Trend-Driven SEO Strategies to Fast-Track Your Business’ Growth
Going into the 2nd quarter of 2021, the number of Google searches had already reached 360 billion, according to Impact Plus. If even just a fraction of that number went to search queries about a certain business, its brand identity would reach greater heights than ever. That’s essentially what modern businesses play the SEO game for, which is to carve out their share of the millions of users comprising internet traffic every day. Good SEO can be the difference between your business’ growth or stagnation, so learn these up to the minute strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
Make your mark with original content
Modern discourse is driven by content, whether it be sensational ads or the next hit Amazon Prime series. Content is how people get to know you and form their own definitions of your brand, which by the way is far more important than how you yourself define your brand. Any content you create must be unique, express your expertise, and clearly show why customers should trust your brand. Remember to exercise subtlety where appropriate. Don’t come on too strong or be too preachy. When it comes to impressing your brand image onto your client base, it pays to have a light touch. Nudge them, not push them, into the way you want them to think about you.
Chief among all content types in this day and age is video. This is where you’ll want to pour the lion’s share of your resources creative energy. Look at how YouTubers and influencers attract traffic with their video content, and use these concepts in your own videos. The key traits you need to keep in mind are watchability and memorability. A purely memorable video, like the GrubHub ad, will certainly live on, but in infamy. This presents a net negative for your brand. A purely watchable video, like snappily edited BuzzFeed food videos on Facebook, catches attention but ultimately serves as mere time-wasters. Learn to strike the balance, and you’ll be able to consistently produce quality video content for your brand.
Be mindful of Google’s EAT principle
SEO rankings on Google are primarily based on content quality. Now, that’s a little vague, so Google has recently introduced the EAT principle to enumerate the criteria it uses to define quality. The acronym stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Now that SEO is leaning on brand identity above all else, these traits have become essential to convey the competency of your brand to the consumer.
You also have to keep brand awareness in mind, as this will ultimately define how many potential customers find out about the quality of your EAT. The more potential customers are aware of your brand, the more search queries of your brand name are made. The number of search queries are also a big contributor to your overall ranking. So be sure to publish yourself in every way possible, be it founder profiles, news media, advertisement, and others.
Tailor your ads and keywords to customers’ search queries
In the interest of brand awareness, you’d want to leverage every type of advertising you can afford. But advertising is expensive, so you want to make sure you aren’t wasting money on ineffective ads. To ensure that you’re getting the most out of your ads, it pays to know which brand awareness strategies are booming right now, as well as which ones fit the nature of your business best. For example, if you serve a specific area, Mobile Pay Per Click ads may work best for you, advises a firm specializing in SEO in Austin.
As a rule of thumb, however, remember that keywords are king in SEO, and they should govern everything from your content creation to your advertising strategies. Find out which long strings of specific keywords pertain to your services the best. Also known as long-tail keywords, these comprise around 70 percent of all web searches. Especially now that voice searches are taking center stage, searches are becoming less robotic and more conversational in nature. Hone in on how your customer base is articulating their wants and needs to the search engine, and do your best to express that you can cater to them.
Streamline your website from top to bottom
The first reason you would want to do this is because this is another major way Google decides ranking. Google accounts for website user experience in determining whether you deserve to be at the top of the search engine results. So make sure your site is engaging, interactive, aesthetically pleasing, and loads in a snap. An algorithm decides your score in this department, so there would be none of the tolerance a human rater would give. Streamline your website code and ensure that the structure flows fluently. It’s recommended that you look up how other high scorers were able to achieve this.
The second reason is because Google takes a random snippet of your website to show in the ads that show up on top of the SERP or search engine results page. A common tactic employed here is answering a frequently asked question in bullet form. This is also where proper website structure comes in. If done right, each page would have subheadings that are all relevant to the topic at hand, with each sentence adding something of value. If every sentence and subheading is pertinent, users will click on because they will think they have found what they are looking for. Think of it as a random spot check for your website. If you keep everything well-structured from top to bottom, you’ll get a click, no matter what the algorithm chooses as a snippet.
Modern commerce is an ever-changing landscape of trends and strategies, but there are a few concepts that stay constant. Remember what your clientele wants, and show every indication that you can provide it. The avenues shift, but the message stays the same. It’s all about supply, demand, and reputation.
