Tools and Tactics that will come handy to any SEO Professional

SEO is a dynamic field that keeps changing everyday with small algorithmic changes by Google. Needless to say then that is not easy to be a SEO professional. But having spent a good part of last decade in the industry and seeing Panda, Penguin, Possum etc being rolled out in front of my eyes, I can say that there are still some basic tactics that haven’t changed. If SEO folks can stick to these basics, with time, they would find their rankings.

Read on to find tactics and tools that will stand the test of time.

Identifying the right keywords

Quite often we  chase the wrong keywords and it is even more relevant when we are handling multiple clients at once. The pressure of showing results is so immense that we start to focus on those keywords that are easy to rank but not beneficial for the business. Therefore the top most priority of any professional is to find out keywords that would add value to the business even if it takes longer to rank. There are lots of tools available in the market to scan the universe like Ahrefs, Moz and Majestic. Choose the one that suits your budget and requirement.

Create SEO optimized Web Pages

Once relevant keywords are identified, next comes in line is creation of SEO optimized web pages. Here 2 things are important-

Making sure that the content is grammatically correct and is making sense to a human. Most of the times we forget that ultimately our user is a human and not some algorithm and that humans prefer proper english. In case you need help with any content writing, here are some websites that have stood the test of time –  Top Assignment Experts, Essay Writers and OAW.

The web page is not overly optimized for the keyword. As a general rule of thumb, keyword density should not be more than 2%-3%. Anything above that is not natural and would probably raise a red flag. Here is one example of a Page from TFTH. If you look closely, you will see that keyword density is not more than 3%.

Link Building

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that link building would perhaps be bread and butter of any SEO agency. It is what we do day in day out. However with time, link building as a tactic has changed a lot. Directory submissions, link farms, article submissions don’t work any more (at-least a major tactics). With the rollout of Penguin, Google has become stricter on the kind of link profile one has. Therefore care must be taken on how these links are built. Majestic boasts of the largest links index.

Patience

Patience is a virtue that we SEO professionals are born with. It takes a lot of efforts to rank a keyword and we know it. However if the competition is tough, it might just take a little long. In such a scenario, keep that patience. And communicate the same to your business guys. I have seen lots of projects failing to attain their full potential just because of being stopped just before the right conclusion.

One final word on guest posting. This seems to be flavor of the season and everyone is garnering links through it. I really like the way BestOnlineAssignmentHelp is doing it. It seems they spend enough time on a website to think of a relevant topic to write before pitching it to the webmaster. And how do i know that? Well I used Majestic tool to find out all the links they are creating.

I hope these simple yet evergreen tactics will help you grow as a professional. In case there are any questions, do let me know in the comments.

Before you go, you might also be interested in: How to provide Optimal Service in the Web.