It’s important to invest in SEO for your website
eCommerce
Everyone wants to get a high click-through rate and a good spot in Google’s search algorithm. But, when it is generally accepted in the industry that Google uses about 200 ranking factors to rank websites and some of these are proven, some are controversial and some are purely nerd-based conjecture. It can be hard to know which factors to focus on when it comes to your search engine optimization (SEO).
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization or SEO refers to the process of improving the position that your website appears at in the “organic” search results returned by sites such as Google.
Why should your website definitely consider investing in organic SEO?
It still works
First and foremost, the techniques employed to improve SEO still work. Even though data regarding organic traffic from Google was pulled fairly recently, the techniques themselves remain sound. Plenty of SEO case studies performed post-Hummingbird can verify this. Joshua Guerra, CEO of marketing firm BIZCOR says “As long as you are focusing on optimal user experience while performing methodic SEO strategies, you will be rewarded with higher positioning and organic traffic.”
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It is not going to stop working anytime soon
Based on the way search engines appear to be developing, it is not likely that SEO will cease to be effective any time in the foreseeable future. On some level, even audio and video searches ultimately depend on keywords the same as traditional text-based content; this link ensures the continued success of SEO techniques as long as it exists.
It is cost-effective
Compared to the costs associated with other forms of online marketing such as PPC advertising, social media marketing, or purchasing leads for an email marketing program, SEO provides fairly good ROI. While PPC may drive more revenue and social media may be more important for your image, your organic SEO in many ways remains a bedrock of your online presence.
Search engines grabbing more market share
Somewhere between 80-90% of customers now check online reviews prior to making a purchase, and this number is only expected to increase. It won’t be long before virtually everyone is searching for products and services online. Do you want them to be able to locate your business, or not? Without organic SEO in place, people will have a very hard time finding you and will instead find your competitors.
The rise of mobile bandwidth and local search optimization
The amount of traffic delivered to mobile devices is expected to exceed that delivered to traditional desktop devices. With this dramatic explosion in mobile usage, a whole new world of effective SEO techniques has opened up for companies, such as local search optimization.
Not having a healthy content profile is damaging
With each and every update to its search algorithm, Google and other engines change the way they look at websites. Things which didn’t exist a few years ago, such as social media indicators, are now given fairly high importance in terms of their impact on your rankings. Not building a healthy content profile spread out months and years is potentially damaging to your business, as it is one of the factors Google evaluates when looking at your site.
Your competitors are doing it
“Remember, SEO is a never-ending process,” says Jason Bayless, Owner of BestSeoCompanies.com, a website that tracks and ranks the efficacy and service of many of the nation’s leading SEO providers. “If you’re not moving forward and improving your position, you’re losing ground to a competitor who is. That’s a simple fact of how the process works”. Don’t let your competitors outmaneuver you by ignoring this valuable tool for your business.
Why is web design extremely important
Web design plays a crucial role in the realm of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it directly influences a website’s user experience and overall performance in search engine rankings. A well-designed website with a clear and intuitive layout enhances user engagement, reducing bounce rates and increasing the likelihood of visitors staying longer on the site. Search engines like Google take into account user behavior metrics, and a positive user experience is a key factor in determining search result rankings. Additionally, a responsive and mobile-friendly design is vital, as search engines prioritize mobile-first indexing. Properly optimized images, well-structured content, and fast page loading times, all integral components of web design, contribute to better SEO performance. In essence, an effective web design not only captivates and retains visitors but also aligns with SEO best practices, ensuring that the website is easily discoverable and ranks higher in search engine results pages.
So, what is most important to Google?
“It is content,” said Google Search Quality Senior Strategist Andrey Lipattsev. “And, it’s links pointing to your site.”
I’ve heard people foolishly suggest links aren’t important anymore. There’s a new way of doing SEO, without links. This is wrong, and it’s dangerous advice. Keep in mind what Andrey Lipattsev said.
