SEO has been instrumental in the growth of many nascent startups. Even though it is one of the most underrated strategies for digital marketing, the importance of SEO has been stressed one too many times for the healthy growth of a website.
There are new SEO trends that seem to be unearthed every so often which cause a stir among the marketers. These trends are important for agencies to be up to date with to make sure clients can benefit. Let us find out what new trends you should consider for your SEO strategy.
1. Keywords are important, but they are not everything: The most important step in building your SEO strategy is defining the keywords that best describe your business. While the yesteryears have been all about keywords and alt tags, the future is gearing towards intent of keywords rather than keywords themselves.
Rather than slipping keywords randomly, a shift in the strategy is required to think of content as a storytelling process. Long tail keywords are the easiest to rank for. Therefore this shift should not be difficult at all. Ultimately, users will find the information they are looking for and intent of the content will drive value.
2. It is all about Artificial Intelligence: While constant improvements are being made on Siri and Cortana, the last year saw the rise of Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. Google Home is also catching up to them in terms of popularity.
We are at an important juncture where we have to question ourselves on how SEO is reacting to these new intelligent technologies and helping brands sustain their stable growth. SEO strategies have drifted towards favoring these new technologies. High-resolution images with precise descriptions and titles are important for better rankings. Using content with bullet-point descriptions and that aid easy readability also impact ranking.
3. Invest in responsive web design: This is something you’ve read and heard multiple times, yet often ignored. A study that was done last year revealed that between 51% and 60% of searches on Google were done on a mobile device. This is a trend that has been growing at a steady pace for the last 4 years.
Hence, a responsive web design is essential for improving a website’s mobile interface. A website that is not optimized for mobile browsing will leave users frustrated when navigating through menus and in the process, will end up losing valuable customers.
4. Acknowledge rich snippets: Snippets are highlighted results that Google shows the user for their search query. Rich snippets are extra pieces of information that the search engine is able to identify that enhances the user’s understanding of the value of the search query. Since 2009, Google has been devoting time and effort towards this feature to make for a more powerful search experience.
This finds application in product reviews, books and other day to day search keywords. However, there is still plenty to discover with regards to rich snippets as developers are always on the lookout for solutions that ensure the maximum exposure of the site itself.
5. Faster website loading speed: What is more annoying than a site that is not optimized for mobile browsing? It is a site that does not load fast enough. If users are made to wait for over a minute for a site to load, rest assured that they will not be coming back to your site again.
Given how easy accessing information is these days, users will seek a site that is far more reliable and performing. Filling up your website with unwanted toolbars and high-resolution images will slow its performance.
Instead, consider investing time and money in site optimization. Search engines favor sites with faster load times and rich content.
6. Consider using HTTPS: Google rewards websites with HTTPS encryption via SSL certificates. HTTPS provides improved security and privacy for web communications. It keeps information about you and the user’s private information safe and secure.
Making the switch to HTTPS has advantages like improved rankings, increased page visibility, secure referral data, and great user experience. HTTPS also matters when you have a payment page on your website.
Search engine algorithms are evolving every day. Therefore, it is important for businesses to stay abreast of latest SEO trends for increased search engine visibility.
At Results Driven Marketing, we implement SEO strategies to ensure that your digital marketing campaigns are “Turning Clicks Into Clients”, and getting your site the ranking it deserves! To make sure your website is consistently ranking on the search engines and not left out give us a call at 215-393-8700.
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