Google has witnessed many changes in its algorithms, in a bid to enhance user experience by providing high-value, evergreen content and combat online users that implement suspicious search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase their rankings, unjustly. For online marketers who use SEO to promote products and services, the fate of online marketing are questioned. Are there any changes to the rules? Or are they still the same? Is there a grey line between them?
One of the best SEO practices still remains the creation of superb content, which generates backlinks – get backlinks from high-authority websites. Nevertheless, there is a need for online marketers to tweak their strategies, and if possible, the notion about SEO to continuously improve their Google search ranks.
Harnessing The Power Of SEO
Successful digital marketers understand the power of SEO in improving the visibility of products and services on a website, boost traffic, and generate revenues among others. However, to beginners, this is just another rocket science. To improve your online marketing strategy, here are the four principal areas of SEO to consider: technical SEO, content, on-site SEO, and off-site SEO.
● 1st Pillar: Technical SEO
What makes this pillar the first worth considering? Regardless of what content you post, if a search engine can’t read your content or index your web pages, then the aim of online marketing is nullified. Web crawlers, also known as spiders can crawl your website and highlight any technical issue discovered. To improve the technical SEO of your site, you need to consider the following:
- How you can use robots.txt files and XML sitemaps to control what sections of your website may be crawled by search engines.
- The adaptability of your website to mobile landscape. Is your website responsive on a mobile device? Do online users find it difficult to navigate your site?
- Do your web pages load fast enough to support user experience? Visitors tend to steer away from websites with slow page load times.
- Your website structure is important in technical SEO. Websites are likened to pyramids. Each page must be arranged according to its priority; this improves site navigation.
● 2nd Pillar: Content
Many of us have heard of the famous saying from an essay written by Microsoft founder, Bill Gates: Content is king. These words are somehow true. Besides, websites are just frameworks that house content which provides information about you and your business. However, some content improves page ranking than others as a result of optimization and organic marketing. If you provide a service, then your content should excel in these three categories: service content (what your service is all about), credibility content (why should people patronize your service?), and marketing content (content that positions your service for patronage).
● 3rd Pillar: On-Site SEO
Each web page of your website needs to be optimized; it gets easier when the site has a well-defined structure. The areas to consider include: meta description, descriptive URLs, keyword search, structure data markup, page titles, user experience, content optimization and strong calls to action.
● 4th Pillar: On-Site SEO
As much as high-quality content is important, building trust and authority also determine how well your site will be ranked. Regardless of how appealing your contents are, your site may not be displayed under “search results” if Google doesn’t find it trustworthy. Hence, the use of links, local search, and social media is necessary in boosting your site’s presence.
