12 Actionable SEO Examples to Inspire Your Strategy

 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for getting your website visible in the search engines. Companies across different industries use SEO to find new leads and generate traction for their business. But, what does successful SEO look like?

Find out in this compilation of SEO examples!

12 examples of SEO for your site

Here are some of our top examples of SEO to inspire your optimization efforts:

1. Nike — Product pages and keywords

First up on our examples of SEO is Nike.

Since Nike is a brand and a successful ecommerce store, their SEO focuses on getting people to their website to find and purchase their products by practicing SEO best practices for product pages. That means they must integrate keywords effectively on their product pages to compete with other, similar brands.

For example, they use clear descriptions to outline each of their products and fit keywords related into the page.

They also list their product names in the URL, headings, and body copy. On top of that, they have informational articles and FAQ sections about their products to increase their visibility in search engines.

If you have products on your site, you should focus on ecommerce SEO by integrating key terms throughout the page and be as descriptive as possible.

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2. Taylor Swift — Schema markup

Selling out arenas isn’t a problem for The Eras Tour, but Taylor Swift’s website still makes use of schema markup via MusicEvent markup, which highlights the upcoming stops on the record-breaking tour.

With schema markup (also known as structured data), your business can provide search engines like Google with more context about your site and organization. This increased understanding can result in higher organic rankings.

3. Starbucks — UX and images

Next up on our list is Starbucks. This well-loved coffee company has become a household name for many reasons, one being their focus on the user and how framing their products through images and branding.

In this SEO marketing example, the website speaks directly to the user, and the images and graphics create a seamless, unique experience for visitors. The images also include alt text, which is not only important for SEO but also accessibility.

These images help with on-page SEO (a type of SEO), as Google rewards sites with fast, well-integrated images. Also, since the content naturally leads users to convert, they get extra bonus points towards their rankings.

Using images on your site can help you promote your brand and give people a better experience as they browse your site. Also, you can show off your products and services and encourage users to convert.

4. Nerdwallet — Backlinks

Got links? Nerdwallet does, along with the strategy for acquiring them.

The brand’s leaned into developing helpful tools, from budget worksheets to cost of living calculators, that help users research critical financial decisions. As an SEO optimization example, check out their cost of living calculator:

According to Ahrefs, the URL has received more than 5000 backlinks from 1000 different domains, ranging from Wikipedia to Salesforce to Yale. This content is so effective from a link acquisition perspective because it appeals to a broad audience.

Plus, the tool anticipates a user’s need by allowing them to specify:

• Their current city
• The city they’re researching
• Their current income

Takeaway: Interactive — and relevant — content is extremely effective at attracting reputable backlinks. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Be useful.”

5. Ulta — Navigation

One of the best SEO examples is Ulta, whose website has a seamless navigation. Navigation systems tell search engines how pages are related, and they also make it easier for users to move throughout their website.

To start, Ulta has a clean navigation bar that makes it easy to see the main sections of their site.

Then, the dropdown menus serve as a simplified sitemap and clarify page relations.

Finally, when you click through pages, you can see the breadcrumb navigation tabs, which help users move back and forth between sections without having to start from scratch.

This SEO tactic directly benefits users and search engines — the main goal of optimizing your website. You should be sure to include seamless navigation on your pages to give yourself the best chance at ranking.

6. Apple — Copy and images

As you know, keywords are necessary for helping your site satisfy search intent and tell Google what pages are about. Apple uses copy and keywords to promote their products on search engines and help users learn more about each item.

Their copy is short and easy to read while still giving users the information they need about each product.

They also use images to help with their clean branding and add visual intrigue to their pages.

All these features help Apple rank high in the search results and give users an immersive experience before they even buy a product. Consider adding similar approaches to your website to make sure you rank well — or get professional help with national SEO services.

7. Canva — Programmatic SEO

Programmatic SEO is a powerful tool for search engine optimization efforts, but requires care. Canva provides one example of how businesses can use programmatic SEO in their strategies.

