To help you boost your website’s search rankings, we’ve gathered 16 proven SEO techniques from industry experts, including SEO consultants, digital marketing managers, and content strategists. From building topical authority to utilizing bespoke schema markup, these professionals share their personal experiences and insights on effective SEO strategies that have worked for them. Here are 16 go-to SEO techniques for higher rankings.

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  • Build Topical Authority
  • Use Long-Tail Keywords
  • View Keywords as Topics
  • Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
  • Improve Second-Page Keyword Rankings
  • Conduct Technical SEO Audits
  • Edit Content to Answer Questions
  • Analyze and Optimize With Surfer SEO
  • Leverage Unlinked Mentions Strategy
  • Guest Posting for Contextual Links
  • Craft Quality Content for Rankings
  • Try the Skyscraper Technique
  • Improve Content With Relevant Keywords
  • Create Content Based on Expertise
  • Implement On-Page Optimization Techniques
  • Utilize Bespoke Schema Markup

Build Topical Authority

If you know SEO, you’ve probably heard about topical authority.

If you’re new to SEO, topical authority is ‌the idea of positioning yourself/your brand as the expert on a topic. This approach is best visualized as a pyramid. Example:

I want my brand to rank for “family car”. The head term “family car” is the capstone.

If I want Google to give me that rank, I need to build a solid foundation around the family car topic. So I need to cover things like:

  • performance
  • safety and technology
  • seating capacity and model options
  • price points and comparisons
  • etc

You can start this process by answering the long-tail, foundational questions people have about family cars and then funnel internal links to your /family-cars/ page.

I use this technique on my website and my client sites.

Go granular in your service/product details and target the long tail, as you won’t rank for core keywords without having a solid topical authority around the primary subject, to begin with.

Ben Poulton, SEO Consultant and Founder, Intellar

Use Long-Tail Keywords

One highly effective SEO technique we have used to boost search rankings is the strategic utilization of long-tail keywords. Studies show that long-tail keywords generate higher conversion rates, with a 2.5% increase compared to generic keywords. 

For example, by incorporating specific long-tail keywords like “affordable organic skincare products” instead of just “skincare products,” we witnessed a 30% surge in organic search traffic and a 15% rise in conversion rates. Long-tail keywords allow us to target a more specific audience, optimize content relevance, and enhance user experience. 

By conducting thorough keyword research and incorporating long-tail keywords naturally into website content, meta tags, and headings, we have successfully climbed the search engine rankings and increased our organic visibility, ultimately driving more qualified traffic to our website.

Himanshu Sharma, CEO and Founder, Academy of Digital Marketing

View Keywords as Topics

Seeing keywords as topics. For example, instead of focusing on just one keyword for the entire blog, I think of how that keyword is connected to a myriad of other keywords and questions. It makes for a more in-depth article, and it also makes it easier to link to other blogs and resources on our website on the same topic.

Veniz Guzman, Digital Marketing and SEO Specialist, Promet Source

Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

One of the most effective SEO techniques I have used to improve search rankings is optimizing title tags and meta descriptions. By optimizing these two elements, we can ensure that our page titles are accurate and relevant to what people are searching for in the SERPs. 

This also helps us increase the click-through rate of our web pages from the SERPs. We can also include relevant keywords in our title tags and meta descriptions to help search engines understand what our page is about and gain better visibility. 

We need to make sure that our titles and descriptions are interesting enough for users to click on them so they can learn more about the contents of our webpage.

Marcos Isaias, Founder and CEO, Misaias

Improve Second-Page Keyword Rankings

One effective SEO technique for improving search ranking on a website that I’ve relied on is to use the Google Search Console to find keywords that are ranking on the second page of search engine results, pick one, and then focus on improving the content for the article that this keyword applies to.

In one study that I’ve read, positions #1 – #3 on the first page of search results will typically receive‌ around 68.7% of search traffic from the Google Search Engine, whereas positions #4 – #10 will receive the remaining 31.3% of search traffic; after the first page of search results, the traffic for a given keyword drops significantly.

If an article is ranking for a keyword that, on average, puts it on the second page of search results and improvements move the average position for that keyword upward such that it is now appearing on the first page of search results, then the article should consequently experience a positive improvement in traffic as well.

Thomas Fuller, Digital Marketing Consultant, Thomas P. Fuller

Conduct Technical SEO Audits

Before publishing any new content, a thorough technical SEO audit is my go-to strategy. Ensuring proper meta tags, URL structure, mobile-friendliness, and fast loading speed, I’ve seen our content climb up the search rankings consistently. This practice transforms every new page into an opportunity for SEO growth.

My key takeaway? SEO is not just about great content, it’s also about providing a seamless user experience. Attention to technical details can create significant ranking shifts.

Jaya Iyer, Marketing Assistant, Teranga Digital Marketing

Edit Content to Answer Questions

I’ve found that editing content to answer questions directly helps boost rankings.

For example, take “The best manner of planning your day could include a lot of options, from journaling to using apps.” If you changed that to, “the best way to plan your day is to use journals and apps,” you could boost rankings significantly.

This is something that’s not discussed often but has worked for my clients again and again. Of course, it requires you to have a bit of an SEO presence, to begin with.

Josh Piepmeier, Founder, Meriwether

Analyze and Optimize With Surfer SEO

With tools such as Surfer SEO, it’s become increasingly easy to analyze content that is ranking higher than yours for specific keywords so you can optimize your article to be even better.

The first step is making sure you offer at least what your competitors are offering as well:

  • Do you answer all the questions they’re answering?
  • Is your content keyword-optimized?
  • Does your article’s word count lie in the same range as that of the top 10 results?

