The concept of SEO began in the mid ‘90s, even before the inception of Google in 1998; all you needed in those early days were some inbound links, outbound links, keywords in your content, and a working website. The early 2000s saw a series of Google algorithm updates, prioritizing quality sites. By the mid 2000s, updates focused on natural language processing, localization, and mobile search, driven by the increasing number of people using their phones to search. By 2019, Google updates prioritized search intent and long-form keywords. In 2023, SEO remains more relevant than ever with voice search. The growth of voice-activated devices requires optimizing for conversational, long-tail keywords, and user-centric language to match how people today interact with technology.
Current trends for SEO initiatives incorporate AI in generating content such as meta tags, titles, topics, and full body copy. More and more SEO tasks continue to be automated, such as keyword research, site auditing, and platform monitoring. Even website grading sites have significantly evolved to reflect changes in search engine algorithms and user preferences. They now evaluate factors like mobile-friendliness, content quality, user intent, and emerging technologies, emphasizing a more holistic approach to SEO performance analysis.
A reality check
Today’s SEO is complex; it changes constantly and frequently. Variables influenced by algorithmic shifts are almost infinite. Therefore, marketers should be wary of confidently attributing specific outcomes solely to individual actions.
Today, with over 3.5 billion searches per day, Google has come a long way. In fact, the increase in searching has formed “zero-click content” with Google adapting to the trend of users wanting immediate answers, without further searching. We’ll explain below how to take advantage of that feature.
Navigate competition but stay relevant in search results
Crafting engaging and relevant content that aligns with your SEO goals is not as difficult as it sounds. To build a strong SEO foundation, it’s critical to do your keyword research and targeting up front. To find words, queries, and phrases that your ideal customers are searching for, start by compiling a list of broad topics related to your business in a spreadsheet. Use your website analytics data to identify the words and phrases that landed customers to your site already. Then, choose a tool such as Semrush or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to add more depth.
On average, the first five organic results on a search page get 67.60% of all clicks. Clearly, the goal is to rank as high as you can.
On-page (or on-site) optimization is the process of tweaking content, tags, and internal links to improve search visibility. It’s important to remember: we don’t create content around what we want to tell people, we create it around what they want to know. “People-first content” creates valuable information that matches user intent, and in today’s high-stakes competition for engagement, it’s more important than ever.
The steps to mobile optimization are similar to your website, just a bit more granular. Responsive design should be considered when creating the website (e.g., choosing scalable and responsive styles and plugins) to provide a consistent look and feel. Scaling the page’s components and content to a device’s screen size and reformatting it to be more user-friendly can make or break someone’s decision to remain engaged on your site or to leave. To improve user experience, consider using videos and photos. Avoid blocking content with popups. Increase your page speed. And above all, test it thoroughly.
Building powerful backlinks takes work
A quality backlink is a link that comes from a high-domain-authority website, one that is trusted by search engines—and real people. Three characteristics tend to be present in quality backlinks: the anchor text integrates naturally into the original page’s context, the linked page is reputable, and your page’s content aligns with the source of the link. You may be tempted to purchase backlinks but doing so is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and the resulting penalty can tank your search engine rankings. Instead, consider embracing organic strategies like editorial links, brand mentions, links from downloadable assets, and backlinks earned through webinar, all free.
Social media backlinks aren’t as time-consuming as the more traditional method as it requires less research. By making a few adjustments to your current social media platforms, you can gain links organically and quickly. Plus, it’s an easier way to engage directly with your audience. Be sure to post content your audience will enjoy consuming or will find useful. If your content is relevant—and good—they will share. Take advantage of social media groups. Solid and active communities are out there, including in your industry. It’s important that engagement be genuine and timely. An easy, but often forgotten, method is to simply ask employees to add links to your website in their bios. It can be to the home page or to something the employee finds particularly relevant on your site.
Think globally, but act locally
Targeting your geographic audience is fairly simple now. We no longer need to blast the entire internet with our content to find an audience. For businesses with a physical presence, consider sticking close to home and making a big impact on local search. One way is to optimize your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) or establish a presence on local directories. If you’re already using GBP, be sure your customers know how to find your business on the revised platform. Additionally, keep your website and social media profiles updated with new names, information, and links. GBP will give you insights into who visits and how they use your profile. You’ll also find guidance to help you develop and distribute engaging content. Other local directories include Yelp, Facebook, Whitepages, and Bing Places for Business, among others.
