What tools will help you effectively implement your SEO strategy?
More and more entrepreneurs and business owners are becoming aware that simply creating a website is no longer enough to take their business to the next level of growth and attract new customers. Unfortunately, those days are long gone and staying ahead of the competition online is not an easy task. This can be done, […]
More and more entrepreneurs and business owners are becoming aware that simply creating a website is no longer enough to take their business to the next level of growth and attract new customers. Unfortunately, those days are long gone and staying ahead of the competition online is not an easy task. This can be done, however, when the strategy for improving a website’s visibility is well thought out, follows current trends and covers all the relevant issues highlighted by Google. In this article, I will outline the tools that will help you effectively implement and execute your SEO strategy and hint at the aspects you should pay attention to. Check out for yourself!
Why you should improve your business’ visibility online
According to the statistics shared here: https://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/, there are 1.87 billion pages registered at the time of writing this article. Considering that in 1992 there were only 15,000, it is easy to see that the growth is incredibly dynamic. These figures may cause some concern – no matter what business you run, the internet is full of your competitors – both direct and indirect ones, even if you don’t realize it. On the other hand, these figures clearly confirm that a website is a “must have” for practically every company, regardless of whether it operates on the local or global market, regardless of its size, product range or sector of operation. The Internet is the natural place where users usually start searching for products and services, so it is definitely worth ensuring that you enhance the online visibility of your brand, store and offering.
Strategy for building visibility in Google
An effective SEO strategy is based on three pillars including on-site, off-site and technical aspects. If you take care of each of them right from the start, the desired results will come faster and your visibility in Google will radically improve.
On-site activities
On-site activities include optimizing the visible content of the website and the HTML source code. They play a vital role because Google, when checking the content of pages, establishes how relevant the results are for a particular query. If the content of your website is not rich enough and Google cannot find the right key phrases on it, it will decide that another website is more suitable to present to users.
Off-site activities
Another important piece of the puzzle are off-site activities, i.e. those that take place outside the website. They are based primarily on building a link profile, i.e. on acquiring valuable links that refer to our website. When choosing which pages to show at the top, Google considers not only the content of the website and its relevance to the keyword, but also the number of referring domains, i.e. unique sites that link to our website. The search engine is based on a number of algorithms, and one of them is PageRank, an algorithm that analyses the number and quality of backlinks leading to a website. To improve the visibility of your website, you must also consider this parameter.
Technical aspects
Technical aspects are the final element. When properly optimized, they contribute positively to how Google will find, index and comprehend a website. What matters to a search engine is how quickly a page loads, whether it is responsive and whether there are any negative factors interfering with indexation. The objective of technical optimized is to address these issues so as to improve visibility and rankings in Google.
Google’s algorithms rank websites based on a number of factors, so taking a broad approach to the topic and addressing each pillar in your SEO strategy will yield the greatest benefits, and an optimized website will be rewarded with higher positions in search results.
Tools for on-site activities
To effectively plan and carry out website optimization activities, we recommend using tools that allow in-depth research of key phrases. This should be the starting point for working on the on-site aspects.
Tools you should know and use when working on optimizing your website include:
- Google Search Console
- Ahrefs
- KWFinder
- Semrush
They enable quick and efficient analysis of key phrases. Depending on what we expect, we can analyze phrases related to a given topic with the highest number of searches per month, phrases on which our competitors have positioned themselves and which our website is missing, or those for which the website ranks high but not high enough to generate traffic and conversions.
Google Search Console
In order to exploit the potential of this tool, you will have to implement the appropriate code in the source of the page. This way, Search Console will record clicks, visibility and average position for a selected period for phrases for which the website is displayed in Google. By analyzing the results presented, you will find it easier to plan your strategy and find out where to start. It will also help you understand the behavior of your users and, most importantly, how they search for your product. If you are just starting out with your website, make sure your data is accounted for in the GSC.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a paid tool that helps in on-site activities in a number of ways. Above all, it enables a quick yet detailed analysis of your competitors. When you go to the Organic Keywords tab, you can enter any of your competitors’ addresses and check the phrases they appear for – their potential and average positions. This will make optimization of the website significantly easier – you just need to analyze several competitors, assess their visibility and plan your efforts to cover all relevant phrases, thus overtaking your competitors in the search results.
