Search engine optimization has been the name of the game in boosting organic visibility for more than 20 years. As the nature of SEO continues to evolve, new and more complex tactics are discovered that can help brands rank prominently in a variety of search engine results pages. Even if you’re not in the number one slot in a given SERP, improving visibility generally increases the amount of traffic you can expect.

Nevertheless, SEO is time-consuming and frustrating. Sanding off some proverbial edges in the form of saving time is crucial to both your sanity and overall efficiency. To help you out, let’s take a peek at some time saving tips that’ll increase the efficiency of your SEO analysis.

Focus on “Winnable” Keywords

With so much digital real estate to consider targeting, figuring out exactly what – and where – you should be focusing SEO efforts can be challenging. With respect to keywords specifically, there is often a battle of the biomes at work: is it better to focus on pinging links at more popular and competitive keywords, or spend time targeting less competitive keywords with less traffic?

In most situations, targeting the latter group actually will improve the efficiency of your SEO and save time. If it’s suddenly easier to rank for 10 separate long-tail keyword choices than it is for one hotly-contested variant – all the while attracting the same amount of traffic – then that’s a win-win for everybody.

Make Use of Browser Add-Ons and Extensions

There are many tasks that feel like a grind when conducting SEO analysis – and that’s because they are a grind. However, plenty of options exist that can help speed up the collection of this information, many of which come in the form of browser add-ons and extensions. These utilities can do everything, from collecting a list of all links on a website to conducting comprehensive keyword analysis with a single click.

Given that many of these extensions and add-ons are absolutely free, there is little reason to resort to paying for premium services or manually collecting this information. In situations where specific data-points are needed about your own website, a competitor’s or even a SERP, these extensions are invaluable.

Focus on Mobile

Building a high-quality SEO strategy can require many forms of dedication. For many years, brands have had to consider how a website looks and feels for both traditional desktop users and mobile users alike. In recent years, search traffic has transitioned to a majority-mobile audience, meaning that there’s a greater than 50% chance that the person visiting your website is on a phone or tablet.

If you want to generate the best results in the least amount of time, then focusing on mobile SEO is the way to go. While the best brands will want to cater to everybody, you’ll undoubtedly notice better results from a mobile-only approach than from a desktop-only approach. Given that pinging links to search engines that are unoptimized for mobile will likely result in failure, this strategy can have a huge impact on saving yourself both time and frustration.

Anybody who is ready to save time and improve their SEO efficiency has many actions to consider. Arguably some of the biggest time-savers revolve around the selection of specific keywords, mobile optimization and utilities that collect information automatically. By embracing these three elements, you’ll inevitably save time and still generate awesome gains in whatever niche(s) you target.