Harvest These 5 Types of SEO Fruit

I like to think of SEO as being similar to farming. Not content farms, but actual farming. You plant some seeds, and if taken care of properly, you can reap the benefits of your labor. For most site owners, even if they’ve already reaped some of those benefits, there are five specific things they can do to help improve the results for their site if they haven’t already: incoming links, defining a site’s URL, Title tags, internal linking, and analytics.

1. Incoming Links

Broken Links

It’s not surprising that broken inbound links can put a real dent in your traffic. Even if you’ve got a stellar 404 page, I’d make it a mission to update every broken link.

It isn’t that hard; once you’ve located those links, it’s as easy as 1-2-3-4:

  1. Make a note of all the 404s.
  2. Make a note of what the new URLs need to be.
  3. Locate the contact information on the site linking to you with the 404.
  4. Send an email asking for the URLs to be changed.

To find the 404s, I’d use Google Webmaster Tools. There, you’ll find all the 404s indexed by Google. Also, set a reminder to check this section every month in case some more pop up.

Rerouting Links

Everyone wants their website to appear in the X keyword search results. But, if you’re targeting multiple keywords and offer various products/services, directing all traffic to the homepage can get tricky.

Use the same steps above to find the links, then sort them according to anchor text and relevance. And even by location if you’re really in the mood.

For instance, if you’re site is about fruit, you might want to rank for apples, oranges, pineapples, etc. It’s better to point the links about apples to the page on your site about apples, and the same for oranges and pineapples.

2. Define Your Site’s URL

Send Traffic to the Right Place

The first thing I always do when I look at a site is to see if the www version redirects to the non-www version or vice versa. Having both versions up can negatively impact a site’s ranking.

Pick one and set up a 301 redirect to send traffic (and links, as applicable) to the desired location. In some cases, other site versions may appear, such as “http://example.com/index.html.”

This is a default file your server looks for when one hasn’t been defined.

3. Title Tags

Make the Tags Relevant

As with rerouting links, you want the Title tags to vary and correlate the page information.

Spamming Stuffing Labeling every page with the same words isn’t very smart when you inform the search engines what those pages are about.

It doesn’t make much sense to name every page of your website (company name). It does make sense to name them (product/service name) | (company name).

4. Internal Linking

Broken Links

Since I keep referencing the first section of this post, make sure you read it again. Broken internal links are a bad thing.

It provides the user with a poor experience and shows you aren’t maintaining your site. A downed internal page might also cause one to question how updated the information is on the site.

It’s just as essential to remove old information and redirect pages as to keep it updated and fresh. Xenu Link Sleuth is a pretty good tool to catch these errors.

Use of Anchor Text

Using anchor text internally is another good way of directing traffic (and search engines) to the informative sections of your site. It’s also much better than “click here” or “check this section.”

Think of it as describing to the user where they are being taken should they click on a link internally. The deeper your site goes, the more varied your anchor text should get.

5. Analytics

Traffic Sources

So you’ve spent time beefing up your site to rank for certain key terms, but not all of your traffic is coming from the search engines. Or is it?

Google has its own analytics/webmaster tools, which are fairly easy to set up. Once you get it up and going, let the data accumulate, and you can start seeing how much of your traffic is coming from the search engines.

Not only that, but you’ll be able to see if those backlinks you’ve been building are paying off. After all, backlinks aren’t only there to increase the popular vote; they’re also supposed to help with traffic.

Keyword Ideas

There’s this cool section in Google Analytics that shows you what key terms visitors are using for your site being returned in the SERPs.

This is a great way to see how well some terms are performing, show possible terms you haven’t thought of, and even give some insight as to how well your branding is performing.

If your site is about computers and some of the search terms people are finding your site by are “fruits and veggies,” you might want to look into why that’s happening.

Either way, this section can provide some insight as to how users are searching for your site and how they are finding it.

