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Many small business owners are feeling the effects of Google’s March 2024 core update. You may see your rankings drop, your traffic decrease, and you’re not sure how to recover. Watching your hard-earned rankings fall can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you don’t know what your next steps are.
According to Google, the key to regaining ground is to create more quality content, but what does that actually mean?
In this article, we’ll share six actionable SEO tips to help you adapt to the changes and ensure your business continues to thrive in 2024.
Related: The rules of SEO are changing — here are 5 powerful strategies to help you rank better in 2024
1. Create valuable long-form content
We all know that if you want to rank highly, you need to create valuable long-form content, but since Google’s March update, quality is more important than ever and it’s no longer enough to write a generic 2,000-word article and be done with it.
Instead, you should do the following:
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Use data, statistics, and case studies to back up your claims and provide evidence for your claims.
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Use a conversational tone that engages your reader
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Break up your text with headings, subheadings, bullet points, images, and more to make it more understandable and visually appealing.
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Anticipate and answer common questions your readers may have
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We thoroughly cover every aspect of a topic, creating the most complete resource on the subject.
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Regularly update your articles to reflect the latest trends, research, and information in your niche.
For example, if you're an ecommerce business owner writing about “the best project management software for small businesses,” go beyond a basic list and include detailed reviews, comparisons, screenshots, user testimonials, and tips on how to choose the right software based on your specific business needs.
2. Conduct comprehensive keyword research
One of the most common SEO mistakes I see is identifying only a handful of keywords to target each week, then moving on to a new set of keywords the next week.
Instead, you should take a more strategic approach. Start by finding 200-300 related keywords before you start creating content. This comprehensive list will give you a clear picture of your niche and help you identify which keywords are easier to target.
Start by targeting easy keywords and gradually increase the difficulty level. This SEO strategy will help you rank for easier keywords and drive traffic to your site faster.
Consistently creating content will establish your website as an authority in your niche and make it easier to rank for competitive keywords in the future.
This small business SEO tip will help you start ranking months sooner than the week-to-week methods.
3. Use keywords in the right places
Although keyword density is no longer a ranking factor, placing keywords strategically throughout your content is still important for SEO. The trick is to use keywords naturally in the right places to communicate the relevance of your content to search engines.
The keyword must be used in the following places:
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An introduction to set context for readers and search engines
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URLs that help search engines understand your topic
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Titles that improve click-through rates and rankings
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Body text supporting topical relevance
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Headers to structure your content and communicate importance to search engines
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Meta descriptions that improve clickthrough rates
Additionally, you should include related keywords to give your content context and depth. For example, if your primary keyword is “best project management software for small businesses,” you should also include related keywords like “project tracking tools for small businesses” and “task management software for small businesses.”
Related: The SEO combo you need to beat Google’s algorithm
4. Interlink your pages and blogs
Internal linking is a powerful SEO tactic that helps search engines understand your website's structure and hierarchy. It enhances navigation and user experience, distributes page authority, and improves the contextual understanding of your website.
Here's how to interlink your blogs and pages:
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Enter “site:yourdomain.com” Type “ ” into Google and you’ll find all the relevant pages on the website.
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Use descriptive anchor text, for example, “Project tracking tools for small businesses” instead of “Click here.”
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Use links naturally within your content.
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Focus on the high-value pages and articles you want to rank higher in search.
5. Actively build backlinks
Building backlinks is important for SEO because they show search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable – the more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your chances of ranking highly in search results.
Backlinks are still important for SEO, but recent algorithm updates have shifted the need for fewer, more quality backlinks.
You can get backlinks through these common link building strategies:
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Guest Post
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Inserting a link
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Unlinked brand mentions
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Creating link-worthy content
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Building relationships with bloggers and website owners
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Social media usage
6. Add an FAQ section to your blog
Adding an FAQ section to your articles is a great way to rank for long-tail keywords that your target audience is interested in. You can use Google's “others also ask” feature or look on platforms like Reddit and Quora to find questions people are asking related to your topic.
If you haven’t answered these questions in your article, add an FAQ section at the end of your post. Include long-tail keywords and provide comprehensive answers.
For example, if you're writing a blog post on “The best project management software for small businesses,” you could add the following question to your FAQ section:
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What are the benefits of project management software for small businesses?
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How much does project management software cost for small businesses?
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What features should small businesses look for in project management software?
Related: 3 SEO techniques to rank higher in search engines
These 6 tips will help you rank well in 2024, even after the recent algorithm updates. The key is to create high-quality content that provides real value to your readers and answers their search intent. You should also be proactive with link building and SEO optimized content for better results.