Digital marketing has been evolving ever since it came into existence. 2016 has seen some significant changes in the digital marketing landscape, and 2017 is yet to bring a few distinct SEO features that will revolutionize the concept of search engine optimization. We have associated SEO with keywords, inbound and outbound links, internal linking and page speed for years now. Ever since Hummingbird came into existence, keywords and White Hat SEO have found a new lease of life in the realm of digital marketing.
With every technological shift, we see more companies moving away from the center of optimization. They are losing out on the race of staying on top of every relevant SERP. There have been thousands of articles, news pieces, updates and blogs on the recent trends of search engine optimization. Marketers and bloggers often fail to leverage the best tactics for website rankings.
Here are the five common mistakes almost all webmasters and bloggers are making right now, which is messing with their SEO game –
Keywords are as relevant as they were yesterday
2017 is going to be the year of big data analytics and machine learning, but that does not mean keywords are going to lose importance. In this ever-changing landscape of DM, keywords have always held their ground. Long-tailed keywords are now replacing short keywords and low volume keywords and yielding better results. However, the focus is still on optimization of the keyword structure.
Keywords are the fishing baits. If you want to catch a particular kind of fish, you should use specific baits. Well, you can seek expert help for keyword suggestions for your blogs. Alternatively, you can use keywords search tools including Google Keyword Planner and UberSuggest. On-site blogs should stress more on long tail keywords. Blogs with “how-to” formats often perform better than other generic blogs. Starting your blog as an answer to a popular question (as per Google suggestions or LSI keywords) increases your chances of featuring in the Answer Box.
Internal Linking: keep circulating the link juice
If you see each internal link as a path, then you will easily be able to understand why they are important for Google Bots. They are often added guidance systems for your website users. Your links act as navigation options for your site. It makes each page apparent to your search engines, and it defines the site architecture too.
Inbound links and outbound links may still be the litmus test for all search engines to judge a website. However, internal linking is still one of the most useful ranking factors that define the SEO friendliness of any site.
How to get your media blog-ready?
Most people spend a lot of time optimizing body content and forget about media. Images and videos need optimization too! For WordPress and similar CMS sites, optimization of images is rather easy. Always create an image and video sitemap for your search engines. Otherwise, you will find it impossible to index your media files for Google Image/Video search options. Stick to the .jpg option for on-site images and .png for vector images.
If you are using YouTube to publish your original videos, make sure you use keywords in the name, meta description and general description of the video. Most blogging platforms allow embedding videos from YouTube and Vimeo. It keeps the site light and helps your page to stay crawl friendly and SEO friendly.
Content strategies and promotions
Content is still the most important part of any SEO plan. You should start with genuine content with evenly spaced keywords and a clear message. We have studied viral content, and most of them conform to these structures –
- Infographics
- Videos
- “Tell me why” articles
- “how to” format articles/blogs
- Listicles
Some sites have been sticking to these kinds of popular content, but they have failed to draw significant traffic. Where did they go wrong? Our research shows that most sites do not have robust promotion strategies for their content.
Social media: Social networking sites and social media channels should be a part of all content marketing strategy. Publish your links on social networking platforms with interesting snippets and images to divert more traffic.
Repurpose: You can now design infographics and video presentation from a blog content. There are online sites, services, and tools which can convert words and stats to colorful charts and slides for every user.
Influencer marketing: If you think you are not getting the attention your site deserves, ask social influencers for help. Influencers are celebrities of social media (and sometimes real life), and they can help your projects gain attention.
SEO is not going to stand still for anyone. You need to adapt to its changing trends forever shuffling proprieties to stay on top of any search list. Therefore, finding out loopholes is your SEO strategy is rather common for even big corporations since the topography is changing faster than we can blink. All in all, this just gives us a chance to revisit our strategies and refine them to suit the latest search engine requirements.
Guest article written by: Simon Thomas is a digital marketing strategist. He has been working on the changing aspects of Google search engine marketing and search engine optimization for the last two decades.
I think the best way for content curation is to solve problems of your readers. If, you can solve problems of your target customers rather than bragging about your business. Then, you are more likely to get leads and sales.
We can’t really determine when is Google updating. This is why I always go for a better content. If you have a better content and using the right keywords whether that’s exact or long-tail. This is why there is a saying “Content is the king”. Anyways, I enjoyed reading this.
I always read that in putting up a content one must always give value to its readers. I heard it many times that before I do a headline, I have to ask what’s in it for the readers. Search engines change as other social media platforms do and we have to keep up with the change.