Advanced SEO Strategies 2023

Advanced SEO refers to a set of techniques that go beyond the basics of SEO and require a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms, marketing technology, and the intricacies of SEO. These advanced strategies can give you a competitive edge over other websites. In this article, we will discuss 13 of the most effective advanced SEO strategies in 2023.

Improve Your Content’s Time to Value

Time to value in SEO refers to the time it takes for a user to find value in a piece of content. It is important to ensure that the time to value of your content is short, as this allows users to quickly find the information they are looking for. Many websites have poor time to value due to the presence of hero images, long-winded introductions, and author bios. These elements can cause users to have to scroll for a long time before finding the information they need, leading to a negative impact on bounce rate, dwell time, and session duration. To improve time to value, it is important to put the most important information and elements at the top of the page, ideally above the fold. Use the BLUF (bottom line up front) or journalistic inverted-pyramid approach, which means putting the information users are looking for at the top and keeping introductions short and to the point. By implementing this strategy, you can improve the user experience and potentially boost your traffic and rankings.

Build Out Topic Clusters

A topic cluster is a group of articles or pieces of content that share a central topic and strategically link to and from one another. Building topic clusters can provide comprehensive coverage of a topic, improve topical authority, and satisfy your readers’ queries. Typically, a topic cluster revolves around a pillar page, which targets a broad topic. The content that covers related topics makes up the cluster and is used to link to and from the pillar page. By creating topic clusters, you can demonstrate topical authority, relevance, and expertise in your field. This approach is aligned with the current trend of ranking for topics rather than individual keywords. By focusing on building topic clusters, you can improve your website’s visibility and provide valuable content to your readers.

Leverage Strategic Internal Linking

Internal linking is an underrated SEO tactic that can significantly improve your website’s visibility and user experience. While adding internal links to your pages is a basic SEO practice, using internal links strategically to boost relevance and authority requires advanced SEO knowledge. By linking to your most important pages from other semantically and topically relevant pages, you can help search engines better understand your content and site structure. This also helps users navigate your website more effectively. To implement strategic internal linking, start by identifying your website’s most linked-to pages using tools like Semrush’s Backlink Analytics. These pages have high link authority and can be used to redistribute link authority to other relevant pages on your site. Additionally, use descriptive anchor text that aligns with the search intent of the page it points to. By incorporating strategic internal linking into your SEO strategy, you can improve your website’s visibility and authority.

Maximize Your SERP Real Estate with FAQ Schema

To increase your search visibility and gain an advantage over your competitors, consider integrating FAQ schema into your advanced on-page SEO strategy. FAQ schema allows questions and answers from your content to appear directly in the search engine results page (SERP). By utilizing FAQ schema, you can occupy more SERP real estate, potentially pushing your competitors further down the page and attracting more clicks to your content. To implement FAQ schema, ensure that your page includes question-and-answer style content. Even if your page is already ranking well, adding FAQ schema can further enhance your visibility and drive more organic traffic to your website.

Leverage Paid Ads for Link Building

Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO but can be time-consuming and challenging. However, you can leverage paid ads to acquire backlinks in a safe and Google-approved manner. Websites that appear at the top of the search engine results page often receive more backlinks, as they receive more clicks and traffic. By targeting keywords with informational intent and running search ads, you can increase the visibility of your content and attract more backlinks. Select keywords that have the potential to generate backlinks, such as those related to definitions, statistics, facts, and tips. Run your ads for a sufficient duration and monitor the quality of the links you receive. This strategy can be effective on various platforms such as Google, Bing, and Facebook.

Steal Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are highly visible and occupy position zero in the SERPs, making them a valuable asset for driving organic traffic. By tailoring your content to target featured snippets, you can potentially outrank your competitors and appear at the top of the search results. Start by identifying keywords that trigger featured snippets using tools like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Analyze the existing featured snippets for these keywords and modify your content to align with the format and information provided in the snippets. By optimizing your content for featured snippets, you can increase your SERP real estate and attract more organic traffic to your website.

Start A/B Testing

A/B testing is a powerful technique that allows you to test different versions of your content and determine the most effective variant. By conducting A/B tests, you can improve conversions, leads, and session durations. Identify important pages on your website and define specific metrics that you want to improve. Consider making changes to elements such as button text, H1 text, content length, table of contents, text size, button color, hero images, images, pop-ups, sidebar CTAs, header CTAs, and sales copy. Use tools like Google Optimize, Optimizely, SplitSignal, or VWO to conduct A/B tests. Continuously test different elements and iterate based on the results to optimize your website and enhance user experience.