Those are my quick fixes, so to speak, on making the fruits of your SEO labor even juicier. In addition to these, what would you say are some things that are most often overlooked to maximize SEO benefits?

Need help with your SEO program? We can help you cultivate each SEO fruit type, increasing traffic and maximizing revenue. 

FAQ: How can I maximize the benefits of SEO by cultivating different SEO fruit types?

In the world of SEO, the concept of “cultivating different SEO fruit types” might sound like a metaphorical approach to search engine optimization. Still, it holds a valuable perspective in understanding the diverse strategies and techniques that can be employed to enhance your online presence. As an expert in the field, I’m here to provide you with a whitepaper that elucidates the core principles of this concept, offering insights that will help you optimize your website and yield the sweetest SEO results.

Understanding SEO Fruit Types

  1. Plant the Right Seeds: Like cultivating a fruitful garden, you must begin with the right seeds. In SEO, this means selecting the most suitable keywords and phrases that align with your content and business goals. These keywords will serve as the foundation of your SEO efforts.
  2. Water Wisely: Consistent content creation is key. Regularly updating your website with fresh, high-quality content is like watering your SEO garden. This keeps your site vibrant and encourages search engines to crawl it frequently.
  3. Nourish with Quality Backlinks: Building a strong network of backlinks is akin to nourishing your plants. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites boost your site’s authority and help it climb in search engine rankings.

Varieties of SEO Fruit

  1. Content is the Juiciest: The most essential fruit in your SEO garden is content. It’s essential that your content is informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. Valuable content attracts visitors and encourages them to stay on your site.
  2. Keyword Diversity: Just as a diverse range of fruits is healthy, various keywords and their synonyms should be incorporated naturally into your content. This enhances your chances of ranking for a wide range of search queries.
  3. Mobile Optimization: In the modern digital landscape, mobile-friendliness is a must. Ensure that your site is responsive and loads quickly on all devices to cater to a broader audience.

Cultivating a Bountiful SEO Garden

  1. Analyze and Adapt: Monitor your SEO garden’s progress regularly. Use analytics tools to assess what’s working and what isn’t, and adapt your strategies accordingly.
  2. Pruning and Weeding: Like gardening, you must remove dead branches and weeds. For SEO, this involves regular clean-up of outdated or low-quality content and disavowing harmful backlinks.
  3. Sow the Seeds of Engagement: Encourage social sharing, comments, and interaction on your website. This can help you grow a thriving community around your content.

The Harvest: SEO Benefits

  1. Increased Visibility: A well-cultivated SEO garden ensures your website appears prominently in search engine results, increasing your online visibility.
  2. Higher Traffic: With optimized SEO, your website will attract more visitors, providing greater exposure to your products or services.
  3. Enhanced Credibility: A bountiful SEO garden indicates authority and expertise, building trust with your audience.
  4. Better Conversion Rates: Targeted SEO efforts can increase conversion rates, translating into more business or engagement.

Cultivating different SEO fruit types involves a holistic approach to SEO that embraces various techniques and strategies. By nurturing your website with valuable content, diverse keywords, and a keen eye for analytics, you can maximize the benefits of SEO and enjoy the fruits of higher visibility, credibility, and engagement. As a diligent gardener reaps what they sow, your SEO garden will flourish with time and effort. Happy cultivating!

Step-by-Step Procedure to Maximize SEO Benefits through Cultivating Different SEO Fruit Types:

  1. Keyword Research: Identify and select relevant keywords for your niche and content.
  2. Content Creation: Develop high-quality, engaging content incorporating your chosen keywords.
  3. Mobile Optimization: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on all devices.
  4. Backlink Building: Develop a strategy to acquire quality backlinks from authoritative websites.
  5. Keyword Diversity: Incorporate various keywords and synonyms naturally into your content.
  6. Analyze and Adapt: Regularly monitor your website’s performance using analytics tools and adjust your SEO strategies accordingly.
  7. Content Maintenance: Regularly update and optimize your content, removing outdated or low-quality material.
  8. Engage Your Audience: Encourage social sharing, comments, and interactions on your website.

