The rat race for the top SERP spots is never-ending, and websites try pretty much everything to get to the number one position. If you’re finding yourself slipping out of the first page, you need to make sure that you are applying the right SEO tactics, to begin with.

In this post, we will be looking at some of the basic but important SEO tactics that you can try out to boost your online presence in 2023.

1. Optimize Your Website

The first thing that you have to do in order to give your online presence a boost is to work on your website. When we say “work on your website,” we basically mean making it likable for the search engines as well as the users.

UI/UX (site design, in layman’s terms) is an important element of SEO, not because it directly affects the way the search engine looks at your site, but because of the role it plays in the user experience.

As an example, let’s talk about loading times.

If the site is properly optimized, i.e., the code is all beautified and minimized, and the images are all compressed, then it will load quickly. We can’t emphasize the importance of quick loading times enough, but you can get an idea of that, considering that 53% of all mobile users leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Yikes.

If we wanted to bring together some tips that you can follow for optimizing your website, we’d list them a little something like this:

1. Make sure the images are properly compressed
2. Make sure you pick a nice hosting service for optimal site performance
3. Make sure that the plug-ins are all handpicked and minimal
4. Make sure that the navigational menus and options are easily visible
5. Make sure that the site is properly internally linked to give users easy access to wherever they want to go.

2. Do Proper Keyword Research

Keywords are one of the main and essential elements of SEO, and there’s not a lot that you can do without them.

What are keywords exactly?

Keywords are terms and phrases that are used by websites to tell the search engine about their content’s relevancy. For example, if a website is found to contain the keyword “ripe melons” over and over again on different pages and blog posts etc., the search engine will automatically understand that it (the website) has something to do with melons.

That way, the search engine will show that particular website to users who will be looking for fruit in general and…melons in particular.

Now, understanding from the above, we could say that finding keywords is not the actual game. Rather, using them properly is. And that is true.

However, the research part is very important, and that is pretty much the reason that we’ve mentioned it as a separate tactic rather than a part of a bigger strategy.

So, what do you need to do for proper keyword research? Here are some tips:

1. Find proper short-tail and long-tail keywords related to your website’s niche
2. Target such keywords that have a sizable volume but are also somewhat easy to rank for
3. Make sure to find the right keywords according to the region whose audience you intend to target
4. Be sure to use a reliable keyword research tool in order to get proper metrics

3. Create and Publish Excellent Content

If keywords are the blood of SEO, content is the network that carries it all.

The importance of keywords in SEO doesn’t require an introduction. Even non-technical personnel with little to no ties with SEO are aware of it. But important as keywords may be, they can only be used in the medium of content.

So, continuing the progression, the next thing that you have to do, i.e., after conducting the keyword research, is to use all that info and create some good content.

The main thing that you have to be mindful of, i.e., as far as SEO content goes, is the appropriate application of paraphrasing techniques with proper inclusion of the right keywords. Although many other factors contribute as well, but paraphrase effectively is one of the most crucial components.

Here is a brief step-by-step guide that you can follow to create high-quality SEO content:

1. Conduct keyword research and pick out one focus keyword along with 8 – 10 secondary keywords
2. Create an outline for the content using H1, H2 and H3 heading tags
3. Start writing on each point with useful and valuable information
4. In order to make your content ‘valuable,’ be sure to add statistics and quoted information from reliable sources
5. Write at least 1,200 words for a single post/article
6. Scatter the main keyword as well as the secondary ones throughout the content at 1% density, i.e., one keyword after every 100 words.
7. Increase the readability and flow of your content by utilizing paraphrasing techniques.
8. Proofread the content to make sure that there aren’t any grammatical or spelling errors in there
9. Check for plagiarism and take care of it (if present)

Obviously, although we’ve somewhat centered the above steps around blog posts/articles, content can contain a lot more than that. In other words, even the short pieces of content that you have to publish on your website have to be written in the shadow of the steps given above i.e., with the right keywords adjusted in them and with the grammar/plagiarism checks.

4. Create and Maintain a Sharing and Outreach System

Although this tactic is not exactly an SEO technique, it is nevertheless a good way to improve your site’s popularity, which can subsequently help it get a higher spot in the SERP (on the basis of higher traffic).

When you publish your content, you need to make sure that the intended readers are made aware of it. Getting high traffic on individual blog posts can be great for your overall site. Online users can get introduced to your site via blog posts that answer particular questions or that explain popular concepts.

Take an example. There could be a website with not-that-much traffic on its landing/home page. However, it could publish a post on a saturated topic like “What is SEO?”. Should this post start ranking in the top pages, people will start clicking on it. Once at the post, they could also explore other pages of the site as well.

We branched out a little here, so let’s get back to the main point.

There are a number of different things that you can do to create a sharing network and/or a system to let your readers know about new content (i.e., outreach):

1. Start a newsletter campaign
2. Send regular emails to subscribers about new content
3. Share your new content on online forums and platforms

Conclusion

There is a lot more that we could have gone on about vis-à-vis SEO tactics, but we want to keep things digestible. You can start off with the above tips and then move on to the more advanced stuff as time passes.