Your business’ Web presence and visibility relies highly on search engine optimization (SEO). The way you organize and optimize your site should make it easy for visitors and search engines to understand and find. SEO is what puts your website in front of your potential customers and positions you to be found by your target audience.

What we found from our research is that SEO has become less of a marketing play and more of a branding strategy. It is as important as ever to invest in SEO, but it’s also getting more complicated to “do SEO” correctly.





Hubstaff understands how important visibility is for emerging businesses and startups, so we have compiled a list of easy SEO tips from respected industry professionals. We have also included useful links with each professional to follow if you want to learn more.

I was recently interviewed by Rocketship.fm where I discussed some valuable and easy to implement SEO strategies for startups. You can listen to the podcast here.

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1. “Train project teams on the 20% of SEO that drives 80% of the impact.” – Jessica Bowman [Tweet]





Jessica Bowman is the founder and CEO of SEO In-House, known for helping in-house SEO programs to get up and running quickly, systematically and profitably.

The tip above came from her SEO In-House article, 5 Tips to Elevate Your SEO Training for Non-SEO Teams. Her other SEO tips include giving useful aids like detailed checklists, designing training around employees’ schedules, and teaching through concrete content examples.

2. “Add more content, not just more keywords.” – Neil Patel [Tweet]





Neil Patel is the SEO and marketing expert behind Quick Sprout, and founder of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg.

The tip above comes from 5 SEO Techniques You Should Stop Using Immediately. Neil points out that some of the older SEO tricks are now penalized, and some of the seemingly useless techniques are no indispensable. His SEO tips include avoiding “spammy” guest blogs, focusing on quality links and using related keywords. At its core, SEO is a long-term strategy that relies on quality content and can’t be rushed.

3. “Start using social media sites to promote your business.” – Danny Sullivan [Tweet]





Danny Sullivan is the founder of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His expertise has been published by media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Forbes.

The tip above was from an Entrepreneur video article featuring Danny titled 3 Tips for Improving SEO. Danny shares that search engines factor social media sites into their rankings, and Twitter has recently given Google access to tweets. Danny’s other SEO tips are to include your business in local search engine listings and to use Google’s free webmaster tools to help optimize your content.

4. “Instead of hanging with your old content, run a content audit and fix it.” – Heather Lloyd-Martin [Tweet]





Heather Lloyd-Martin is the founder of SuccessWorks. She developed the first SEO Copywriting Certification program, which remains the only industry-endorsed training program that teaches SEO best practices.

The tip above comes from Heather’s article How To Do A Content Audit (And Why It’s Worth It!) from her blog. She recommends finding a great content auditing tool, such as SEMrush or Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider, and keeping a list of your content (use an excel sheet to track what needs editing, which have broken links, etc.). Her other SEO tips include reformatting posts, optimizing titles and checking your key phrases.

Learn more: Get certified in SEO Copywriting with Heather’s online SEO copywriting courses.

5. “Your E-Mail Signature is a Necessary Resource.” – Ross Hudgens [Tweet]





Ross Hudgens is the founder of Siege Media, a content marketing agency that specializes in SEO and content development, promotion and maintenance.

Ross states that when pitching stories, you must include contact information and links in your email signature. Not only will it help drive traffic, it will also add credibility. When you pitch stories, such as a blog you’d like published or other ways to gain attention for your brand, disclose your company, who you are, and how to reach you. The tip above was taken from Ross’ article The PR Strategies SEOs Haven’t Learned. He states that PR skills and SEO skills complement each other. Content marketers should discover a happy medium between creating high-quality, authoritative content and creating content that your audience wants to find.

6. “SEO is becoming more and more natural, with the focus moving towards [the user].” – Marcus Tober [Tweet]





Marcus Tober is the founder of Searchmetrics and developer of SEO tool Linkvendor. His clients include Siemens and T-Mobile.

The tip above was taken from a Searchmetrics whitepaper, The 2014 Rank Correlation Analysis and SEO Ranking Factors for Google U.S. He also states that relevant, quality content is still key to SEO, internal linking is an important SEO factor, and sites should load quickly. His other SEO tips include utilizing social media, a good site structure and backlinks. Download the whitepaper here.

