Mastering the art of search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for any business aspiring to thrive online. To uncover the secrets behind successful SEO strategies, we turned to a group of entrepreneurs who have cracked the code. Their insights reveal the technicalities and the creative and strategic thinking that propel their ventures to the top of search results. Discover how these trailblazers are shaping the future of SEO and driving unprecedented online success.

Optimizing for Google’s Holistic Helpful Content Update

Google’s Helpful Content Update is about more than ensuring helpfulness at the individual level. A helpful page isn’t enough for SEO because Google measures helpfulness as a whole. If you haven’t assessed your entire website to improve or eliminate less helpful content, now is the time to cull. There’s no room for inconsistency in 2024 — Google won’t accept it, and neither should you.

David Ciccarelli, CEO of Lake

Prioritizing Real Experience

You must pay close attention to the extra E in Google’s E-E-A-T — experience. You can’t expect AI to create content with experience because AI is a technology that doesn’t have its own experiences but simply reflects ours. And nothing is better than the original.

So, the new SEO game is about creating content with real experience under your belt to speak on the subject matter. It also means you need to tackle complex topics and go beyond simple solutions. If you can explore a topic and include not only Solution A but B and C, you’re pointing to your expertise and creating content that AI can’t replicate.

Hardy Desai, founder of Supple

Interlinking

You shouldn’t miss out on internal linking. Incorporate internal links within your articles. This helps improve engagement metrics. As the traffic isn’t properly distributed across pages, internal links linked to related articles within your page can increase time on the page and reduce bounce rates. Internal links can also drive users into conversion. The deeper they explore your site, the deeper you can bring your audience to the funnel, and it is more likely to drive a sale. 

However, it’s imperative to be mindful of having too many internal links because the search engines might not be able to understand the relevance of the pages with each other.

Casey Meraz, founder & CEO of Juris Digital

Optimal Word Count and Strategic Keyword Placement

The one SEO “trick” that works the best for me is knowing exactly how many words to use in a blog post. Generally, this is around 2000. This allows enough space to finish your thoughts and keeps you from rambling, so your content is good. Keyword placement is critical here, as you can be guilty of stuffing. I think of it as a game: How many keywords can I get in 2k words without looking like I am doing exactly that?

Steven Kubrak, fiction author, freelance writer, science educator

Localized Keywords

One tactic that we focus on at BlueHuki is localized keywords. We develop content, including headings, metatags, blog posts, backlinks, etc., around local keywords related to the business. Using local cities or neighborhoods in your keyword optimization will help increase visibility among local people, which is particularly helpful for small business owners.

Heather Pressler, CEO of BlueHuki

Boosting Healthcare SEO Through Clinically Reviewed Content

The healthcare space revolves around trust. We’ve found that having articles that make health claims clinically reviewed is a positive signal for Google. Including a name, photo, license, or degree in our clients’ articles has drastically improved their credibility and visibility. Just make sure it’s paired with high-quality and helpful content.

Kevin Hall, marketing operations at Webserv

Backlinks

As an eight-figure entrepreneur whose website gets tons of organic traffic, I recommend getting backlinks. This is when other relevant sites link to yours, which increases your visibility and credibility. You can get backlinks by guest posting, getting interviewed on podcasts, or pitching media requests on sites like Connectively. I’ve used this strategy to get featured on sites like Bloomberg, so I know it can be effective. 

Luisa Zhou, online business mentor & founder of LuisaZhou.com

Consistently Good Research & Writing

Our site gets over 45K organic sessions per month from SEO with a marketing team of two people. 

The big secret is this: there are no SEO tricks. 

We simply research what our prospective clients are searching for on Google using Ahrefs and then strive to write the best content on those topics on the internet. 

More than just writing, we infuse our content with additional media: case studies, YouTube videos, podcast clips, and images.

Instead of merely writing great content, we combine writing, audio, and video. 

Then, we simply publish once every two months without missing a beat. We’ve been doing this for over a decade, and that’s how our site has risen to the top of “consulting” related queries. 

The real “secret” to SEO success is good research, good writing, and consistency. 

If more brands simply did that, they’d have more success with their SEO.

Michael Zipursky, CEO of Consulting Success

Local SEO & Google My Business Page

Prioritizing local SEO has been huge for us. Local SEO is important because it helps you rank higher in local searches, specifically on Google, where the competition isn’t as high as on the national stage. Specifying your location is the most important first step in conducting local keyword research, and I recommend searching industry-specific terms from there. One of the biggest mistakes you’ll want to avoid regarding local SEO is not having a Google My Business listing. Businesses without these listings rank much lower in search results, so it’s worth the small amount of effort to make one for your organization.

Jeremy Yamaguchi, CEO of Lawn Love

Keyword Inclusion in Business Names

I did a study on the “dental implants” keyword on the map pack (top three map results). I surveyed the top 50 highest populated cities in the US and discovered that for a search query for “dental implants” in each city, 86% of the practices listed on the top three map pack results had the word “implants” somewhere in the name. 

The lesson is this: The Google algorithm for the map pack is very different and simpler. For your business to have a prominent position on the map pack, the keyword needs to be in the business listing name. So, SEO starts with the business name.

