Search Engine Optimization is one of the most dynamic fields of digital marketing. If you are a marketing student, what you learn while in college might be outdated by the time you graduate.
With the search engines constantly revamping the algorithms, it can be hard to pin down what works and what doesn’t. When you are writing papers on the topic of SEO, you will need to consider both evergreen tactics and the latest trends. With that in mind, here are some SEO tricks that are currently most relevant for marketers.
Table of Contents
Paying Attention to User Experience
Commonly termed as UX, user experience relates to how a user navigates your website. Thinking of 2021 and beyond, this aspect of your site will significantly influence your SERP ranking.
Suppose a user starts a search and lands on your website. But it is taking too long to load, or the website isn’t pleasing. The user is likely to click on the back button within a few seconds to look up another site.
In marketing terms, this is called pogo-sticking – the user searches multiple websites to figure out which one is most appealing. This will signal the search engine on which websites are not favorable to the audience.
In other words, no matter how good your content is, the user experience of your website can determine whether the search engine likes your page or not. To optimize your UX, you have to make sure your site is mobile-friendly, user-friendly, and uploads swiftly. In addition, you should have an idea of how a user interacts with your website and keep updating the pages as needed.
Getting Backlinks
When two websites are mostly alike, the search engine evaluates the backlinks to rank them. The relevance of backlinks continues to be a prominent factor in SERP.
You will need backlinks from relevant and quality websites to build your online reputation. One way to tackle this is to check out your competitor’s backlinks and try to gain a link from similar or the same websites.
Also, making an effort to build relationships with other businesses will help you generate high-authority backlinks.
If your business has a physical store, then it is important to get local backlinks. You can consider local news publications, business directories, and vendors to link to your business.
Adding Schema Markups
Thinking of technical SEO, we can conclude that schema markup plays a big role in your website’s ranking. This is microdata embedded in a website that helps Google identify its relevance.
Adding this structured data will feature rich snippets from your page. For instance, it could include:
- ratings and reviews;
- availability of products;
- image thumbnails.
These can further gather attention from the search engine and users, leading to more traffic to your sites.
Creating Customer-Centric Content
This is perhaps the most important aspect when it comes to nailing SEO. Apart from the technical part, you should make sure that your content focuses on the customer rather than on your own business. If you are looking for creative ideas on writing 501words has some good ideas.
You will need to revamp your sales copies and make sure that they solve your audience’s pain points. Trying to outsmart the SEO algorithm without adding useful content will not give you long-term results.
Using Contextual Multimedia
Search engines are well past looking at just the keywords. Moving forward, you will need to ensure that the entire website aligns and interacts with the audience in the best way.
Aside from written content, you will have to think about graphics, videos, and audio that can make your page more compelling. These additions should also be optimized for search intent.
Considering Voice Search Optimization
According to a recent voice search statistical study conducted by Oberlo, 71% of consumers prefer to use voice search. If you are not already optimizing for voice search, it is high time that you do.
As you can imagine, this will differ from the typical SEO tactics. You will need to focus on developing persona-based content rather than tying up random strings of keywords together.
Consumers are also likely to frame full sentences when voice searching. Therefore, think in terms of FAQ questions and add them to your web pages.
Remembering About the Relevance of Eat
According to Google, EAT expands to expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These elements should all come together for your website to get a prime spot on the search engine’s real estate.
Google has a combination of algorithms that work together to evaluate a business for its EAT. This means that your content has to establish accuracy, reliability, and credibility.
You should also be careful when using user-generated content as oversight on guest posts could lead to a low-quality rating.
Takeaway
Remember that SEO is not only about attracting an audience to your site. You need to go one step further and strive to convert this attention. It is necessary to combine SEO with brand recognition to raise your overall conversion rates.