Leveraging your customers’ reviews is a straightforward and powerful way to gain traction. Display customer feedback on your website. Consider turning a great review into a highlighted case study. And don’t be afraid to ask your satisfied customers to post reviews on review sites. Research shows nine out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself.
The power of speech
The unprecedented rise of smart devices offers another way to capture your audience: voice search. However, this requires adapting your SEO strategy to accommodate how users verbally search—and what information they want to find. Speaking their requests often results in longer search queries. Besides phones, tablets, and PCs equipped with voice capability, we continue to see the rise of voice assistants like those integrated within Google Home and Amazon Echo.
This evolving technology is reshaping the search engine optimization arena. It allows for instant or “zero-click” answers, something many of us crave. No more waiting for a browser page to open, typing in a query, and waiting for results to load. Another reason to focus on “acting locally” is voice search is often used for localized searches where customers are looking for something nearby.
The impact of featured snippets
A search snippet, or Google snippet, is a generated extract of content from your web page and can be one of three types.
- A standard snippet is typically made up of your title, a meta description, and your URL.
- A rich snippet includes the basic information from the standard version but also integrates ratings, pictures, and extra information like location and availability.
- Featured snippets are selected by Google and appear at the top of the search engine results page. They are chosen to answer specific questions entered into a search bar.
Search snippets are important to entice your audience to click through to your website. Optimizing a standard snippet is as simple as making your title tag unique and ensuring your meta description accurately represents your page. Rich snippets are taken from the structured markup on your page’s HTML. Getting your content to appear as a featured snippet requires a little work. Excellent keyword research is helpful as well as social media research to find out what questions are regularly asked about your industry. Provide a comprehensive but concise and easily digestible answer. Using images gives you an added edge.
Google cares about video, so you should, too
If an image is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. Visual content is a traffic-generating machine and will entice more viewers to click your link because videos also provide an opportunity to include your keywords to help improve your ranking. According to a recent report, far from reaching a saturation point, video marketing is achieving better results for marketers than ever; 92% reported that video gives them a positive ROI.
Track, analyze, and integrate
After the strategy is defined, the keywords determined, the content created, and the backlinks embedded comes the fun part: integrating your SEO into all your digital marketing channels and analyzing the resulting data. The easiest way to track your keyword rankings is to set up a campaign. This will also allow you to track your click-through rate. It shows how effective your title tags and meta descriptions are in attracting attention. Website authority is an SEO metric that predicts your ranking on search engines. It’s based on quality and quantity of backlinks, organic search traffic, and other data. The higher your score from 1 to 100, the stronger and more “authoritative” your domain. Using data-driven insights to inform your ongoing optimization is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal of marketing tactics.
The intersection of SEO and UX design
SEO is the process used to get your website ranked high enough on a search engine results page to be clicked. UX design, or user experience design, is the process used to keep the visitors on your website once there. It’s an easy reach then to realize that making your web pages accessible to everyone boosts your chances of being found in search. Each of the two processes benefit from studying a user persona and a customer journey map. Each of the two processes can affect accessibility. For example, accurate page titles benefit screen readers in addition to algorithms and targeted URLs, and keyword-rich anchor (link) text helps web crawlers understand your content better so you appear higher on results. Therefore, the anchor text should be relevant to the page and not be a generic ‘click here’ message. A meaningful page title helps website accessibility during screen reading, and it’s what’s shown on the search engine results page as the clickable link.
What it all means
If we had to sum it up in one take-away sentence, it would be, “Do your research and stay flexible.” The digital landscape is changing constantly. Your competition for the attention of your target audience is getting fierce. As technology becomes more complex, advancements like artificial intelligence and augmented reality are opening doors to new—and perhaps confusing—marketing strategies.
ddm has the digital tools and expertise to make sense of it all. We have a commitment to providing the best solutions for your marketing challenges. When those challenges involve SEO, we can deliver. Contact us today to explore ways we can help you get optimized.