7. “Mobile results satisfaction will be more important than any other technical issue.” – Bruce Clay [Tweet]





Bruce Clay is the founder of Bruce Clay, Inc. His work has been featured by The Huffington Post.

The tip above was taken from Bruce Clay’s 2015 Predictions for the SEO Industry. This article shares nine useful SEO tips and every word is worth reading. In addition to the growing importance of mobile-friendly websites, he also predicts search engines will begin to emphasize local results, Google will focus on pages that specifically answer a question, good user experience will dictate a decline in hard sells, and SEO will become more technical. However, “those doing SEO will become more than programmers. Marketing skills re-emerge as vital to doing the job.”

Learn more: Check out Bruce Clay’s Free Online SEO Course for Executives to learn how an search engine optimized website affects traffic and revenue, what factors help websites rank high in search results and spam tactics to avoid.

8. “All links aren’t equal.” – Kristopher B. Jones [Tweet]





Kristopher Jones is the author of “Search-Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint to Effective Internet Marketing” and former president and CEO of Pepperjam affiliate network, now known as eBay Enterprise affiliate network.

The tip above was taken from Kristopher’s presentation on Low Risk Link Portfolio Expansion Strategies for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). He talks about building links to your website to establish authority and credibility for SEO. When building links, focus on quality links that are built manually through guest blogging and good content. Some of his other link building and SEO tips include getting creative (produce original work), using social media, adding value (instead of just selling), guest blogging, starting a blog, speaking at events, sponsoring events, sending out press releases and more.

Learn more: Visit the Kris Jones website and check out his informational video archive.

9. “Always keep in mind the reader as opposed to the search engines.” – Brian Honigman [Tweet]





Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant, professional speaker and freelance writer whose work has been published by Forbes, Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.

Brian’s tip was taken from an article on his blog titled The Key Components of a Content Manager’s Editorial Calendar. He also recommends defining your content’s mission, pinpointing your audience, determining content frequency and selecting well-researched topics and keywords for SEO.

10. “Aim for a focus keyword that is relatively high on volume and…will fit your audience.” – Joost de Valk [Tweet]





Joost de Valk is the creator of Yoast, a popular WordPress SEO plugin. He also publishes other tools to help optimize websites, such as eBooks, blogs and even Tweets.

Joost recommends regularly adding quality content to your site in order to increase the volume of your content and show search engines that your site is active. Adding a focus keyword to your content will help the right audience find and utilize it. The three things you should do before choosing a focus keyword are; 1) choose a keyword that people search; 2) research the search volume; and 3) Google your proposed focus keyword. The tip above was taken from How to choose the perfect focus keyword on Yoast. More information can be found at Branding & your keyword strategy.

11. “Content that meets a pain-point for your user will go much further in terms of SEO.” – Michael Morgan [Tweet]





Michael Morgan is the technical marketer for Speak Creative, which specializes in search engines as inbound marketing and lead generation channels.

The tip above was taken from 10 SEO Tips You Should Know for 2015. Michael recommends producing rich content that is organic and informative, without too much jargon. His other SEO tips include using one keyword per page, making sure your site loads quickly for good user experience, sharing your content on social media, and eliminating broken links and duplicate content.

Learn more: Read Michael’s article on How to Improve Search Engine Optimization on the Speak creative blog.

12. “Get keyword ideas from your internal search data.” – Eric Siu [Tweet]





Eric Siu is the CEO of Single Grain and former growth lead at Treehouse. He is a contributor to Search Engine Watch, Entrepreneur Magazine and Social Media Examiner. He also has his own website at http://growtheverywhere.com/

The SEO tip above came from Entrepreneur article 5 Dead-Simple SEO Hacks to Save You Time. His other SEO tips include using the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, adding a Google Authorship code to your site’s header and utilize Google’s free tag manager tool.

Learn more: Visit the resources page on Growth Everywhere and download Eric’s free eBook, 10 Indispensable Tools that will Help Your Business Generate More Revenue.

13. “Optimize [your] Pinterest profiles, boards and pins for SEO!” – Cynthia Johnson [Tweet]





Cynthia Johnson is the director of marketing at Rank Lab and editorial director at Social Media Club. She is a contributor to the Search Engine Journal.

