1. Put your users first and search engines second. Providing a great user experience and creating valuable content for your target audience, will positively impact your Search Engine Optimization efforts by default.
2. Best practices are just that. Even though we have several best practices for different SEO factors, if something doesn’t make sense for your business or customers, then you should not obsess over it.
3. SEO is not a one-time or a stand-alone activity. SEO should be part of the overall Digital Marketing strategy and should be implemented throughout all digital efforts (press releases, social media, blogs, webpages, etc.)
4. Learn from the past, don’t take short-cuts and follow your gut. If it sounds too easy to be true (e.g. write articles just for backlinks, or “sprinkle” keyword X as much as possible on the copy), you will probably have to pay for it later. Search engines will only get smarter so do things the right way, and ask yourself if it adds value to your human users before proceeding.
5. It is a joint effort. If you are working with an agency it is critical to work together in order to succeed. Nowadays you can’t expect to outsource SEO work, let them “do their magic” and appear on the first page of search results. Having good communication and making sure SEO consultants are involved with the digital marketing team is key.
