Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the umbrella term for all the methods you can use to ensure the visibility of your website and its content on search engine results pages (SERPs).
The methods vary from technical practices done behind the scenes on your website to all the promotional ’off-page’ approaches you can use to raise your site’s visibility such as link-building or social media marketing.
It’s a great way to get your content new eyeballs, but a lot of times you are holding your content back from prominent positions in the search engines. Search engines want to show the world your content, but they only want to put in the “top content” for particular phrases.
Also, it’s a constantly changing landscape. Search engine portals develop new algorithms and rules year on year, this is to meet emerging technological trends and how end users engage with online content.
Staying ahead of the SEO trends will help you plan, budget, strategize, and implement successful online business. Here, we’re going to look at 8 tips for your content that will make you perform better.
1. Need for Speed
Google focuses on speed. It’s one thing to drive lots of traffic to your site but if your content is not up to speed to your reader’s expectations, they will leave in a hurry. That being said, loading time plays a crucial role in SEO and your online content must be easy to navigate, use and understand.
2. Focus on Intent
Consumers typically know what they are looking for and it’s your job to give it to them. While keyword volume is an essential for you to stand out in the sea of online content, finding the right keywords are even more important. Google differentiates between the quality and quantity of keyword in your content. Consider context, historical evidence, and market segmentation of your target audience for your keywords.
3. The Power of Voice
While SEO is still very much a text-driven world, voice search has been shaping SEO since 2014. As mobile devices continue to define how we engage with online content, keeping up with voice search technology trends can position your brand for future success.
4. Local SEO
As more and more people use their mobile devices to get the information they want, they are more likely to search information near them. Target your optimization efforts for a specific geographic area by making sure your business details are updated across your site. Your keywords should include content with local keyword data.
5. Be Everywhere
A multi-channel marketing strategy may include email marketing, social media, paid search, mobile apps integration or content marketing. You need to make sure you’re present on all relevant online channels (wherever your audience may be), and not just broadcasting your content. Interact with your audience in a friendly and helpful manner.
6. A Quest for Quality
The key to pleasing both search engines and visitors is to have quality content on our website. You can start out by simply creating blog posts on your website, and as your audience grows, you can expand your content inventory to additional types of media. Create original content and focus on strong headlines. How Buzzfeed and other news outlets have built their success on bite-sized content tells a lot about how people digest information. Whether the aim of your post is to entertain, to inform or to persuade people, keep it short and sweet.
7. Go Mobile
Is your website and its content equally optimized for any given screen size or device? If you want SEO success, mobile search intent and mobile UX should be on your top checklist. With so much traffic coming from mobile devices, it really causes you to think about the mobile user first when designing page layouts and offers. Google stated that responsive design is its preferred method of mobile optimization.
8. Go on a full circle
Drive traffic around the site. You can maximize user clicks by providing your audience with recommended reading options or links to other relevant and interesting pages on your site. This can later on lead to higher trust signals for Google.
Sources:
Ratcliff, C. (2016, January 22) SEO basics: 22 essentials you need for optimizing your site. Retrieved from https://searchenginewatch.com/category/seo/
Agrawal, V. (2017, January) 5 search engine optimization trends for 2017. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/insider/2017/01/11/5-search-engine-optimization-trends-for-2017/
Long, J. (2017, January 23) 8 SEO Trends You Need To Pay Attention To In 2017. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288079
Moore, W. (2017, March 14) Strategies for Improving SEO in 2017. Retrieved from http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/03/seo-google-changes/
Giarratana, C. (2017. February 17) 7 SEO Trends That Will Make You Perform Better. Retrieved from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/7-seo-trends-that-will-make-you-perform-better/185537/
