SEO Hacks You Can Learn from Big Brands

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By Boris Dzhingarov

Have you ever wondered how those big brands out there manage to be so successful year after year? They weren’t always big; at one point, they were just starting out and building their brand, so how did they go from a small start-up to a massively successful company? While there are all kinds of things you can learn from these big brands in terms of their journey to success, one area you may want to zero in on is their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. All too often, start-ups fail to take advantage of SEO tools and end up paying the price.

To ensure that doesn’t happen to your company and your brand, here’s a look at some of the top SEO hacks that you can learn from big brands that have harnessed the techniques and used them to their advantage.

Familiarize Yourself with the Free SEO Tools

As a start-up company, there is no doubt that the budget is one of your top concerns. Every little bit of money that leaves the company must be scrutinized and justified to ensure that the company stays afloat and has positive cash flow. This is exactly why the free SEO tools that exist out there can be your very best option.

Now it’s perfectly reasonable to be wary of anything that is free and question if it will actually help, but this is a case where the free tools can actually prove to be incredibly beneficial. Take, for example, Google Analytics, which is a powerful tool used not just by start-ups on a budget, but also businesses of all sizes. You can use Google Analytics to analyze the traffic on your website through various in-depth data sets. This data can then help you to shape the decisions made by your business, determine the direction it takes, and even point out areas that need attention.

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While this is typically the most popular of the free SEO tools, it’s certainly not the only one. So be sure you research and look for areas where you can save money with these tools.

Start Reaping the Benefits of a Blog

Another popular SEO hack that big businesses make use of is the blog. Blogging isn’t just meant to be filler on a website, rather, it is an SEO tool that can garner some pretty impressive results. Blogging provides you with the ability to use long-tail keywords and links, all of which can help you where the Google search results are concerned.

If you decide to give blogging a try, make sure you put time and energy into picking the best keywords and the best types of keywords. Obviously, you don’t want to stuff the blog with keywords, as that will penalize you and turn off readers, but they should be expertly woven in at key spots.

The blog is also double-pronged in terms of benefits. It acts as an SEO hack that can boost your search page ranking, but it can also generate visitor interest if you post content that is educational, fun, intriguing, and fresh. A blog can help to set you apart from the competition and even make it possible to carve out a niche as an expert in the industry.

Ensure the Website is Mobile-Friendly

Because just about everyone out there has a smartphone today, your website must absolutely be mobile-friendly. You can’t make the assumption that all visitors will be logging on from a desktop or laptop, as the opposite is usually true. In order for something to be mobile-friendly, it needs to appear exactly as it would on a computer screen. This means images and content should be sharp, load quickly, there should be no lagging, and all links and menus need to display and work correctly.

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For the really large brands out there, many of them have gone so far as to create apps that offer additional functions and features that can boost customer engagement. Again, that could be something you include in your SEO plans either now or in the future, as your business grows.

Give Video a Chance to Prove Itself

Instead of creating a website that is basically a wall of text, you may also want to take notice of what the big brands are doing and provide visitors with a more engaging experience. Adding video content to your website is a great way to boost traffic. Now obviously the content has to be relevant and kept fresh, but it’s an opportunity to do a little marketing while you’re at it.

One important thing to remember when it comes to the video you post – it always needs to be about quality, not quantity. Posting multiple videos a day just for the sake of posting is going to get you zero results. Instead, it should be about posting high-quality content that isn’t filled with useless fluff. Videos should also be kept fairly short, as the typical visitor to your site probably doesn’t want to sit through more than a minute or two.

What About Visitor Engagement?

The visitor engagement factor should also be high on the list, just as it is with big brands. When visitors arrive on your website, they should be able to engage through a variety of means including text they can read through, multimedia content, internal links to products and deals, and so forth.

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Make Sure You Have the Best Host

Then there are the logistics, which is your website host. Without a reliable host, you’re bound to have issues. If you’re in the process of picking one, you may want to check out who your competitors are using, test their site, paying attention to how fast pages/images/videos load, and compare pricing packages.

Keep in mind that your host should be able to fulfill your needs now and in the future; as your business grows, you don’t have to hop around constantly finding a new host.

Learn from the Pros and Give the Hacks a Try

While those big brands may be your competition, they can also be a source of information and advice. So why not learn from them and make use of their SEO hacks.