Once you’ve analyzed these and other questions, it’s time to take things a level higher and determine how you can improve your article than all the ones that are ranking combined.

  • What is something you can add that they don’t have?
  • Is there a way you can structure the information in a more user-friendly way?
  • Do you have access to unique data you can share?

Analyzing the competition and then optimizing your content to be better is a surefire way to optimize your articles so that they rank higher.

Sofie Couwenbergh, Content Strategist and Writer, Let Me Write That Down for You

Leverage Unlinked Mentions Strategy

Our strategy was to leverage unlinked mentions.

This is a very effective off-page SEO link-building strategy that reaps results. You just have to find unlinked brand mentions via SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. With this strategy, the odds are already in your favor since the author has already talked about your brand and knows about it.

In our case, we find Ahrefs Web Explorer handy. Let’s say your domain site is ABC.com; from the search bar, you just have to type in:

ABC.com -outlinkdomain:ABC.com -site:ABC.com.

And from there, it will show all the unlinked mentions, and you can send outreach to those websites to add your home page URL.

Tristan Harris, Demand Generation Senior Marketing Manager, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency

Guest Posting for Contextual Links

One effective SEO technique I have used to improve search rankings is contextual link building through guest posting. Guest posting involves writing high-quality, relevant articles or blog posts and publishing them on other websites in your niche. Within these articles, you strategically include links that point back to your own website.

To effectively use guest posting for SEO, follow these best practices:

  1. Research and identify authoritative websites in your niche that accept guest posts.
  1. Create high-quality, valuable content that aligns with the target website’s audience and guidelines.
  1. Include contextual links naturally within the body of the article, linking to relevant pages on your website.
  1. Optimize anchor text to include relevant keywords without over-optimization.
  1. Engage with readers by responding to comments or inquiries on the guest post, fostering a positive user experience.
  1. Monitor the performance of your guest posts using analytics tools.

Dhruv Shah, Digital Marketing Manager, Web Ratna LLP

Craft Quality Content for Rankings

Creating quality content that is informative and engaging has been one of the most effective SEO techniques I’ve used to improve search rankings. This means writing content that offers readers valuable information they can use, as well as providing a fresh perspective on topics within your industry. 

When crafting content for your website or blog, it is important to include keywords and phrases that apply to your business. Doing so will help search engines identify the content as being related to your industry, thus helping to boost your search rankings.

Darryl Stevens, CEO, Digitech Web Design

Try the Skyscraper Technique

One effective SEO technique I’ve found especially powerful is the “Skyscraper Technique”, originally developed by Brian Dean of Backlinko. The process involves three key steps: finding popular content within your industry, creating something even better, and then reaching out to the right people to promote it.

First, I identified a piece of content in my niche that was popular and well-received. Tools like BuzzSumo can be useful for this step, allowing you to see which content has the most social shares or backlinks.

Once I had selected a popular topic, I created an even better, more comprehensive piece. I expanded on the topic, added up-to-date information, used engaging visuals, and ensured it was well-written and highly valuable to the reader.

The last step was to reach out to relevant individuals and websites that had linked to the original content. I let them know about my new, more comprehensive resource.

Alan Melnick, Media, Sunrise

Optimize Content With Relevant Keywords

An effective SEO technique that I have used to improve search rankings is to optimize the content of my website with relevant keywords. By doing this, I strategically incorporated these keywords that users frequently use into the website’s content, including titles, headings, meta tags, and body text. 

This unique technique helped search engines understand the relevance of the website to specific queries, thus improving its visibility in search results. Regularly monitoring the frequently used keywords and adding them to the website’s content also helped me gather traffic.

Tom Mason, Agency Founder, Srch Agency

Create Content Based on Expertise

The most effective SEO technique that I’ve used to grow my sites is to focus on the expertise that you have a passion for and then create related content around that topic so that Google rewards you by recognizing your passion and expertise for the subject matter people are searching for. 

For instance, my site—CruiseWestCoast.com—started with no links, but I had passion, expertise, and experience (as well as talent for writing and photography). By creating editorial silos around different topics that cruisers would want to know about, the site quickly outranked larger sites that didn’t have the same depth of content and expertise transferred to published media as I did.

James Hills, Publisher for Travel and Men’s Lifestyle, ManTripping.com

Implement On-Page Optimization Techniques

One effective SEO technique I have used to improve search rankings is on-page optimization. This involves optimizing various elements on your website to make it more search engine friendly. 

Some key on-page optimization techniques include optimizing meta tags (title tags, meta descriptions), using relevant keywords in content, ensuring proper heading structure, optimizing URL structure, improving site speed, and enhancing user experience. 

By implementing these on-page SEO strategies, you can make your website more accessible and relevant to search engines, which can positively affect your search rankings.

Rafik Harisi, SEO Specialist, Digital Marketing Buzz

Utilize Bespoke Schema Markup

One SEO technique I used to improve rankings and achieve higher rankings for my clients than their close rivals is bespoke schema markup. This is much more than the standard schema markup (or structured data) that simply adds information about a business, such as industry or location, or highlights “How-To” articles or FAQs.

The bespoke markup I develop provides even more context to search engines by adding schema entities that associate specific items mentioned on a web page with authoritative sources of information that are well understood by Google. These might be Wikipedia pages, Google Knowledge Graph IDs, or, for example, specific pages on the websites of professional bodies or industry trade groups.

Telling Google something very specific about a business can give that business an edge in the search rankings in very competitive industries. And, bespoke schema markup only needs to be done on the most important SEO landing pages, so it is a relatively quick technique to implement.

Michelle Symonds, SEO Consultant, Ditto Digital