Search engine optimization practices are dynamic and it changes from time to time. Search algorithms and user experience being empowered by data analytics and artificial intelligence. The focus today is not business but your customers. Below are the Top 9 paramount that every SEO professional should pay attention to.
Voice Search evolution: With the increased use of mobile devices and revolutionary mobile applications no doubt voice search has increased rapidly in the past few years, The popular voice search applications which are being used currently are Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Mircosoft Cortana, Samsung Bixby, Amazon Alexa, Yandex Alice. Google Assistant alone holds 90% for voice search capture ability and expected that 50% of all searches will be voice-based by 2021. So focus on local voice search and conversational keywords. Learn more about artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms & prioritize search intent via Semantic search and use keywords accordingly.
Video keyword Research: Video platforms have transformed the way we search and consume content. Especially with the rapid increase of current public video platforms such as Youtube and Tiktok, the creators, as well as viewers, have brought the storm for video search queries on these platforms. To increase the brand and business reach, every company irrespective of its niche should make explanatory videos, company culture reels, brand films, and vlogs, etc. Rankbrain from Backlinko has explained very well about How to Rank YouTube Videos in 2021.
Mobile-First Indexing: Mobile-geddon – The first Google algorithm update to make mobile-friendly websites released on April 21, 2015, to optimize & give priority to websites that display well on smartphones and other mobile devices. Later in 2018 Google rolled on their mobile-first index and started ranking websites that are made based on the quality of UX they provide on mobile devices. It says your website should have a mobile-friendly version or google will display something which cant be shown to the mobile user. As of 2019 there are 64% active mobile internet users worldwide Prioritize the mobile load time, verify your structured data on your mobile site as well as on desktop version, and prepare AMP.
Quality Content Development: We all know that “Content is King” but this statement is justified only when content is having quality information. The user should receive the best piece of content when he searches for any particular need. Write long content with long-tail keywords and place inbound and outbound links with supporting video or images to make it more meaningful as Google can see how much time a user spends as soon as he lands on your webpage, keep an eye on analytics report, bouncing rate and don’t stuff too much media files to let website load faster. Last but not the least, follow Google Panda guidelines to stay on the safe side always.
Secure socket layer: Increase your website security and users’ trust by installing SSL.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network and keeps customers’ information safe & encrypted such as credit card information, personal details, etc. After many pieces of research, digital marketing experts found that Google gives positive signals and increases keyword rankings of the websites which have HTTPS & SSL Installed.
User-Experience Design: In simple terms user-experience refers to how easy and pleasant a user feels when he uses a website, product, or application. Google gives greater value to those websites which are made by keeping in mind the user experience, which means the website should be easy to navigate, have the necessary information that the customer is looking for. According to statistics, 70% of customers learn about a business from their website.
Influencer Marketing: Celebrity endorsement is the original form of influencer marketing. The rapid increase of Social media channels in the past few years gave rise to influencer marketing – The niche audiences from these social media channels can often offer more value to brands than any other channel. Influencers have the power to affect the purchase decisions of the audience- as their audience trusts them and most importantly they have good virtual relationships with their influencers. To get SEO benefits, Convince your influencers to give backlinks and recommendations. According to a survey, 34% of Instagram users have bought something because a blogger/vlogger/influencer recommended it & 89% of marketers alone identify Instagram’s most important channels for influencer marketing. Thanks to Hootsuite for writing this beautiful post on How to Work With Social Media Influencers & How to Find the rate of an Instagram influencer.