Vincent Frankini, SEO manager at Firm Media

Crawl Budget Optimization

One awesome strategy I took with a large e-commerce site was crawl budget optimisation. With over 150,000 pages, the site had important pages without many internal links, meaning they were not being crawled and ranked successfully. After using the ScreamingFrog tool to audit, I exported it to a sheet and found weak points in the internal link structures. We then created contextual links within blogs and link modules across parent category pages to pass through more juice to these pages. We saw significant rankings increase from this technical SEO optimisation strategy.

George Panayides, managing director of The Digital xx

Revamp Old Content with New Keywords

If you haven’t revamped your old content for newer keywords, you’re missing a golden opportunity to boost your rankings. You can easily go back through old content and get rid of irrelevant articles (which will affect your rankings negatively with Google’s new SEO guidelines) while revamping newer content for new, relevant keywords. The more detailed the content you create, the more Google will favor your website. It’s worth it to regularly go through your content and make it as relevant as possible while refreshing the keywords as well.

Dan Gallagher, VP of operations at Aegle Nutrition

Engaging, User-Focused Content

Ah, the elusive quest to charm the capricious gods of Google. 🌐 After five years in the SEO trenches, I’ve danced with algorithms more unpredictable than my aunt’s mood swings at family gatherings. But here’s a gem that’s been as reliable as my morning espresso: the power of genuinely engaging, user-focused content. 📝

Picture this: I once doubled down on creating content that answered the most specific, sometimes borderline bizarre, questions my audience might ask. Think, “Why does my cat stare at me when I type?” level of specificity. It wasn’t just about stuffing keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey; it was about serving up the content feast Google’s hungry algorithms couldn’t resist. 🦃

And the result? A banquet of organic traffic that kept coming back for seconds. The secret sauce? Crafting content that’s so engaging, even my cat would pause her judgmental staring to read. 🐱💻

So, forget about trying to game the system with the SEO flavor of the week. Focus on what your audience craves, and you’ll find Google sitting at your table, ready to feast. 🍽️

Stephin Jacob, implementation specialist

Creating Linkable Assets

One highly effective tactic I’ve leveraged is the creation of linkable assets. This means developing content or resources that are so valuable and unique that other websites naturally want to link to them. Think of in-depth guides, original research, infographics, or tools. These should serve a specific need within your niche.

Raghav Mittal, digital marketer & founder of Naturocure.in

Enhanced Link Indexing Strategies

Google has drastically changed its algorithm in recent years, and it’s now harder than ever to get your links indexed. I’ve tried various tools, but most recently, I’ve had success with OMEGA Indexer. It dramatically sped up my agency’s process of ranking our sites and those of our clients. You can either batch submit or drip-feed any backlinks that are not ranking on Google, and the results will come in within a week.

Nikola Baldikov, founder of InBound Blogging

Analyzing Competition

Something we did to improve our ranking with search engines is to analyze our competition. We get a look at the keywords and phrases they’re using and compare their ranking to ours. It’s surprisingly easy to do and even easier to come up with a solid strategy after that.

Dan Bailey, president of WikiLawn Tampa Lawn Care

Long-Tail Keywords

My company is in the finance industry. I have found that many people searching for financial services will be looking specifically for financial services in their area. So, one essential aspect of SEO strategy that’s worked well for us in this industry is using long-tail keywords appropriately. These can be a little bit harder to incorporate into content in a way that feels organic, but we’ve been experimenting with using them in image metadata and elsewhere.

Carter Seuthe, CEO of Credit Summit Consolidation

Social Media Presence

My advice — invest in social media presence.

While so many SEOs were hit hard in November 2023, our website traffic keeps steadily growing. I think that Google has become much more granular about evaluating sites. Everybody knew that content and links were the kings of SEO, and Google started targeting sites that lacked other natural signals. We are very active on Instagram and YouTube. As a result, we have lots of referrals and branded traffic, and Google understands that Phonexa is a real brand, not another spammy AI site.

Sergey Galanin, director of SEO at Phonexa

Technical Optimization

My primary recommendation — applicable to any business — is to go back to basics on SEO strategy by asking yourself, “What are the search engines trying to achieve here?” The answer — in every case — is that an organic algorithm is trying to find the most relevant and helpful answers to each and every search query, i.e., give the best user experience. Search engines don’t get any money for organic clicks, so they need to stay as relevant as possible, answer the user’s query, and keep people coming back via organic, which, in turn, keeps the search volume up for the paid site.

For a user to have a good experience on your site and for the search engine to know what the site is even about, your technical SEO must be solid. Having clean code, optimized images and tags, proper indexation, and sitemaps is key for the search engines to be able to “read” it properly. Decent page speed is a must to avoid constant impatient bounces — a big red flag. The tags on-site are not just there to be stuffed with keywords but to allow the search engines to understand what your site contains and what information it provides to a user. These are the basics of SEO, but they will always be an extremely important foundation to build any sort of organic visibility.

Carolyn Nganga, CEO of Myagrovet

Optimizing SEO Budgets

The biggest expense of the SEO budget is spent on link building, and the cost of links is increasing year by year. Today, a good link costs $150–$400, and a great one costs even more. 