We tend to almost always come back to links, as they feature largely and very importantly in the 200 or so ranking signals, such as:
- The volume of external links you have. The more, the better.
- The anchor text of the external links. Links with SEO-focused anchor text need to be relevant to the target page.
- The quality of external link sources. It’s better to get a link from a reputable news source or academic journal than an unknown blog.
Links have always been a valuable aspect of an SEO strategy, and many SEO agencies focus on building relevant links to get first-page search results on Google. That’s because there is a strong correlation between great SEO results (specifically keyword ranks) and the quality and volume of links to a site.
Keep in mind, however, that while links may lead the pack, content, Moz Authority and page authority have significant value and must be considered for any SEO strategy to be successful.
Content marketing and SEO
SEO and content marketing are distinguished from one another in several critical areas, but you can’t separate the two entirely. SEO is generally narrower, and more technical, while content marketing is broader and more holistic — kind of like how a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. Here’s how they converge:
- You can apply SEO more broadly by channeling its specific technical endeavors into content marketing.
- The only way to ensure the success of content marketing is to apply SEO techniques.
Another way to look at it is like this: SEO makes demands. Content marketing fulfills those demands. SEO states the requirements. Content marketing fulfills them.
2020 algorithm updates
In the middle of May, Google had stated that its algorithm update was completed. We will know nothing about this Core updates and who by will be affected by those changes but what Google released on its blog. We will check what are those changes in the update?
1. Introduction of Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is the all-new bunch of metrics (speed, responsiveness, UX, etc.) related to desktop and mobile website performance.
According to Google announcement, page-loading speed, interactivity, and content structure are the three main elements of Core Web Vitals in 2020.
This is nothing new for the experienced webmaster, even a fresh new web builder can know that he needs to improve web loading time and produce well-structured content to climb up to the better rank.
However, the new thing here is Google Search Console got a delicate report where web owners can see how their website performs according to the Web Vital. This will soften the webmasters job as they can have more detailed report from the authentic provider.
2. E-A-T is the ranking factor
Google announced that they have a team of raters to check the accuracy and relevancy of SERP.
That mean they will use human to check if the content in top ten results according to the new search engine algorithm complies with new E-A-T standard (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
Somehow the old methods to get your website stay in the good spot SERP may not work effectively like before due to this change.
However, Google has released its complete guide for anyone who want to understand what is E-A-T standard and what Google expects to see in their top result page.
3. SERP for user’s search intents
In the past, Google suggested content creators to make high-quality content for their websites. Google defined high-quality as some specific characteristics like easy to read, consistent, well structured, and delivers the answer for the title.
The result following is everyone going to write long to extra long articles that not only give the answers but go even beyond the users’ questions.
However, the game has been changed. Google wants SERP to show more relevant content to the search intents rather than the “old high-quality standard”. They have updated the algorithm to determine what is the better relevance content.
There are too many long articles (high-quality) while the users just need quick, short, and direct answers for every question. Google wanted their SERP is more useful for users and they changed.
This change even lead to bigger revolution wherein Google will transfer the content evaluation to the users. The result on the top page will base on how users respond to those contents.
4. Nofollow aren’t ignored anymore
Google used to ignore nofollow links. It means a backlink from any website had nofollow links, it was most likely ignore by Google.
But for now Google state that they will not ignore that kind of link. In the announcement, Google believe referral pages and nofollow links will help them to improve their knowledge about web and content.
The update has two new link attributes sponsored link and user-generated content (UGC). Google also announces:
“No need to change existing nofollow links. If you use nofollow now as a way to block sponsored links, or to signify that you don’t vouch for a page you link to, that will continue to be supported. There’s absolutely no need to change any nofollow links that you already have.”
Google Webmaster Central Blog
Conclusion
Investing in organic SEO is more important now than ever before, despite the current difficulty everyone finds themselves facing regarding the lack of organic keyword data and traffic. Your business definitely needs to have an SEO strategy in place if you are interested in succeeding in terms of online marketing. It remains one of the single most important components of any organization’s branding efforts and online presence.
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