There’s a lot of buzz about SEO these days, and while the jury may still be out on the nuances, there’s no doubt that SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, improves your rankings and helps your content get in front of your audience.
SEO helps readers and searchers, a.k.a. your audience and customers, find you when they’re “Googling” (or Bing-ing) a topic you feature. With literally billions upon billions of landing sites on the Internet, you have to tailor your content to move up in the ranks and be sure you’re there
to answer the call! There’s an infinite amount of content on the web. Without SEO, yours will be lost in the shuffle.
With all the talk of SEO these days, plenty of “experts” will tell you ways to “trick” your content or try to use sneaky ways to move to the top of the ranks. Unfortunately, most of these tips and tricks are obsolete before you can even get them into place. The truth is, content is king, and well-written, relevant and quality content is always your best bet. Still, with millions of relevant hits out there, it’s definitely worth it to stay up on the trends you can take advantage of to give yourself a boost.
As we look forward to our marketing goals for 2017, you might be wondering how you can reach your audience more effectively. What are the latest trends and the remarkable things you need to know in 2017? How can you make sure your content is getting out there, being found and read and giving you the highest ROI on your human capital?
Here are the 5 most important areas to focus on in 2017:
- Focused, Clear and Relevant Content
Google changed the face of web search in 2013, when it ran the Hummingbird update. The update was focused on returning the most relevant and best results for searchers. As Google’s web-crawlers improved their efficiency, they became more and more discerning. Keyword loaded “crap” content was instantly irrelevant, and in many cases, detrimental. Tricks were off the table. Relevancy and quality became the top priority. With each new update, link schemes and other hacks became useless.
Today’s top ranking sites must have content related to their business, the traffic searches and other content on their website. In other words you can’t load up your website with irrelevant content or flood your site with bait for the crawlers. While ranking for a single keyword or phrase isn’t impossible, it’s rapidly becoming outmoded. Even with long-form content and strong backlinks, natural, quality content trumps all.
The good news: It’s better for your site, your audience and your business’s integrity. We’ve all had the experience of landing on a “spammy” link-filled site or a site with content that was barely readable. Much of this content was put in place to fool web crawlers into and force Google rankings. Now that we’ve moved past that, we can get back to authentic content that moves organically through the Google ranks and hits its target audience.
- Mobile Optimization
If your site isn’t mobile optimized, it’s time to get to work. Over the past few years, mobile optimization has gone from convenient for your audience to absolutely mandatory. In fact, today, more people use mobile search than searching from their PC. Google now favors mobile-optimized sites in their search rankings. So if you want to get to the top, you must be mobile friendly.
Don’t scrimp when it comes to the setup and technical aspects of your site, even if you’re a small business. Your website in general needs to have good technical structure in order to be crawled and indexed. If you’ve got a disjointed website, if it’s hard to navigate, or not mobile optimized, you will move back in the search engine ranks, even if you products are popular and your customers love you.
Your site should be easy to navigate, and have a landing page that tells your mobile customers what they need to know. Local results are key, and are what most customers are searching for. If you don’t show up on local mobile searches your customers might just head to the next town over rather than visiting you right around the corner. Put your NAP (name, address, phone) content right up front, and have a site that’s polished, fast and simple to navigate. Don’t overload your site with pop-up ads, links and content that can slow your users down.
- Engaging Video Content
A look at the latest stats on video marketing, and it’s pretty clear—video is having quite a moment right now. Users love video. They love to share it, and search for it, and it will drive traffic to your site. Not only has Google’s partnership with YouTube strengthened Alphabet stocks, but it’s changed the way people search.
Video becomes the new way to answer questions. Rather than “Googling” for an answer, people now learn it by watching “Youtube”. Why? Because video is engaging, it’s entertaining, and online video is like an individualized television channel where the user gets to search out and control the content.
If you want to drive traffic to your site, video is a great opportunity to get in front of an audience. Even low-budget tutorials and grassroots video can be a great audience booster. Get your CEO to explain how your widget works, or film your FAQ’s.
Video boosts social media shareability, and audience engagement. Your customers are able to put a face with the business that they love, and video speaks to people in a way that text simply cannot do. If you can add video content to your site, do it right away!
- Linking Up to Quality Sites
Old links and outdated information won’t help boost your site in search engine rankings. Once again, it’s another spot where quality should be valued way above quantity. While it can be a bit of a scramble to keep every link relevant and fresh on your site, you can boost your chances by using links from reputable sites you’re familiar with, and building in links back to content within your own site.
When you add links to your site, don’t set them to open up in new tabs, even though it can be tempting. Readers find the tabs disorienting and messy, and chances are, it won’t help them stay on your site (in fact, it disables their ability to use the back button to return to your page, so they can get even more lost).
When you curate links, do it carefully and deliberately. Look for content from recent sites, and sites related to your business. For example, if you use the term “run your business” you wouldn’t want to link to a site about running, even if it’s popular. It’s off topic, confusing to your reader and won’t boost your ranks. Instead link to other web content that’s just as high quality as your own content
- Social Media, Apps and Other “Bonus Content”
E-Books, apps and other pieces of downloadable and streamable content can boost your SEO. Consumers want mobile apps, and in fact, apps now account for the majority of digital media consumption. People access content on apps and it keeps them visiting your site over and over.
When it comes to engaging with customers they want to reach you in a variety of ways. They want to connect with you via social media, they want to download an app and read your e-Book tutorial. Offering a variety of media and content helps you reach a wide range of audience members and connect in different ways. The majority of marketers are using social media to connect and boost their content and SEO.
It’s all about being creative with your content and offering a little something for everyone. It doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, but it does need to be quality, applicable and creative. It needs to be user-focused, speak to your audience and deliver the message they want and need.
Make it your goal in 2017 to avoid “tricks and hacks” to game the system, and instead to focus on quality content that’s engaging, relevant and fresh. The biggest secret to SEO is that it has to be done in a genuine, authentic way, and there’s really no fast-and-easy way to get around it. Focus on local customers and reaching your target market and you’ll have your most successful year yet!
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
