There’s been a significant shift in A lot has changed over the past year and a half. This change could be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on your website type. Affiliate and small publishing sites might require a complete overhaul of their strategies. Conversely, forums and e-commerce platforms could discover a wealth of new ranking opportunities.
In the aftermath of algorithm adjustments, leaked Google documents, and the rise and fall of AI-driven Overviews dominating search results, the crucial question for small businesses is: what SEO strategies remain effective in 2024? This article will delve into precisely that.
Contents
- Link building
- Content reworks
- Looking like a “real” business
- Forums and user-generated content
- Parasite content
- Programmatic SEO
- Tools and tool sites
- Best of product roundups (on small business sites)
8 SEO tactics that still work in 2024
A crucial aspect of search engine optimization, regardless of the era, is comprehending how algorithm updates affect your specific site, not just the general impact.
Many tactics deemed ineffective might still be viable for certain websites under specific circumstances. It’s possible that these strategies ceased being effective for those who relied on them heavily or advocated for them most vocally.
Just like in any SEO landscape, different websites have different rules. What works for one might not work for another.
This article will concentrate on tactics we’ve observed working for small businesses with small to mid-sized websites. The efficacy of these strategies for your site will depend on your site type, authority level, and the specific tactic.
It should come as no surprise that acquiring high-quality backlinks to your domain, especially to pages you want to rank higher, remains effective.
However, not all links are equal. Here are some crucial factors that businesses should be mindful of when building links or collaborating with link-building services, even though they may not have changed drastically lately:
- Recently disclosed internal Google documents indicate that the origin of your backlinks and whether those pages receive traffic significantly influence the link’s value and perceived quality. This means you should aim for links not just from trustworthy, high-traffic sites but from specific pages that attract real human visitors.
- Considering that some websites affected by Google’s recent Helpful Content Update (HCU) seem to have recovered after cleaning up their link profile, you should prioritize the quality of backlinks to your site and the anchor text used.
Needless to say, standard precautions still apply, such as ensuring links originate from reputable websites with backlinks of their own.
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While a website severely penalized by the HCU might have other issues, thoroughly updating outdated pages with declining rankings can still be beneficial.
There are a few reasons for this. Google’s preferred content format and perceived search intent for a results page can evolve over time:
If you optimized a page for “ai writing software” a couple of years ago, this example highlights changes you might want to incorporate when revising the page. A search results page might feature a wider variety of content, rendering your page less relevant to what Google seeks. Alternatively, the intent might remain consistent (e.g., numerous lists still rank for that search term), but the nature of those lists may have changed (e.g., longer or shorter lists, different formatting, etc.).
It’s essential to revisit your content, analyze the current landscape, and make necessary adjustments. Similarly, audit internal and external links to important pages, particularly those experiencing traffic decline, and ensure your anchor text isn’t overly fixated on your target keyword.
You might be thinking, “I am a legitimate business! I don’t need to pretend.”
While you don’t need to fabricate anything, it’s important to signal to Google that you are a real business and convey your specific business type. If you haven’t invested in SEO or lack a strong brand presence, your website might have:
- A meager number of external backlinks from other sites.
- Limited visibility in directories and business data platforms, particularly Google’s own Google Business Profile.
- A low volume of searches for your brand.
From an SEO perspective, besides link building, ensure you have citations set up and maintain consistency in your name, address, and phone number across all data providers. This applies even to businesses without a local presence.
If you’ve conducted any online searches recently, you’ve likely noticed a surge in results from Reddit, Quora, and specialized forums. Depending on your website and niche, consider integrating a community feature (like a niche or user forum) or acquiring an established forum in your niche with valuable content.
If Google wants something… then just give it to them wholeheartedly! 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/yff549ZP1f
— Ian Howells (@ianhowells) June 11, 2024
Although Google has expressed attempted to crack down regarding “parasite” content (content hosted on authoritative domains to rank for specific keywords), this tactic still proves effective for numerous businesses.
Local businesses should exploit every parasite imaginable with the current algorithm.
Reddit, Quora, Facebook, LinkedIn Pulse, Medium, etc.