Canva uses programmatic SEO to generate content for different templates, like:

• Business cards
• Resumes
• Websites
• And more

Even though the URLs fail certain SEO best practices (like by missing meta descriptions), the URLs rank well for high-volume searches, like “business card template” which has more than 20,000 monthly searches.

Takeaway: Consider where your business can provide unique value with programmatic content, but watch for making SEO mistakes, like producing pages that offer little value to users.

8. Semrush — Keyword integration and page speed

The best SEO examples target different areas of SEO, just like Semrush — a leading industry name for digital marketing. They have keyword integration down to a science, making it easy for Google to identify the page’s topic and for users to get the information they need.

For example, you can see how they add the target keyword throughout the page title, body, and headers.

They also make sure to add the target keyword in the URL, which is a significant factor in technical SEO.

Also, their pages load quickly, according to Google PageSpeed Insights.

Keyword integration is essential, but so is making sure that your site loads quickly. You can use tools like PageSpeed Insights to get reports on your website and see how and where to make improvements.

9. Bankrate — EEAT

Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust (EEAT) is an important part of SEO, especially for organizations in the health and finance sector. Bankrate provides a great SEO marketing example for demonstrating EEAT:

The site’s content features several trust signals, including:

• Authors, editors, and reviewers
• Author pages, which include:
  • Years of experience
  • General experience
  • Education
  • Content published on third-party sites
• Advertiser disclosure

Demonstrating EEAT requires bringing multiple pieces of a puzzle together, but is critical when building trust with users — which is essential if you want to onboard these users as customers.

10. Meta — FAQ answers

Our examples of SEO conclude with Meta’s FAQ section, which is a perfect way to target customer queries and search results.

Meta uses their FAQ to answer questions about their products. If you type in these questions to Google, you will see Meta as the top result since they answer them and are the most authoritative source on the topic.

If you want to rank in the SERPs, you should target questions in your headers and answer them in the first few sentences of the body copy. This step can also help you rank for featured snippets and give users a better experience as they research.

11. Crumbl Cookies — Franchise SEO

Crumbl Cookies has more than 950 franchise locations across the U.S.

The company’s site features URLs for each of its locations, from Springfield, Missouri to Chambersburg, PA. Rankings for these pages vary. While some appear mostly for branded terms, others have gotten traction for non-branded localized terms like:

• “cookies modesto”  (as in Modesto, California)
• “cookie delivery massachusetts”
• “cookies ann arbor” (as in Ann Arbor, Michigan)

However, the company and its franchise locations are serious about local listings.

Search for Crumbl Cookies on Google Maps, and you’ll come across thoroughly-optimized Google Business Profiles, which feature the location’s service options, online ordering menu, and recent posts.

It’s worth noting, however, that the Google Business Profile name includes the location, like “Crumbl Cookies – Durango,” which veers from Google’s recommendations.

12. Simon Roofing – Local SEO

You may not know Simon Roofing, but you’ve likely seen their roofs. For more than 100 years, the company’s provided commercial roofing services, including to the National Park Service.

The company’s adopted local SEO with locally targeted content on its site, like:

• Commercial roofing for Dallas
• Commercial roofing for Nashville
• Commercial roofing for New York

In the above example, you can see the keyword-focused H1 heading, “Commercial Roofing Services in New York,” along with text that mentions different areas in New York, like Mount Vernon and Yonkers.

If you’re considering localized content, remember to make the content unique to the area. Include images — bonus if it’s pictures of your work from the area — and incorporate mentions unique to the area, like landmarks, events, and more.

Make your site an SEO example

Now that you’ve seen these examples from real companies using SEO, it might be time to start implementing and tweaking your approach. If you want help with making your site a shining SEO example, get a free audit with the SEO.com app!

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Get inspiration from your competitors, track your rankings, and do keyword research all in one place. Find opportunities faster with SEO.com!

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