SEO or search engine optimization is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing that no business should be without. While important, there’s no doubt that SEO is a complex system to understand – let alone master. If you are one of those having a tough time with SEO and website visibility, then you’ve come to the right place.
Keywords Are Still Key
Years since the introduction of SEO, keywords are still one of the primary ingredients for good SEO. With the right amount of keywords and the right keywords as well, you can place considerably high on SERPs. This 2021, there are a few things to note about keywords.
Instead of focusing and spamming one keyword, using multiple relevant ones is now the key. As per SEO wizards from Master SEO Toronto, more relevant keywords make the entire content look more natural. As Google becomes smarter, it’s important to make sure that posts don’t look spammy as well.
Website Performance Matters
SEO isn’t always about the content. It’s also about how well your website performs. This means the website should load fast and properly. This factor is affected by many aspects of building a website. For one, you need to run your platform on a good host.
Another is that you shouldn’t rid your website with unnecessary objects that would make loading a nightmare. As much as possible, the website needs to be simple and direct to the point. Let the users know what they can see and where they can see it through perfectly placed CTAs instead.
Metadata As The Bait
The metadata is arguably one of the most important parts of SEO as well. Simply put, it’s the line of text that’s going to coax users into clicking your link on Google, thus giving them the opportunity to finally get to your website as well.
If you want to maintain good SEO, make sure that your metadata is completely readable from the SERP. Usually, this means making sure that the meta description isn’t going beyond 20 words or less. It should also contain the keyword and it should provide a rough summary of what the content is about.
Make Way For Voice Search
People are becoming more inclined to do voice searches instead of typing. This has a lot of implications when it comes to SEO. Don’t expect people to search using their voice the way they search using their fingers. People are going to speak more naturally through voice search.
This means that for your titles and key phrases, you might want to consider using complete and grammatically correct searches as well. However, make sure to not make the phrases too long as people are still going to be rushing with the searches online.
Embed Videos
YouTube is starting to have a larger impact on SEO. As a website owner, what this means is that you should begin considering embedding videos on your content as well. One video will be good for increasing your website’s SEO.
What’s great about videos is that they can also break chunks of text smoothly. This will help increase the readability of your website well. If you want to, you should expand your website and open opportunities for a YouTube channel as well so that you can aid both of your platforms at once.
Be More Visual
It used to be that Google favored texts because too many visuals can make websites load slower. However, the platform is now open to more visual and graphical content because, for website owners, it’s not easier to have more visual aids without compromising website performance.
Aside from embedded videos, also consider adding photos, charts, and other visuals to supplement the content you create. This benefits your content all in all too as people are most likely to stay and go through the entire content if there are things that break up huge chunks of text.
Link Building Builds Visibility
Establishing good authority online is a meticulous process. From the get-go, one way you can manage this is by link building. Simply put, you need to create content that others might want to link to – this also means creating content that you link towards credible sources as well.
As a general rule of thumb, you should never link to a website with low domain authority. People will not trust the content you produce (same with Google’s algorithm) if you link to websites that aren’t exactly trustworthy. On the other hand, your SEO will be much better once other websites begin linking to you too.
Don’t Let SEO Dictate The Flow Of The Content
What many people don’t understand is that natural and organic-looking content are going to perform a lot better as compared to those which are obviously made to increase SEO. Nowadays, consumers hate websites that riddle them with content full of keywords and key phrases.
A good rule to follow is this: write for people first, then adjust it to have good SEO. You should never let SEO dictate how the content should be as what you get in return is an article that people are going to turn away from because it’s just too inorganic.
There is such a thing as content that’s too optimized for SEO.
Always Be Up To Date With Google’s Algorithm
Last but definitely not least, make sure to keep yourself updated when it comes to changes being made to Google’s algorithm. The biggest challenge with SEO is that it’s very dynamic. Google changes what’s considered and what’s not considered as a good SEO practice.
On the bright side, Google does release notes and announcements about the changes they are making to their algorithm. If you want to maintain good SEO practices, then it is a must that you stay as dynamic as possible as this can make all the difference in the world.
Mastering SEO takes a lot of practice and devotion just because there are so many factors affecting it. Hopefully, these tips guide you towards building a better SEO ranking for your website this year and onward.