Publish the page, get it indexed, build a bunch of tier 2s at it. Until they modify the algorithm, you should dominate the initial…
— The SEO Guys (@theseoguy_) June 24, 2024
The execution of this tactic can vary (e.g., creating lists featuring your company, directing low-quality “tier 2” links to the page - the rationale being that link quality is less important since the content resides on a high-authority third-party domain, etc.). Even without employing more aggressive approaches, consider if you can create content suitable for an authoritative domain to achieve higher rankings for valuable keywords.
Free guide » 10 Tangible & Free Ways to Get on the First Page of Google
Programmatic SEO involves generating pages automatically, often enhanced with AI-generated content.
I’m witnessing significant programmatic SEO successes in e-commerce and digital products.
For instance, @benrobertsonio is excelling on colorbliss.
pSEO → display ads
pSEO → products
In my opinion, it remains the optimal scaling method. pic.twitter.com/6wgZXkbWF6
— Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) May 20, 2024
A previous article highlighted some examples of common programmatic SEO content types to consider:
- Location-based pages (e.g., Housing Costs in {X}, where X represents various cities like New York, Boston, etc.)
- Template Pages (e.g., slideshow templates, excel templates, etc.)
- X vs. Y (e.g., comparing apps, products, materials, etc.)
- Best X for Y (e.g., best shoes for running, best shoes for lifting, best shoes for basketball, etc.)
In each scenario, you’d need:
- Data relevant to the target queries, ideally proprietary information accessible only to you or your company, leveraging your expertise and experience.
- A robust template with reusable content and fields for inserting unique queries and data as needed.
- Potentially some AI-generated content to enrich the page content.
This tactic heavily relies on context. Implementing numerous largely duplicated, low-value, programmatically generated pages for a low-authority small business site can backfire, harming your website instead of improving it. When executed effectively with the right data set, query space, and website, programmatic SEO can still deliver results.
Although many mid-authority affiliate and ad-supported websites were impacted by the recent Helpful Content Update, some survivors include tool and calculator websites. These sites primarily focus on providing a specific tool or a collection of tools.
This is one of the most intriguing sites I’ve come across.
It attracts 3.1 million monthly visitors and has weathered every Google update so far.
— Ian (@keywordian) May 22, 2024
… As expected, these sites often feature abundant ad-supported and affiliate content alongside their core tool functionality. If you’re a small business, consider developing or acquiring an existing tool site within your niche.
This unassuming one-page website generates over $18k per month.
Its function: calculating accurate daily calorie expenditure.
With over 974,000 monthly visitors and going strong.https://t.co/VbCR2lo2r6
(no need to like, repost, or comment “MACRONUTRIENTS” to get the URL
) pic.twitter.com/l5Nrojp6qV
— Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) May 24, 2024
Here’s a concrete example from the home services industry:
The website in question is Instant Roofer (I have no affiliation with them). They offer a roofing cost calculator that utilizes your address to provide a cost estimate for roof replacement:
They then repurposed the same calculator as the primary offer on multiple pages targeting roofing contractors in various cities and towns:
These pages are further enriched with substantial information about roofing costs in those specific markets (i.e., programmatic SEO content) and even feature different vendors:
This approach can be scaled effectively:
If this strategy proves successful for this site, essentially an affiliate website disguised as a tool site, it can certainly work for various small businesses.
Calculators, in particular, can be a fantastic way to create a tool that ranks well for a core keyword, attracts numerous high-quality backlinks, and can be cautiously repurposed into additional specific programmatic SEO pages.
Free guide download » 135 of the Best Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion
Product roundups or “best X” and “best X for Y” queries, like “best brush for Bernedoodles,” have experienced significant upheaval in recent years:
In 2022, many top-ranking results were informational, ad-supported, and affiliate sites. Now, you’ll find Amazon, Reddit, and sites similar to this:
This post exclusively features the website’s own products:
Small businesses can leverage this trend in a few ways:
- Service or e-commerce sites can partner with related product companies and review/promote their products in SERPs where affiliates are no longer competitive.
- Create a roundup like the one above to promote your product or service, either showcasing multiple offerings or featuring yourself alongside competitors (remember, they’re not your nemesis).
- Develop long-form lists of examples, tips, tactics, etc.
Where to begin?
As with almost everything SEO-related: it depends! Specific tactics will align better with certain websites and business objectives. Analyze the possibilities for your site, experiment, and focus on what yields the best results!