For the second year in a row, we’ve decided that March will be all about SEO (#SEOmonth). To kick off the celebration we’ve asked our SEO team (also known as meme masters around here) if they could explain key SEO takeaways in a less traditional (and less boring!) way. Because, although search engine optimization practices are essential to any brand, SEO is still a mysterious and misunderstood field for many. Our SEO experts put their crazy minds to work and came up with a couple of memes so everyone could understand more clearly the critical role of SEO.
Google Updates
Let’s start with understanding what is SEO’s raison d’être. The core functionality of SEO is making websites accessible and understandable for search engines. If Google, Bing or any other search engine out there can’t crawl your site successfully, read your content and understand your website’s purpose, you are not going to show up on search engines (and no one wants that).
That being said, Google takes pleasure in updating its ranking factors, based on new trends and innovation. Therefore, anyone who cares about SEO should keep an eye out for updates to adjust its SEO practices as soon as possible.
SEO and UX work hand-in-hand
Page ranking is about more than just stuffing a website with keywords and links, it’s about providing the highest quality content and experience to real-life users. That’s why Google loves fast-loading, mobile-friendly websites filled with useful content.
Decrease page loading time
Did you know that 79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with site performance say they’re less likely to purchase from the same site again and that 40% of consumers will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load? Page loading time doesn’t only affect conversion rate and user experience, it’s also one of Google’s top ranking factor.
Quick tip: use PageSpeed Insights, a tool made by Google, to get some advice on how to improve your page load.
Mobile responsiveness: a must-have
Since 2015, Google considers a website’s mobile presence has an important ranking factor. Why? The answer is pretty simple: smartphones. Nowadays, users are interacting with search engines from anywhere, at any time, and on many devices. Websites need to answer positively to this behavioral change by offering a custom user experience on every device.
Make sure your website’s design is adequate to mobile and tablets as well as desktop (loading time, readable content without zooming, no horizontal scrolling, easy to click links, etc.). Don’t wait too long to make those changes, you are already losing revenue by offering a poor mobile experience to your users.
So, kill two birds with one stone and improve your website performance. That way, your website will rank higher on search engines and provide a better user experience (which will eventually lead to more sales!)
Blogging is everything
We won’t say it enough: a blog is essential to any SEO strategy. According to Hubspot, businesses using blogs as part of their content marketing mix get 67% more leads than those who don’t.
Here are some reasons why blogging is incredibly important for any brand whether it focuses on lead generation or e-commerce:
New and Fresh Content Improves Search Engine Ranking
Search engines hate delivering outdated and inaccurate content to its searchers. An easy way to let them know that your business is alive and still relevant is to regularly upload new and fresh articles.
AND! By uploading new content often, you are giving search engines algorithms more reason to index your website on a regular basis, which keeps it on their radar over time.
Implement new keywords
“Keyword” is usually, the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “SEO”. One of the main goals of SEO is to make a web page rank as high as possible when a specific query is typed by a user. By integrating the specific terms searched by users on your website, you increase your chances of appearing on the first page. Blog posts are an easy way to integrate specific long-tail keywords on your website without overdoing it.
Become an industry leader
Offering up-to-date, specialized content is a perfect way to position your brand as a credible player in your industry. Not only does blogging helps your website to rank higher on search engines, but it also makes your brand more trustworthy.
Stay away from duplicate content
Duplicate content can kill your chances of ranking on search results. Because, if there are several pages with the same content across a website (or multiple websites), Google won’t know which pages to include/exclude from its index or which page to rank in search results. Be sure to create original and unique content for all your pages to avoid any problems.
Optimize your product pages
If you manage an e-commerce website, you need to put special thoughts into building your product pages. Each page should have its own unique description with specific long-tail keywords so search engines like Google and Bing clearly understand what your page is about. Also, take time to write compelling metadata, include product reviews and product suggestions. The more content you provide about your products, the better.
In conclusion, search engine optimization is all about consistently keeping up-to-date with search engines’ algorithm, providing a great user experience and creating relevant high-quality content. It can be hard to keep up on your own, so if you need help improving your ranking on search engines through technical analysis and a strong content strategy, let us know!
And, stay tuned! Through the next four weeks, we’ll dig deeper into the mysterious world of SEO. We’ll talk about technical SEO, local SEO, UX and the role of media in SEO.