At the same time, for leading positions in medium competitive niches, you need to get 100–200 links, which is a budget of $15,000–$80,000.

Also, the long work process adds to the cost of salaries, service fees, and so on.

There is an opportunity to save on the website’s launch by using a thematically suitable domain from the auction. You can find a domain with 100–200 do-follow links for $1,000–$8,000, which saves you a lot of startup budget. With this approach, you can achieve top positions in 3–6 months instead of 12+ months.

Oleg Malkov, CEO of MonsterPBN

Comprehensive Content Optimization

The strategy that’s worked best for me is optimizing my content across my site and blogs for SEO. But, when doing this, it’s important to pay attention to every part of what makes up this strategy. This means writing quality, keyword-inclusive content that provides value and is informative and authoritative while placing keywords at opportune points and writing metadata that can further capture those keywords. It means using titles and headings to also round out your strategy. For me, it can also mean link building — either within my site or through other high-authority sites.

Ryan Farley, co-founder & CEO of LawnStarter

Leveraging FAQ Sections to Capture “People Also Ask” Traffic

I’ve had great success adding FAQ sections to new and existing pieces of content targeting Google’s “People Also Ask” section. Search for the keyword you’re targeting with a content piece on Google and explore the most common questions in the PAA section. If the PAA section doesn’t show for your query, I’ve found that adding “FAQ” so your search often forces it to show. Create an FAQ section at the end of your content to answer these questions. Not only does this make your piece more comprehensive, but it also pulls long-tail traffic from low-hanging fruits.

Bonus: Ask ChatGPT (or your favorite LLM) to brainstorm common questions people ask related to your target keyword for further inspiration.

Rasmus Barslund, affiliate marketer & founder of ERideHero

Featuring Case Studies

A happy customer is important in satisfying Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) requirements.

A great way to show proof of all four with one piece of content is to write a case study about a successful project. Case studies include a description of the problem and the solution, quotes from the customer, and before-and-after images. They should be optimized around one keyword, such as “Rooftop Deck Construction near me.”  Depending on the size of the project, they can be one page to many pages. 

Case studies do triple duty since they can also be used as marketing collateral to give to potential clients looking for a specific service. If you don’t have a designer on staff, you can find very good and inexpensive designers online who will add branding and styling to the PDF to make it look professional. Make the case study a blog and allow users to download the PDF from your website. Post it on your Google Business Profile and social media, and send it to your email list.

In addition, creating a press release about the case study project can also earn you backlinks from high-authority sites. Lastly, if the happy customer is open to showcasing their project in a case study, they’ll also be willing to give you a five-star review, another important ranking factor in search engines.

Jennifer Rogala, founder & CEO of SEODriver

Writing for Reputable Online Publications

Here’s my trick: Often, businesses think they need to create content for just themselves via their blog or landing pages to raise their authority score and be seen as a leading voice in their industry. While this is true, businesses can get a whole lot more by producing stellar content for reputable online publications that allow them to share their “expert” opinions. This demonstrates industry awareness and authority to Google and the rest of the world and drives high-quality backlinks to their website, further increasing their domain and page authority.

Molly Jones, founder of BitterRoot Content

Crafting Expert Content and Leveraging Internal Authority

Get the fundamentals right. The key is to create helpful content for people and to signal to Google what the content is about. This is done by getting the SEO fundamentals right. This includes using the right labels (h1, h2, p, etc.) and directly including the search term in the header and the body of text. The page’s text doesn’t need to be long, just helpful, relevant, and from an expert. 

It helps to make sure each image has alt text. Be clear about who wrote the article with a byline. Create your content for people first and search engine second, but make it easy for Google to understand that your content is unique and helpful to its users. When you make your changes, submit the URL for indexing with the URL Inspection Tool in the Google Search Console. This allows quicker indexing so you can track metrics, particularly engagement rate (which can be found in Google Analytics), to see if users find your content helpful and relevant. 

Leverage your organization’s authority sources. Even if you may not have the expertise to create unique, helpful content, someone in your organization might. Connect with your colleagues who are relevant to your content, let them know you would like to interview them for an article (ask for permission to use their name in the article), and create your content by sourcing them. Let them review it to make any changes they’d like before you go live. 

Your colleagues are your organization’s unique advantage, not just in talent but also in helpful content that you can share with others. It doesn’t need to be top-secret material— just them sharing their thoughts and opinions may be enough. Be clear about their credentials, background, and why they are subject matter experts in the content.

Eric Lai, marketing & sales at CMOS Sensors

AI-Driven Content Optimization

ChatGPT can analyze data and search results faster than we humans can. I feed ChatGPT4 with my content and let it analyze the content compared to the top results. I also insert Google Quality Guidelines and let the AI give me a list of very specific optimizations I can do to update my content. On top of that, I also focus on search queries for which I’m getting impressions or clicks but haven’t included them in the content. This data comes from the Google Search Console.

This tactic alone has brought back decreasing rankings.

Sascha Hoffmann, lifecycle marketing consultant and blogger at Back2MarketingSchool