According to Search Engine Land, Google handles over 2 trillion searches a year! While those two numbers represent a huge spread, it also means you have many opportunities to stick out from the crowd. How can you do that? Through SEO of course.
Sure, Search Engine Optimization strategies have shifted dramatically throughout the years. Most marketers understand the need for allocating some of their budget towards new SEO tactics. Nonetheless, you need to invest in SEO because it gives you more targeted advertising, it is not as expensive as you think, and hey — your customers expect to find you when they search. With that in mind, here are nine SEO optimizations that you can not afford to ignore.
1. Anticipate the Intention
Contemporary SEO practices show that you no longer need an exact keyword match to provide a relevant search result. These days, search engines want to see how people are interacting with your website. Are they coming back for more? Is your site providing them with the right answers? In the past, SEO was focused on getting clicks. Today, it is revolved around post-click activity. Furthermore, you need to satisfy your searcher’s intent as well.
2. Deep Links Via Apps Are Growing in Importance
Mirroring a demographic shift toward mobile users accessing the Internet, Google has been indexing apps for several years. Google believes, as do many others, that apps will overtake traditional websites with regards to functionality and popularity. This is why deep links to apps are a growing trend.
They are essentially links within apps that point toward specific pages. Accordingly, you’ll start to hear the term “app optimization” more often. So, if you don’t have an app you should consider getting one ASAP. If you still want to wait it out, then at least get your business listed on as many other apps as you can.
3. Mobile Optimization Will Overcome Desktop Optimization
We’re all used to using the desktop for search. However, 2016 was the year that mobile searches finally outstripped desktop searches. This shift will not likely stop. Some analysts believe that the desktop will fade into obscurity within five years. In fact, Google even announced that a desktop-specific site is no longer necessary.
4. Page Speed Is Critical
One major ranking factor with website pages is speed. With mobile outpacing the desktop, who has time to wait for a page to load? Think of it this way: all else being equal, the site that loads faster will always outrank the slower page. Not to mention, a slow-loading page will waste your site’s crawl budget. Why? Because Google bots won’t stay on your page for longer than a specified time frame.
The slower your pages load means the fewer chances you have for them to get indexed by Google. Yet, there’s more. Page speed is essential for user experience. Instead of watching your rank drop faster than a hot potato, optimize your page load speeds today.
5. Digital Assistants Are Changing the Game
If you haven’t already noticed, an increasing number of queries are started by digital assistants such as Google Now, Siri, and Cortana. This makes search a bit more complex. To illustrate, spoken language queries are a bit different from typed queries. This means a new form of long-tail keyword queries that emulates spoken dialogue is coming into play. As a result, pages may rank higher if they have conversational content.
6. Google Values Content Marketing
If you want to provide value to your visitors, you need to invest in content marketing. Of course, you have to provide the solutions to the problems your followers are looking to solve. Just do a basic search for something you find interesting. Many articles on the first page are lists and how-tos. This is because they are the types of articles people want. You have to figure out exactly what your audience wants, and serve it up to them on a Google platter.
7. Social Content Will Gain More Relevance
Since Google already partners with Facebook and Twitter, you’ll find that if you search for a news item, a few tweets might appear in your mobile search results. In 2016, more networks will be more heavily indexed. This means that social posts will like carry more and more value. There will no longer be such a distinct separation of “web” and “social” media. So, by all means, post away.
8. Don’t Forget Local SEO
You just can’t forget local SEO. Since Google’s Pigeon update, local SEO has been imperative for every single business that wants to rank well. On mobile devices, 50 percent of desktop searches have local intent.
9. Optimize for Rich Answers
According to Stone Temple Consulting, Google returns “rich answers” to 35% of search queries. That’s a significant increase over the past few years. Many times rich answers are based on public data. For starters, you need high-quality, unique, proprietary content. This is because the rich answers Google uses often come with external data and a link to its source.
If your page is featured in a rich answer, you will certainly experience a spike in traffic. The good news is this can happen even if your site’s authority is not yet very high. An example of rich answers are Wikipedia snippets you find in your search queries. To get the same profile you would:
• Begin with longtail keyword research.
• Find the most commonly searched questions in your industry.
• Curate content that answers these questions. Include the question and direct answer.
• Provide additional information on the question at hand.
• Make sure your content can be found by Google bots, your social accounts and through your site’s navigation.
The SEO landscape is constantly evolving. Make sure your website and your search marketing strategies evolve along with it.
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