Follow these steps, and you can successfully cultivate different SEO fruit types and maximize the benefits of your SEO efforts, leading to increased visibility, higher traffic, enhanced credibility, and improved conversion rates.

This article was updated on November 11, 2023.

Joshua Titsworth

About Joshua Titsworth

Joshua Titsworth is an SEO manager with Search Fanatics.

When he’s not online tweeting or blogging, he’s at home with his family or at a local golf course trying to break 80 … but first he must break 90.

Joshua Titsworth is an SEO Analyst with Vizion Interactive, Inc..

See Joshua's author page for links to connect on social media.

Comments (15)
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15 Replies to “Harvest These 5 Types of SEO Fruit”

Good article Joshua.
I highly recommend using Analytics to find new keywords.
Try looking at the keywords from organic and PPC, and then sort them by e-commerce(if it is a webshop). There will almost always be keywords that you could be using in you SEO work

Good points, Josh. Sadly, many sites can be found to have several instances of two or more of these five issues. I still come across sites that have identical titles on all pages.

Joshua, great points.
Nick raised a very good point
“You don’t want all of your links pointing to the home page.”

Deep linking is important. You don’t want all of your links pointing to the home page. The search engines rank individual pages of a website. Include anchor text links for internal pages to drive traffic to those pages too.

Thanks for sharing Joshua. The first tip is helpful, never thought that we can email them to change our broken links. And send the right traffic to the right place reminds me in link building. Put a proper anchor text, link to right page will help in SEO for each page of my website! :)

Another “fruity” (meant in a positive way) SEO post. The second part to point 2 is great, and is a common fault. My own “fruity” post, “Title Tags are One of the Low Hanging Fruits of SEO – Go Pick Them!” can be found here: http://bit.ly/ho3bOQ

The basics are always great to be refreshed on at any level; thanks for the nice article, Josh! Going off of your idea about keywords, I also think that (and this may be too basic, so forgive me) it’s important to simply have quality copy in order to incorporate the right key terms and get clients visiting your site for the right reason.

Well written article Josh. I’d add page load times to your list of low hanging fruits. Sometimes its as simple as taking a large image and splicing it, other times it may be more complex – all in all, poor load times will create problems for an se spider and for the end user.

Ping pong champ? Not for long.*devious grin.

Jey, I’ll deal with you when you get back! ;) But you’re right, page load time is something to take note of.

Great tips Josh, especially the one about rerouting your link building techniques. Often people just focus on the homepage and tend to miss out on high-quality link juice that way.

Thanks Zunaria, you’re right. And more than just passing link juice I think it comes down to the user experience and getting conversions. The less potential consumers have to navigate to find the information they want the better it is for you.

Hi Josh,
I always love to read articles that focus on fundamentals. People are always looking for the “secret” sauce and yet often don’t have the basics in place to support a “secret”‘should they find one! I specifically love the part you touched on regarding broken links causing doubt for users about current website content. Whenever I end up on a website with broken links and I’m a potential customer, I often wonder if the company has the resources to support my business? I automatically assume that if they don’t have the resources to keep their links updated, they probably can’t support me to the full extent neded as a customer.

I couldn’t agree with you more about the user experience. If I’m looking to buy something or get more information about a company and having trouble finding what I want due to broken links, why should I care if the company doesn’t?

Hey Joshua,
A really nice write-up here. The most important point that I found in it was sending traffic to right source of “www” or “non-www” version. A lot of people fail to understand the gravity of that point but hopefully this post will clear their doubts up.

Hey Nishant,

Thanks for taking time to comment and I agree. Of the ones on this list sending traffic to the right source is the one I always bang my head against my desk on. It’s such an easy fix I always tell a potential client that’s something they could fix right away.

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