Digital Marketing is a highly dynamic and evolving space, with new developments every few weeks. It isn’t surprising therefore, that marketers are always on the edge about maintaining and improving awareness and preference for their brands in the online sphere.
SEO has been one of the few anchoring ways that has stood the test of time when it comes to offering consistent results at over a long period of time. This is not to say that SEO hasn’t seen its share of evolution. Ask any SEO professional and they will tell you how they always need to be on their toes to stay abreast of the nearly 500 – 500 algorithm updates that Google releases every year, which include some core updates which are significant enough to affect SEO rankings. What this essentially means is businesses can see a significant drop in organic web traffic if they aren’t at the top of their SEO game. However, all is not as bleak as it sounds, and there are a few basic (and might I add, golden!) rules for SEO that will certainly hold you in good stead through numerous algorithm changes.
But before we get to those, I feel that it is important to understand why algorithm updates are so frequent, in the first place.
Search engines such as Google are always seeking to improve user experience by presenting relevant and authoritative results for search queries. As a result, there are numerous updates, both big and small, that are released every week, with are intended to improve search results. As per one of Google’s blogs, these changes are designed to improve how their systems assess content overall, and algorithm updates seek to reward webpages with great content and quality.
So, with this context in place, we can move on to what you can do on a regular basis, to always stay on the right side of the SERP rankings.
5 SEO basics worth their ‘weight’ in gold!
1. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize Regularly
This is an SEO basic that you simply cannot ignore! From improving page loading speeds, link optimization, multi-screen optimization to updating key business information on a regular basis, you need to ensure that your webpage gives the best user experience to all visitors across multiple devices. This also includes other aspects like using the right SEO titles, meta descriptions and image tags, as well as optimizing for voice searches and local SEO, which is gaining prominence.
I strongly urge to monitor your traffic and page performance using Google Analytics, to give you richer insights about what brings more relevant traffic to your site. Staying updated with Google’s On-Site Optimization guidelines is also a good practice.
2. Get Your Keyword Strategy Right
Keywords are integral in influencing page rank. It helps to invest time and effort in developing a keyword strategy that works for you. This doesn’t necessarily mean targeting the most searched keywords in your category, but also for finding the ‘dark horse’ keywords, which may not be very highly searched, but are unique and relevant for your category. It is not difficult to zero down on these keywords, with the multiple keyword research tools available online. One must also stay away from keyword stuffing and Black Hat techniques, as algorithms are getting smarter by the day and can easily wean out pages that do this.
3. Invest in Creating High Quality Content
It is no secret that search engines want to provide the most relevant and informative search results to every query. And content plays a very important role in this. Ensure that your content is updated, unique and valuable for the reader’s intent. One of the ways you can determine this is by the amount of time that visitors spend on specific pages for different search queries. If there is a huge page bounce rate or pogo-sticking, then that should be a red flag to relook at the content. However, if you have people spending more time on any specific page, it is a good sign to continue doing whatever you already are, and improving upon it for all the other pages on your site. Creating content that is optimized for Feature Snippets is currently the rage among SEO and Content professionals for all the right reasons.
Apart from content on your site, it helps to have related and engaging content across multiple platforms and channels, social media being a case in point. Use content marketing for your business by creating quality content in different formats, to ensure that you are visible across the multi-channel online experience that your audience traverses.
4. Build high quality links
There is often a lot of importance given to link-building in SEO. I will not deny that this is important. After all, authority links not only lend more credence, but also attract a higher number of relevant visitors to your site. But while backlinks that lead to your page are pivotal, one must not lose focus on external links.
You would need to ensure that you also link to related pages that offer relevant and enriching information (as long as they are not competitor pages!). You could also inter-link related pages on your own website. It is important to regularly check if these links work, as broken links can really mar the user experience, and you do not want that. Building relationships with other authoritative pages can greatly help your own page rise in prominence on SERPs.
5. Get Vocal and Local Ready
Voice and local searches are on the rise, as more people search on-the-go for nearby businesses. If these do not feature in your SEO strategy, then it is time to pull up your socks. In fact, voice search is one of the fastest growing search types, with more people preferring hands-free convenience to get the information they seek, and with smart virtual assistants such as Siri and Google Assistant built into most smartphones today. Using conversational keywords and optimizing for featured snippets – as most people do not speak in the same way they type!
If you own a local business, then optimizing for local SEO can get you new walk-ins within as less as 24 hours! I am serious. Nearly 50% of the searches conducted on Google today are to seek out local businesses, and almost 74% of the searches end up visiting the business within a day of conducting the search. For this, it is essential that you use not only the right keywords, but the right location-based keywords and updated information in your GMB listings.
On a closing note, we should all remember that search engines are getting smarter everyday, when it comes to understanding context and searcher intent. Keeping reader value at the heart of your SEO and Content efforts will definitely hold your business in good stead amidst the ever-evolving landscape. Regularly monitoring the performance of your SEO efforts will allow you to narrow down on a strategy that works best for you.
Article By,
Mr.Kunal Shah
Director, Rank My Business