In addition to competitor analysis, Ahrefs enables research of key phrases. Simply click on the Keywords Explorer tab and type in the phrases you are interested in, and the tool will suggest other related words to consider when planning your activities.
KWFinder
It is a tool that is less sophisticated than Ahrefs and focuses on key phrases. It is simple, intuitive and easy to use. It works in a similar way to Keywords Explorer, except that in addition to listing related phrases, it also shows changes in trends for a particular keyword and displays the results in Google (which websites and links are in the TOP 10). KWFinder runs very smoothly in many language versions, which makes researching foreign language phrases enjoyable and effortless.
Semrush
Semrush is a true multitool among other tools that support SEO activities. In addition to the functionalities provided by Ahrefs and KWFinder, we can easily extract phrases for which our competitors are displayed, and which have not been covered by the website under analysis. It identifies strong and unique words that are extremely valuable in the context of positioning and are definitely worth using. What’s more, it suggests which topics are “trending”, what is worth writing about and how you can further optimize your sub-pages. After proper analysis of the results that Semrush provides, you can significantly improve the quality and usability of your website’s content, which will affect its visibility and increase its ranking in Google.
Tools for off-site activities
Off-site activities, i.e. those that happen outside the website being optimized, are extremely important and should not be overlooked. They increase the credibility of a website and are an important element in the evaluation of a website by Google. The tools that are useful in this area also include Semrush and Ahrefs, as well as platforms that allow PR articles to be published on third-party websites – Whitepress or Linkhouse.
Semrush and Ahrefs
Semrush and Ahrefs are, as I have already mentioned, powerful tools designed to tackle various aspects of SEO. They often prove very helpful in off-site activities as well, as they enable analysis of competitors’ backlinks. The analysis shows websites that are worth contacting to publish articles containing links that are valuable from the perspective of our business and the sector in which we operate.
Whitepress and Linkhouse
As an alternative to researching websites that publish articles by competitors, you can consider advertising platforms, where publishers list their offers to publish articles within their website. In addition to the listing, they also provide data such as the number of sessions and SEO parameters to evaluate and facilitate the selection of appropriate sites.
A combination of the first and second group of tools will be the most effective option and will help you build a strong link profile in a short period of time.
Tools that support your work on technical aspects of SEO
Technical analysis of a website is an important aspect in building visibility in search results. To get it right, it is best to use several complementary tools. These include:
Google Search Console
This tool is useful not only when analyzing the visibility of a website in Google search results, but also when monitoring possible issues related to the website, for example those related to structural data. It helps verify technical errors and allows you to submit a site map.
Ahrefs and Semrush
These tools are also useful for technical analysis. They both enable automatic SEO audits that point out errors and opportunities for website development. They are especially helpful for those who do not perform audits on a daily basis and do not know where to start.
PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights analyses the loading speed of websites on desktop and mobile devices and suggests what improvements should be made to speed up page loading. Loading speed is a key ranking factor for Google, so it’s definitely worth considering the recommendations you get from these tools.
Screaming Frog
This tool is designed to scan websites in order to analyze the structure and elements that affect positioning. This tool provides precise guidance on the aspects of the website that need improvement. It indicates 404 errors, shows duplicates, headers and metadata along with URLs where this data is missing, and helps analyze internal links on the site. It is a rich and powerful tool that enables extensive analysis of the website.
When creating an effective SEO strategy, you should keep one key point in mind. The tools presented above are only a source of data, but only their in-depth analysis and implementation of well thought-out solutions will yield benefits and ensure that you will see increases in organic traffic results.
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