6 SEO tips to help you rank in the new era of high-quality content

Many small business owners are feeling the effects Google March 2024 Core Update. Your rankings may have taken a hit, your traffic may have dropped, and you’re wondering how to get well. The frustration of losing your hard-earned rankings may be overwhelming, especially when you’re unsure what the next move must be.

According to Google, the key to regaining balance is creating higher quality content. But what does this mean in practice?

In this text, I share six practical SEO tips to help you navigate the changes and ensure your online business continues to thrive in 2024.

1. Create long-form, value-packed content

Everyone knows that if you want to rank well, you need to create helpful, long-lasting content. However, after Google’s March update, quality is more essential than ever, which suggests it’s now not enough to just write a generic 2,000-word article and call it a day.

Instead you should:

• Use data, statistics, and case studies to support your thesis and provide evidence to support your claims.

• Use a conversational tone that can keep readers interested

• Break up text into headings, subheadings, bullets and images to make it more accessible and visually pleasing

• Anticipate and answer common questions your readers may have

• Carefully cover all elements of a topic to create the most complete resource on the topic

• Update your articles repeatedly to reflect the latest trends, research and information in your area of interest

For example, if you own an e-commerce business and you’re writing about the “best project management software for small businesses,” go beyond the basics. Include detailed reviews, comparisons, screenshots, user feedback, and tips on how to select the right software based on your specific business needs.

2. Conduct comprehensive keyword research

One common SEO mistake people make is identifying just a few keywords they need to goal in a given week and then moving on to a new set of keywords the following week.

Instead, you want to be more strategic. Start by finding 200-300 relevant keywords before you even start creating content. This extensive list will give you a clear picture of your area of interest and help you determine which keywords are easier to goal.

You want to goal lower difficulty keywords first and then progressively increase their performance. This SEO strategy allows you to rank for easier keywords and generate traffic to your website faster.

Consistent content creation establishes your website as an authority in its area of interest, which helps it rank for more competitive keywords.

This small business SEO tip will help you start rating months sooner than the week-by-week method.

3. Use keywords in the right places

While keyword density is now not a rating factor, strategically placing keywords in your content is still essential for SEO. The trick is to use them naturally in the right places to signal to engines like google that your content is relevant.

You should use keywords in:

• Introduction to Setting Context for Readers and Search Engines

• A URL that helps engines like google understand your topic

• A title that can improve your click-through rates and rankings

• Core content supporting topical relevance

• Headings organize content and signal meaning to engines like google.

• Meta description to improve click-through rate

Additionally, you want to include related keywords to give your content more context and depth. For example, if your foremost keyword is “best project management software for small businesses,” you also needs to include related keywords akin to “project tracking tools for small businesses” and “task management software for small businesses.”

4. Connect your sites and blogs

Internal linking is a powerful SEO tactic that helps engines like google understand the structure and hierarchy of your site. It improves navigation and user experience, distributes page authority, and improves contextual understanding of your site.

Here’s how to connect blogs and sites together:

• Type “site:yourdomain.com “on Google to find all the relevant pages on your website.

• Use descriptive anchor text. For example, “project trackers for small businesses” as an alternative of “click here.”

• Use links naturally in your content.

• Focus on high-value pages and articles that you want to improve in search results.

5. Actively build backlinks

Building backlinks is essential for SEO because it signals to engines like google that your content is trustworthy and helpful. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your possibilities of rating higher in search results.

While backlinks are still crucial to SEO, recent algorithm updates have forced fewer but higher quality backlinks to be required.

You can get backlinks by using these popular link building strategies:

• Guest post

• Link insertions

• Unrelated Brand Mentions

• Creating link-worthy content

• Building relationships with bloggers and website owners

• Using social media

6. Add a FAQ section to your blogs

Adding an FAQ section to your articles is a good way to rank in search results for long-tail keywords that your audience is interested in. You can use Google’s “People Also Ask” feature or browse platforms like Reddit and Quora to find questions people are asking about your topic.

If your article doesn’t already answer these questions, add a FAQ section at the end of your post. Include a long-tail keyword and provide a comprehensive answer.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post about “the best project management software for small businesses,” you could add the following questions to your FAQ section:

• What are the advantages of project management software for small businesses?

• How much does project management software for small businesses cost?

• What features should small businesses look for in project management software?

These six tips can help you rank well in 2024, even after the latest algorithm updates. The key is to create high-quality content that gives real value to readers and responds to their search intent. You also need to be proactive in building links and optimizing your SEO content to get higher results.