While the short term may seem like a crazy time in the world of online marketing and SEO, the long term can be a whole other ballgame.

In case you’re wondering, SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s all about improving your website’s rankings for keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business.

What do I mean by long term strategies? Let’s take a look.

1. Create content that continues to entertain.

The phrase “quality over quantity” drives me nuts. But in case you’re wondering, it’s something you need to be thinking about when it comes to your content strategy.

Always try to produce high-quality content that will keep your readers interested. If you want to keep them for the long haul, you need to continually provide value. Creating content that is informative and entertaining helps you achieve this. And remember, people like to get information and enjoy content that is informative.

2. Focus on one or two topics per post.

If you’re posting frequently, your content may become diluted. Your audience will be pulling their attention away from your content to other articles and blogs published around the same time. Additionally, if you have too much going on in too many posts, it can cause confusion. As much as possible, you want to keep things simple and streamlined.

Keeping things simple means you can focus on a few important points per article. To make sure you’re not losing your audience, try to write one or two solid posts each month. If you have more than that, consider breaking it up into several shorter pieces.

3. Use keywords in your headlines, subheads, and captions.

When you have an article published somewhere, that article usually winds up in some type of search engine. These engines exist to help people find the information they want. To ensure your articles reach the right audience, incorporate keywords into your headlines, subheads, and captions.

What keywords should you use? A search engine can tell you the number of times a certain word or phrase is used in comparison to other articles on the topic. For example, if you’re writing about weight loss, you may want to include the word “weight” in your headlines and content. Alternatively, you could include the phrase “how to lose weight” or “tips for a slimmer waistline.”

As a general rule, the more times a word or phrase appears in an article, the more relevant that content is to people searching for that information. Naturally, this varies by industry, but overall, the more you can incorporate keywords into your content, the better. Doing this doesn’t cost you anything, and it may even bring in a few extra visitors to your site.

4. Optimize your site for the major search engines.

Not only should you incorporate keywords into your content, you should also make sure you’re presenting yourself in the best light on the major search engines’ front ends. This entails everything from making sure your website is aesthetically pleasing to the eye to having the right type of content.

On the front end, you want to make sure that the search engines can find and interpret your content effectively. This is where things like proper keywords and titles for articles and blog posts come in. Make sure these are relevant to the article and provide some value. Remember, the title of your article should reflect the content within. Don’t try to trick the search engine with clever wording or alternate titles. The better your content, the more likely the search engine is going to reward you with high rankings and greater visibility.

5. Build a community.

There are several ways you can build a community on your site. You can start with a forum where people can discuss various topics. You can also create a library of helpful articles that new members can access. Finally, you can set up email groups where subscribers can talk about various aspects of your industry and share information that will be of value to one another.

A place for members to meet and discuss various topics is something you can definitely establish on your site. There are a few options here, but you can’t go wrong with a forum.

A library of helpful articles is a great way to keep your audience engaged and interested in your content. If you have extensive knowledge about a certain topic, you can write an article that will be of value to your audience. This way, people can come back time and time again to read new articles that have been added to the library.

Email groups are a fantastic way to keep in touch with your audience and engage with them on a more personal level. Whether you have an interest in a certain niche or topic or are just looking to stay in touch with your readers, you can create an email group and start communicating with your subscribers on a regular basis. This is a huge benefit of having a blog, since you can then build a list of email subscribers that you can later on market to with relevant content.

6. Measure the results of your long term strategies.

To truly understand the effectiveness of your long term SEO and online marketing strategies, you need to measure the results. Like any other part of your business, you can’t expect to see instantaneous results. However, you can see results over time. And this is where metrics like traffic and engagement rates come in.

The better your content, the greater the chance you have of getting some great results from your long term strategies. When it comes to SEO, content marketing, and building a healthy audience, nothing can replace hard work and dedication. With these six tips, you’re sure to see some solid results from your efforts, and in time, you may even see your audience grow to a point where you have more than you could handle.