Diversify Your Visuals

In the competitive landscape of SEO, it is important to make your visuals stand out and engage users effectively. While images are commonly used in webpages, they may not be as compelling as they once were due to their widespread use. To make your visuals more compelling and keep users engaged, consider diversifying your visual content. Add GIFs, animated images, and videos to your content to capture users’ attention and keep them on your site for longer periods. GIFs and animated images can autoplay and repeat automatically, drawing users’ eyes and encouraging them to watch. Videos are also engaging and can convey a significant amount of information. By diversifying your visuals, you can improve user engagement, potentially boost your rankings, and attract more traffic to your website.

Discover Unlinked Mentions for Link Building

Unlinked brand mentions present an opportunity to build valuable backlinks ethically and effortlessly. An unlinked brand mention occurs when someone mentions your brand online without providing a link. By tracking these unlinked mentions using tools like Media Monitoring, you can reach out to the authors and request them to add a link to your website. Authors are often willing to include links, especially shortly after the mention occurs. Media Monitoring also allows you to monitor the brand mentions of your competitors, enabling you to identify opportunities to request links from authors who have mentioned your competitors. This strategy can help you acquire backlinks, improve your rankings, and drive referral traffic to your website.

Remove or Repurpose Underperforming Content

Regularly evaluating the performance of your content is essential to ensure that each page on your website serves a purpose. If a piece of content is not performing well or does not align with your goals, it may be necessary to remove or repurpose it. Use SEO content auditing techniques to assess the performance of your content and identify pages that are not meeting your expectations. Based on your evaluation, you can decide whether to keep, improve, repurpose, or remove the content. This process should be conducted at least once or twice a year, depending on the amount of content on your website. By removing or repurposing underperforming content, you can optimize your website and enhance its overall performance.

Find and Fix Keyword Cannibalization Issues

Keyword cannibalization occurs when you have multiple pages on your website targeting the same intent. While it is possible to have multiple pages optimized for the same keyword, they should target different intents to avoid cannibalization. Fractured intent keywords, which have a mix of informational and commercial pages in the top 10 results, are particularly prone to keyword cannibalization. Signs of keyword cannibalization include fluctuating URLs or rankings, difficulty in increasing a keyword’s ranking position, and incorrect URLs ranking for certain keywords. To fix keyword cannibalization issues, you can remove and redirect cannibalized pages, canonicalize them, re-optimize pages, merge and consolidate pages, or rework internal linking structures. By addressing keyword cannibalization, you can improve the clarity and relevance of your content and optimize your website for better rankings.

Build Out Q&A Pages Based on People Also Ask Questions

People Also Ask (PAA) sections in the search engine results page (SERP) provide direct answers to commonly asked questions related to users’ initial queries. These questions are typically long-tail, low-volume keywords that can add up in terms of traffic and visibility. By analyzing PAA sections using SERP analysis tools like AlsoAsked, you can identify frequently asked questions in your niche. Create dedicated pages for each question, using the question itself as the title and H1 tag. Answer the question directly and concisely below the header, providing complete and helpful information. Include internal links to relevant pillar pages to enhance topical authority. By building out Q&A pages based on People Also Ask questions, you can attract more traffic, demonstrate expertise, and boost your topical authority.

Analyze Your Log Files

Log file analysis is an advanced technical SEO tactic that can provide valuable insights into how search engines crawl your website. By analyzing log files, you can identify areas where crawl budget is being wasted, determine the cause of crawl errors, and find pages that are not being crawled frequently. Log file analysis helps you understand how search engines perceive your website and any issues they encounter. Use tools like Semrush’s Log File Analyzer to upload and analyze your site’s log files. The detailed report will highlight potential issues and opportunities for improvement. By utilizing log file analysis, you can optimize your website’s crawlability and improve its overall performance.

In conclusion, advanced SEO strategies go beyond the basics and require a deeper understanding of SEO, search engine algorithms, and marketing technology. By implementing these advanced strategies, such as improving time to value, building topic clusters, leveraging strategic internal linking, maximizing SERP real estate with FAQ schema, leveraging paid ads for link building, stealing featured snippets, conducting A/B testing, diversifying visuals, discovering unlinked mentions, removing or repurposing underperforming content, fixing keyword cannibalization issues, building out Q&A pages, and analyzing log files, you can strengthen your search visibility, outperform your competitors, and achieve long-term success in SEO.