Closed Caption file which is then synced to your video. Web crawlers can’t ‘listen’ to videos, but they can read caption files, which means your videos will finally get the content-based search results that the videos deserve.
Embed the video into the transcription blog post
Then build your transcripts into specialized blog articles.
Each time you make a new video, write a blog to commemorate it. This will spread awareness of the video through multiple channels and create a whole new page dedicated to the on-page SEO value of the video.
Don’t forget to embed the video in your blog along with the transcript post. This is not just good for your on-page SEO, getting all that content into text form, it is also great for your leads who don’t have time for a video, can’t do sound, and those who genuinely prefer reading to video.
A great example (and one of my favorite) of this tactic in action is Moz’s Whiteboard Friday blog series.
Finally, repurpose the best quotes from your video into social media posts. Make them into teasers for the video or just pull them out of context to pique interest for fun. There are usually some choice quotes in any interesting video that can be paired with great images and made into an impactful aspect of your social media campaign.
4) Write For an Industry Publication
It is remarkably difficult to arrange for references to your company on other people’s websites. The problem is that any tactic that becomes popular is quickly built by some into a link-back scheme.
This means that no single method is trusted and often, the latest best method will soon be banned because of a few bad actors.
Recently, the practice of donating to charities for linkbacks has been discouraged by the search engines.
However, you can spread your brand’s reputation by getting involved and contributing to other publications. The more respectable and business-focused the publication, the better.
Consider starting an expert column or becoming a regular guest writer for an industry publication, an online hub for information you are uniquely equipped to contribute to. This will get your name and your brand out there in the author’s bio alone, with the added bonus of building a reputation as an industry leader.
In many cases, even if you don’t get direct backlinks from industry publication writing, you will build awareness and SEO value for your name and the name of your company.
5) Get Marketing Partners
Guest posting and cross-posting are effective ways to get your brand and links out into the world through connections, but even better is a full-blown marketing campaign that gets double the coverage.
Look for opportunities to co-market with potential business partners. Pairing your marketing campaign with a complementary brand is the ideal way to spread awareness for your own brand.
The key is to find another band or product to co-market with that shares your target audience in a non-competitive way. A ‘dovetail’ industry.
Whether it’s a “backpacks and water bottles” partnership or someone whose software pairs well with yours, both companies have a lot to gain by working together and sharing an ad campaign, including a lot of helpful cross-links.
6) Let Sources Know When You Link To Them
Just as link reclamation allows you to get incoming links from content that already mentioned your work, let’s not forget that other companies also like to see their own content mentioned when it’s good enough to link in your articles and campaign assets.
Rather than linking and forgetting, reach out. Let your sources know when you link to them to pique their interest.
This is a great opportunity to get another handful of link-backs because some people are happy to point their readers at places where their content shows up outside of a private website.
Independent bloggers will be proud to be referenced and big brands will see the opportunity. Everyone wins when you link to someone, and they link to your content as a matter of pride.
7) Optimize Content for Voice Search
Finally, its time to realize that not all searches are being typed into a text box anymore.
With the advent of smart homes and AI personalities in phones and computers, many people are switching their day-to-day computer interactions to the realm of voice. They can ask their smart home, for example, to look up a good pizza delivery place nearby, to rate an experience for them, or even to settle a factual debate.
Voice search is also rising in the industry side of the business as a streamlined way to search or a hands-free way to work on the road.
Fortunately, optimizing your website content for voice search is one of the most overlooked SEO tactics available today.
This can become your competitive edge!
Begin optimizing your content not just for normal, on-page SEO, but also to be found more easily by voice search techniques and the AIs that do the searching.
So far, this seems to mean adapting to more long-form queries like “What’s the best Chinese food place in town” rather than simply “Best Chinese Food Near Me.”
Of course, the AI personalities are getting smarter every day, so don’t forget to keep up with the latest in voice search developments. There are new voice tips and best practices coming out almost every month.
Depend on LocalBizGuru for SEO Tactics That Work!
Building your SEO profile in creative and effective ways can be surprisingly challenging, but the biggest challenge is always finding new SEO tactics & optimization techniques you haven’t tried yet. With any luck, you now have at least a few extra tools under your belt and are ready to take on another round of digital marketing optimization.
If you’d like to learn how we can help you directly or for more expert advice on SEO tactics and content marketing, contact us today!
