SEO essentials for content managers: Part three
Develop a linking strategy
Another way to tackle SEO without big budgets or third-party tools is to develop a thorough linking strategy. In addition to incorporating keywords in your anchor text, you want to make sure you provide frequent connections between related pages on your site.
In the past, Pixo created design components and implemented structured content and automated relationships between pieces of content to display related content consistently and visually appealingly. However, many teams and projects don’t have the budget or time for such a robust solution. Don’t put off developing your linking strategy just because you can’t execute an expensive and time-consuming redesign. It is just as valuable to make these connections with contextual hyperlinks.
Update your content frequently
The Google algorithm favors content that is updated frequently. If you have mostly evergreen content, you might consider starting a blog. There is one caveat: If you don’t have the capacity to maintain a blog, don’t start one. Be honest with yourself when making this decision, as it’s never a good decision to bite off more than you can chew.
If you can devote the resources to blogging, there are numerous benefits, including:
- Posts create more indexed pages for Google to crawl.
- Posts offer an opportunity to target a broader range of keywords without resorting to keyword stuffing.
- A blog gives a reason for your established site visitors to keep coming back, which equals more time spent on your site.
- Posts provide more opportunities to utilize your internal linking strategy. You have more “related content” to add to your core pages, and vice versa.
- Blogs are great for thought leadership, providing more opportunities for external websites to link to yours.
If you already have a blog, you should make a plan to refresh it. You don’t have to publish brand new pages for Google to view your content as dynamic. You can make changes to old posts by:
- Updating your sources
- Adding or changing small bites of content to reflect the evolution of the topic
- Adding links to any related content on your site
- Incorporating keywords
Make a maintenance schedule and plan to publish updates to one post a week or whatever you can handle. This will give the appearance of dynamic content over time and ensure that you don’t get overwhelmed.
Remember, none of this is magic
These are just a few sustainable and straightforward ways to work toward SEO improvements, but they won’t provide instant results. Make a commitment to keep up with these improvements over time because consistency is key. Sign up for a free Google Search Console account and make a note of metrics like page rank and click-through rank so that you can track progress over time.
If you need help with your content or web strategy, contact us. We’re happy to offer a complimentary consultation to help you improve your web presence.