The tip above was quoted from the Rank Lab article, Optimizing Pinterest for SEO. Pinterest now allows users to pin keyword-rich articles and link to their verified websites from Pinterest. The more your pins are repinned and liked, the more links point back to your website. Also, Google can see your pin titles, so use keywords in your titles and descriptions. Other SEO tips from the article include picking one keyword for each board and using that as a hashtag within each pin on that board, and sharing your Pinterest board with followers. Your Pinterest boards may also rank for keywords and show up in browser search results.

14. “In SEO, content is king…it is also king for reputation management.” – Pierre Zarokian [Tweet]





Pierre Zarokian is the president and CEO of Submit Express, Inc., a SEO company that specializes in content writing and link building.

Pierre talks about using SEO and social media to manage your online reputation by getting the benefits of your business on the first page of search results, and pushing bad reviews down the list (preferably to the second page of results or further). His tip above comes from Interview with Pierre Zarokian on Reputation Management for Small Business. He states that using SEO to help push negative reviews down a list of results is possible but will take a lot of time, or a dedicated reputation management expert. If you choose to hire a company or service to do this for you, be sure to research them first to see if they can manage their own reputation well.

15. “Step #1: Discover Awesome Content.” – Brian Dean [Tweet]





Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko, an SEO training and link building strategy business.

The tip above is from Brian’s post on how a relatively new blog received thousands of readers using something called the Skyscraper Technique. The three steps of this technique is to 1) find content that has a proven record of attracting readers, social media shares, backlinks and top rankings on search engines; 2) make strategic improvements to the content; and 3) promote the content via email, social media and on your website.

16. “Improved content is more likely to be referenced, shared and linked.” – Dan Petrovic [Tweet]





Dan Petrovic is the managing director of Dejan SEO. He also publishes research articles on SEO and online marketing.

Dan encourages Content Rejuvenation to help SEO. This is when an author returns to his or her content to see if it’s still relevant, engaging and accurate. Dan recommends starting with existing pages that are already popular in search engines and developing them so they consistently have high quality, well-formatted content. This means making sure that the content associated with your authorship is current and has headings, sub-headings, external links, images and references.

17. “Having pages render quickly is a good user experience.” – Bill Slawski [Tweet]





Bill Slawski is the director of search at Go Fish Digital and has been studying and practicing SEO for 18 years.

The tip above was taken from Bill’s Most Excellent Top 10 SEO Rules. Some of his other SEO tips are having only one URL per page, limiting unnecessary pages (ie. a separate page for different colors of the same item), alt tagging your images, providing meta descriptions, and having unique content and titles.

18. “Be sure to check out active users on Google+ that are discussing authorship and author rank.” – Ash Buckles [Tweet]





Ash Buckles is is the global SEO manager for the InterContinental Hotels Group with more than 16 years of experience in SEO, blogging, social media marketing and brand development. He also co-founded a weekly SEO chat on Twitter, #SEOchat.

The tip above was taken from one of Ash’s contributions to the Twitter conversation, #SEOchat. He also says to focus on the usability of web pages and content, and utilize internal links to show relationships throughout your entire site.

19. “Visualization plays a critical role in capturing and maintaining the reader’s attention.” – Derek Edmond [Tweet]





Derek Edmond is managing partner a Ko Marketing and has 12 years experience working in SEO and online marketing. He is also a highly quoted and referenced marketing expert regular contributor to media outlets such as Search Engine Land.

The tip above came from Derek’s Search Engine Land article, The Underlying B2B Marketing Value Of 4 (Previously Successful) SEO Tactics. He states that although SEO tactics may become irrelevant, they have underlying principles that continue to add value for business. His other SEO tips include earning trust in a brand and/or thought leader through quality content, and to execute SEO tactics with broader marketing objectives in mind (not purely SEO).

20. “Write what you know. Talk about a relevant, cohesive topic.” – Todd Malicoat [Tweet]





Todd Malicoat co-developed the SEO curriculum used at Rutgers University.

The tip above refers to blog writing for good SEO and was taken from an article titled The SEO Playbook. His other SEO tips include making sure user experience is concise and simple (good site navigation and architecture) and utilizing links. Read some of Todd’s newer articles on his blog.

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