There are many ways to improve a webpage’s keyword rankings; however, some will work in the short term, while others make more sense to set long term goals for. I know,”long-term” sounds really boring, but fortunately with SEO, when you plan a long-term strategy, the results last for the long run as well. This is why it is so important for businesses owners to begin leveraging SEO as soon as possible.

Step 1: Start with buyer persona research rather than keyword research.

Like in any marketing function, technical or not, understanding the audience prior to launching a campaign is an essential step in the strategy.

Step 2: Perform Keyword Research: Segment by Keyword Intent

There are many ways to perform keyword research, however, keyword segmentation is extremely important if you want to be effective. Some keywords won’t drive conversions but they have a huge amount of traffic potential to bring your brand awareness and interest. Segment your keywords by informational and intentional keywords so that you have a better understanding of your buyer journey.

Step 3: Apply Mobile First Methodologies and Standards

Today, you absolutely need a great mobile user experience. Run your site through the mobile usability test by Google. This should give you direction on what items need to be addressed.

Step 4: Use Schema Whenever Possible

Structured data is becoming more and more important for strong search visibility. Many authorities in the industry predict that is will be more important than ever in 2017.

Step 5: Build long form content

Trends show that long form content succeeds better in search engines than thin content. Average word counts for top ranking results are increasing consistently as time goes on.