Proactive SEO monitoring

 

SEO monitoring is a concept that follows no boundaries or set of rules.

 

Some agencies, bloggers, and SEO guys use some methods to monitor SEO campaigns effectively, while others rely on a unique set of strategies to achieve the same.

 

Though, the purpose of proactively monitoring SEO is to keep up with the SEO updates and ongoing trends in the SEO industry and navigate through any problem that could come.

 

In simple terms, SEO monitoring boils down to the concept of being informed and prepared for what’s coming.

 

It’s quite important for your business to stay aware of the happenings in the SEO world to shield against rugged search engine updates, practices, and algorithmic changes.

 

Here are the best and “in the trenches” strategies that can help you stay proactive in your SEO strategy.

 

 

•       Up-to-date knowledge about the SEO industry
•       Have an Eagle eye on competitors
•       Maintaining a Quality Backlink Portfolio

 

Let’s expand on each strategy and how you can use it effectively to monitor SEO proactively.

 

Up To Date Knowledge about SEO industry

Eavesdrops is the best way to understand what’s going on in any industry. The same goes for SEO.

 

The foremost thing you can do is to follow SEO thought leaders (leaders include guys that work in Google) and SEO top content making blog websites that produce content like clockwork.

 

Some top SEO websites like SEO journal, Moz, Ahrefs…

 

They usually pump out content that either hint about something or explains something.

 

The more you put keen attention to the latest industry trends and invaluable insights the companies and thought leaders would come up with, the sleeker and effective your strategy would be.

 

The point is, keen observation with peeled eyes helps you draw out a lot of insights that you can supplement your SEO strategy with.

 

Let’s understand this with an example,

In early 2015, there were talks and hints of a potential change in Google Algo, especially changes related to mobile-friendliness, and later in April, the changes took place…

 

Initially, these changes had caused a little effect on overall rankings than predicted, however, later they started causing issues.

So those who were connected with trenches knew about the forthcoming changes and got themselves prepared beforehand so they could stay out of the trouble.

 

That’s why it’s important for you to observe industry leaders and ongoing trends to stay afloat.

 

Let’s look at the consequences of not being up to date with SEO trends…

 

Back before April 2015, those who weren’t actively monitoring the latest SEO activities and observing trends had gone blindsided and their websites saw a huge slump in traffic.

 

So they had to behave reactively to cope up with the changes.

 

And in the neck-to-neck competition, any loophole allows competitors to jump in and further their authority meanwhile, which shrinks your chances to stay competitive.

 

The point being, it’s vital to be aware of ongoing trends, and always be ready to anticipate proactively so you never have to decide reactively and lag the competition.

 

This is the simplest, yet most effective way to maintain a proactive SEO strategy.

 

Just monitor what’s currently going on and you’ll be able to sniff the forthcoming updates and trends from miles.

 

Have an Eagle Eye on Competitors

 

Keeping a closer look at what competitors are doing provides so many insights into what’s working.

 

…what keywords are working, how much content they produce, what’s their primary focus at the moment.

 

Where do they address their audience in the awareness cycle; do they produce content for the most aware, less aware, or partially aware audience.

 

All of this and more you could get to know when you peek into what your competitors are doing.

 

Also, peeping into their content, you get to know which content pieces are getting the most visitors.

 

Also, you can observe whether content pieces are seasonal or they are producing traffic throughout the year — with little spikes here and there.

 

This insight is extremely crucial that helps you develop your own SEO strategy based on what’s working.

 

But there’s a caveat; don’t steal the keywords or any activity of competitors without knowing the base of the strategy.

 

You must know the full picture to implement the concept meticulously and unerringly.

 

One more thing you can do is to identify competitors’ content that needs improvement.

 

Maybe you can plug in an infographic, maybe add a few subheadings or maybe change the angle… And post it on your blog.

 

The point being, be active in knowing your competitors, it will go a long way.

 

Maintaining a Quality Backlink Portfolio

 

Backlink tactics had received tantrums over the years before they evolved to what they are now.

 

It’s not that maintaining high-quality links was illegal or considered an outrageous SEO practice, but some dirty marketers and douche SEO peeps had exploited the living daylight out of it.

 

They used shady tricks to deceive search engines to gain traction.

 

But now the search engines have evolved and implicated restrictions on such shady tactics.

 

So what we are left with is ONLY legitimate ways that can help improve our website ranking massively.

 

So how do you do this?

 

Changes in websites are common routines. Sometimes it requires you to take down a URL or two.

 

However, the permanent removal of a URL without a redirect in place to the newly created resource can leave a lot of broken links on the website.

 

And the real problem occurs when the removed backlink has links that are redirected to other resources of the same domain.

 

This, in the long run, dents the backlink portfolio of your website and could cause a slump in search rankings.

 

To avoid this to happen, 404 link reclamation is a useful method for properly optimizing a backlink portfolio.

 

You can use tools such as Google Webmaster and Beam us up to find broken links, redirected links, so you can optimize them.

 

Here, you can do two things. Either you can fix those broken links by redirecting them or if you could you can permanently delete the broken links altogether – well, this is an ideal scenario.

 

Though, keep in mind that the entire process can consume your time and energy as it would require you to execute the process manually – however, optimizing a backlink portfolio is quite a proactive SEO approach.

 

Wrap up

 

To stay ahead of the competition requires meticulous and proactive monitoring of SEO strategies.

 

…Strategies that allow you to sniff trends way before they happen, so you can stay prepared for what is coming.

 

Also, make sure that your website doesn’t carry any glitches that cause a ranking slump.

 

Now you have these best methods to work out a proactive SEO strategy.