You’ve spent hours hunched over your desk researching and planning, and it’s time to hit publish on your next blog post. You click submit and wait for the magic to happen—except days go by and there’s still no activity. You conducted thorough research and the blog was well-formulated, but you’re back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong.
If this sounds familiar, keep reading.
On any given day, Google supports more than 3 million searches by Internet users, with this number growing every year. This means that showing up on the first page of a Google search result can be the deciding factor in whether users see your online content. Lack of visibility jeopardizes the effects of your organic traffic, which can cost you clicks, leads, sales, page views, and conversions.
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps rank your online content so that it’s seen by users. It’s the process of optimizing your content for search engines so it shows as the top result in searches for certain keywords.
When it comes to SEO, there’s you, the search engine, and the searcher.
Not only are you fighting to prove your industry expertise among competitors but you’re also fighting for your online content to be found by search engines. Studies indicate that the first five results on Google get 67% of all clicks—so the placement of your content in the search results is vital to its success.
If the concept of SEO is still just a vague marketing term for you, it’s time to get acquainted with best practices and the ways you should incorporate SEO into your 2021 marketing strategy.
SEO Marketing
Similar to social media and other marketing trends, SEO is constantly evolving.
While staying on top of updates can be challenging, it’s worth the effort. Studies have shown that 70–80% of users focus exclusively on organic results and ignore paid listings.
As technology and marketing trends continue to evolve, so should your online content. If you haven’t made updates to your website in a while, it’s time. Working keywords into your SEO page titles, content headers, and images can take your content from a ranking of 20 to page three of Google’s search results with a simple refresh.
Planning Your SEO Strategy
A crucial mistake that can cost you views is not consistently updating your online content or website. If you haven’t made an update in a while, here are three ways to integrate SEO practices into your strategy:
1. Find your SEO sweet spot.
You can target any keyword or phrase, but it’s important to make sure that the word or phrase you wish to optimize ranks well in search results. If a word is too competitive or gets searched too infrequently, it will result in little to no value for your company.
Once you’ve determined how to integrate SEO into your strategy, set realistic goals for your organization that you can work toward. If you’re not sure where to begin, our team is happy to help you determine your keywords and set goals.
2. Update your SEO page titles.
Once you’ve decided on your keywords, it’s important to check your SEO page titles to see if those keywords are present. If they aren’t, it’s time for an update. Make sure you’re utilizing your space effectively to ensure ranking.
3. Explore opportunities to support your SEO strategy.
It’s all about finding an equal balance between page design, clarity, and SEO strategy. When you become too focused on keyword optimization, you run the risk of derailing your content by keyword stuffing.
Some simple ways to support your SEO strategy without weighing down your content include:
- Revising content headlines with relevant keywords and H1 tags
- Adding captions to go with your images
- Updating or adding image alt text or tags
- Creating internal links from popular web pages on your website
SEO Trends 2021
As SEO best practices continue to change, it’s important to note that what may have worked two years ago may now be an outdated concept. Staying on top of relevant trends and practices ensures that your content will be up to date.
As we look ahead to the new year, here are some of the relevant SEO trends that you should include in your marketing strategy:
1. Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to play a large role in SEO.
AI is changing the way we interact with online content. In the past couple of years, Google unveiled an AI algorithm that plays an important role in ranking your content on search engine result pages. It’s critical that you take this into consideration when planning your content strategy. You must captivate and engage your audience with useful information. Some factors to consider include click-through rates and time spent on your pages.
2. Voice search has a huge impact on search queries.
The trajectory of voice search technology has rocketed, thanks to products like the Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa. These products are becoming increasingly popular, with 55% of households predicted to own a smart speaker by 2022.
When optimizing for voice search, consider your keywords. Contrary to the abbreviated phrases used for online content, voice searches optimize better with longer, natural-sounding phrases that we’d use in everyday conversation. For example, a person voice searching might ask, “Siri, what are the new SEO trends for 2021?” but would type “new SEO trends 2021” when searching online.
3. Mobile-friendliness impacts search ranking.
In 2019, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing, which means that the search engine focuses primarily on the mobile version of the website rather than the desktop version. Since a majority of users access the web from their mobile devices, it’s important to emphasize mobile-friendly ranking when it comes to your online content. Check your website and make sure that mobile viewing of your content is accessible and easy to read. There’s nothing that users dislike more than not being able to retrieve information from your site due to viewing complications.
4. Long-form content is here to stay.
Studies show that long reads of more than 3,000 words get three times more traffic and four times more shares. Focus on long-form content to achieve higher ranking—but don’t make the mistake of rambling on to meet the requirement. Your content should still be set up in a way that engages readers and encourages them to share the information. You can achieve this by breaking up your content using H2 and H3 subheadings, which also helps with your mobile ranking.
5. Image optimization has evolved.
Like voice search technology, visual image search has evolved tremendously. Whereas we were once able to just view images, in the future, we’ll be able to use images to obtain information, make purchase decisions, and more.
When optimizing your images, make sure they’re high-quality and relevant. You can customize the image file names so they’re relevant to your corresponding page. You can also incorporate alt tags and text to help classify your images. Lastly, use images in your sitemap to allow Google to discover them.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Search engine optimization can be tricky, but when it’s done correctly, it’s worth the effort.
Our collaborative team of experts at Jennasis & Associates is dedicated to providing the highest level of SEO optimization to drive traffic to your website and boost sales. Whether you’re already ranking for keywords and want to grow or you’re starting fresh with no SEO foundation, let our team help you! Jennasis has the tools and expertise to increase your search engine rankings and help you climb to the top of Google’s search results.
Connect with Jennasis and learn how to integrate SEO into your 2021 marketing strategy. To get started, email us at digitalmarketing@jennasisassociates.com or fill out our contact form.
