{"id":70113,"date":"2018-03-23T11:07:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T11:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/common-sense-seo-long-term\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:17:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:17:51","slug":"common-sense-seo-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/common-sense-seo-long-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Common sense SEO for the long term"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t have to look very far these days to find someone banging on about algorithm changes at Google and Facebook and predicting that the (digital) world as we know it is about to end (or just change a lot). In fact, we’ve even thrown our two cents’ worth<\/a> in on occasion.
\nTo help us stay on top of SEO best practice, we recently had our friendly, neighbourhood SEO consultant in for a chat with our writers.
\nMartin Forshaw, Director of Search Convert, bravely faced the firing squad of inquiring minds and shared his considerable insight and passion for the dark art of SEO with us. So read on for some (surprisingly) common sense SEO tips and brilliant SEO tools to help you face the changing digital landscape with confidence and calm.
\nStratton Craig: How important is content for SEO?<\/strong>
\nMartin<\/strong>: It is THE most important component because this is how you solve the user\u2019s query. There are two central components of SEO, one is content and the other is the incoming links (both in terms of quality and quantity of links). It is possible to rank a website using the content alone, but extremely difficult to rank a website with links but no content.
\nSC: What is quality content in your view?<\/strong>
\nM<\/strong>: The word quality is bandied around a lot, but people don\u2019t delve deeper into it. Most websites with good ranking, will have good content. The key to that \u2018quality\u2019 is how well it has answered the searcher\u2019s query. The site which does the best job of answering that question is the one that has the best quality content. It is also worth noting that content has to be unique.
\nSC: What keywords should we be including?<\/strong>
\nM<\/strong>: Your SEO support\/consultant should provide those keywords to you if you\u2019re working for a client, but it\u2019s useful to know how an SEO expert thinks and approaches it. Usually there should be one main keyword that a page is designed for, but secondary keywords are also very important as search engines will look for related words around the main keyword to determine how well it answers a query. Google predictions (i.e. when the search bar auto-completes your search query) can be useful to explore this broader context.
\nSC: Do you optimise a website as a whole or do you optimise each page at a time?<\/strong>
\nM<\/strong>: The homepage has the most authority, so you would try and target the most competitive, most searched-for keyword on the homepage, using its authority to lend weight to your main word. Target less competitive keywords on smaller pages, deeper in the website.
\nSC: How long should content be?<\/strong>
\nM<\/strong>: There\u2019s no single answer for this. If I\u2019m researching for a new client, I\u2019ll go to Google, look at top 10 results for my keyword and check the sites that Google recommends. It does not always serve up the same results (i.e. there will be a range of article lengths), so you still need to make a qualitative assessment based on what makes sense for your topic\/keyword.
\nSC: How important are title tags and web page descriptions?<\/strong>
\nM<\/strong>: Title tags appear in the title line of the web page and also the blue link in the search results. Blue title tags are important because this is the largest text on the results page (i.e. what people see first). The meta description is the black text that shows up on the search-engine results page (SERP) and if it\u2019s not descriptive or capturing people\u2019s attention you\u2019re missing a trick.
\nTitle tag tips:<\/strong> Get the main keyword in there and hopefully the brand name (writing for Google and also attracting human clicks), but most importantly the title needs to describe what the page is about. It can be useful to include a call to action as well.
\nMeta tag tips:<\/strong> It\u2019s lazy to just copy and paste the intro. It should be rewritten so it clearly describes what the page is about. This will appear under the title in the SERP, so make it count!
\nUse a unique title tag and description for each page. They can be keyword rich, but should mainly be user focused.
\nSC: What steps do you take to create an SEO strategy?<\/strong>
\nM: <\/strong>Each client\u2019s needs will vary, but I generally go through the same key steps to determine the right SEO strategy:<\/p>\n