SEO Tips

Use it when you can monetize traffic without actions or financial transactions on your site (usually through advertising).

Keyword targeting in this scenario can be very broad. The goal here isn’t typically to select specific keywords, but rather to create lots of high-quality content that naturally targets interesting/searched-for terms. Instead of singular optimization on specific terms, the focus is on accessibility and best practices throughout the site to earn traffic through both high volume and long tail queries. Concentrate efforts on great content, and use keyword-based optimization only as a secondary method to confirm the titles/headlines of the works you create.

A shallow, highly crawlable link structure is critical to getting all of your content indexed—follow good information architecture practices and use intelligent, detailed category and subcategory structures to get the most benefit out of your work. You’ll also need to employ good on-page optimization (titles, headlines, internal linking, etc.) and make your articles easy to share and optimized for viral spreading.

Use it when you have products/services that are directly for sale on your website.

Paid search advertising is an excellent way to test the efficacy and potential ROI of keyword targets. Find those that have reasonable traffic and convert well, and then pursue them further. You’ll often find that the more specific the query—brand-inclusive, product-inclusive, and so on—the more likely the visitors are to make the purchase.

You’ll typically need some serious link building, along with internal optimization, to achieve high rankings for competitive, high-value keywords that bring in conversion-focused traffic. Manual link building is an option here, but scalable strategies that leverage a community or customers can be equally, or even more, valuable.

Use it when branding, or communicating a message, is your goal. If you do not have direct monetization goals for the moment or for the foreseeable future, this is the approach for you.

A keyword focus is less critical here—you’ll likely have a few broad terms that receive the high traffic you want, but the long tail may be far more achievable and the better target. Focus on keywords that are going to bring you visitors who are likely to be interested in and remember your brand.

Make an accessible site, use good link structure, apply best practices, and focus on links for domain authority rather than chasing after specific keywords.

Use it when you have a non-e-commerce product/service/goal that you want users to accomplish on your site or for which you are hoping to attract inquiries/direct contact over the Web.

As with e-commerce, choose phrases that convert well, have reasonable traffic, and have previously performed in PPC campaigns.

Although you might think it would be easier to rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for lead generation programs than for e-commerce, it is often equally challenging. You’ll need a solid combination of on-site optimization and external link building to many different pages on the site (with good anchor text) to be competitive in the more challenging arenas.

If you’re trying to either protect your brand from negative results appearing on page 1 or push down already existing negative content, reputation management SEO is the only path to success.

Chances are this is very easy—it’s your personal name, your brand name, or some common variant (and you already know what it is). You might want to use keyword research tools just to see whether there are popular variants you’re missing.

Unlike the other SEO tactics, reputation management involves optimizing pages on many different domains to demote negative listings. This involves using social media profiles, public relations, press releases, and links from networks of sites you might own or control, along with classic optimization of internal links and on-page elements. It is certainly among the most challenging of SEO practices, especially in Google, where query deserves diversity (QDD) can mean you have to work much harder to push down negatives because of how the algorithm favors diverse content.

Use it when you need to change minds or influence decisions/thinking around a subject—for example, a group of theoretical physicists attempting to get more of their peers considering the possibility of alternative universes as a dark matter source.

It’s tough to say for certain, but if you’re engaging in these types of campaigns, you probably know the primary keywords you’re chasing and can use keyword research query expansion to find others.

This is classic SEO, but with a twist. Since you’re engaging in ideological warfare in the SERPs, chances are you’ve got allies you can rally to the cause. Leverage your combined links and content to espouse your philosophical preferences.