Maybe the most fascinating thing about search is how quickly and regularly it changes. What we’ve covered here today may be replaced by something entirely different a few years or a few months from now as technology continues to evolve. Each algorithm change brings the search engine closer to its intended purpose. It’s getting harder and harder to “game the system” with exploitive linkbuilding strategies and blackhat SEO. Just typing in an incomplete search term will result in a whole lot of unnecessary results which might not be what you are looking for. The world of search is a big one; even if you serve a niche industry, there are hundreds -- or even thousands -- of keywords and topics to choose from, and your choices could make or break your strategy. Google has guidelines that regulate the use of keywords and regularly updates its algorithms to regulate the industry.
Use dynamically generated page titles for database-driven websites
Because Google likes sites that link out to good quality content, publishing your own curated content can be a very smart move. Your online competitors may not be who you think! By taking a broad look at your sector from an online perspective will help uncover potential opportunities that you are missing out on. “Dwell time” is the amount of time visitors spend on your website and it can affect SEO ranking. When you provide useful content, visitors tend to stay longer on your website to consume the information and therefore increase the dwell time. Just like you should interview others, seize opportunities to be interviewed, no matter how small the audience is. The 5-600 words that take you 15-20 minutes can turn into a few highly authoritative contextual links. The more relationships you have and the more people trust you, the more people will talk about you, link to you and, ultimately, buy from you. Customers don’t buy from people they like, they buy from those they trust!
Use your outreach skills
Google can’t depend on social media signals from platforms it doesn’t own and that are run by competitors like Facebook. How does a new website start ranking? Does it just magically appear in Google after you’ve launched it? What things do you have to do to start ranking in Google and get traffic from the search engines? Search engines have been tailored to predict the intent of customers, which explains why some searches have features such as local 3-packs, featured images or videos and Quick Answers. Understanding the intent behind searches allows marketers to create content messages and formats that will most likely appeal to customers. Keyword research can be done using free tools. SEO that works will have to shift away from mechanical tactics and numbers-driven strategies that ignore quality and rely on thin content created by non-professionals who are more concerned with keywords than value. It’s important to make sure that the site you’d like a link from has a a number of DoFollow links from authoritative sites. Authoritative sites are typically well known within their niche and have a large audience and backlink profile as well, they can also be large news websites. If the website you’re targeting has a lot of links from authoritative sites, then it’s a good sign.
Link-based search marketing does not optimize for search
Gaz Hall, from SEO Hull, had the following to say: "Both Google and Bing take page-loading speed into account in their website ranking algorithm." Google continues to use natural, quality inbound links as a main ranking factor. Google uses your meta data to interpret what your website is about and ranks the pages accordingly. While it is important to have your keywords within the meta data, it can be overdone and hinder the user experience, actually deterring people away from a page rather than enticing. This happens when your meta title and description is written for Google’s search bots rather than as a description for real people. The best way to secure high quality links is by creating strong content that sources will naturally want to connect their readership to. Well, ours is an imperfect world, and, as you might have heard, some self-proclaimed SEO “experts” scheme to trick search engines and inflate their rankings using black-hat, unethical methods, and in the times before the nofollow attribute, link-building was an easy way to artificially boost page rankings.
Relevance, not quality
It’s not enough these days to create a website then sit back and wait for your customers to find it. As 80% of UK customers use Google to search on the internet, it’s vital that your site is optimised to meet Google’s search engine criteria. This is known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. Like all things when it comes to building an effective SEO strategy research is key! Don’t be afraid to check out your competitor’s sites and other similar websites to see what long tail keywords they’re using. This can give you a great springboard to base new ideas off and don’t be afraid of using the same long tail keywords either. Once you’ve discovered your evangelists,
think about ways to nurture and encourage them. At the simplest
(and possibly most meaningful) level, find a way to thank them
for spreading the word about your company. In social search, content that has a social
connection to you in some way is prioritized.
A social connection could mean someone you
are linked to via Facebook, Twitter, or any other
major social network. Most businesses understand the importance of — and the general idea behind — search engine optimization, the practice of getting a website URL to appear at the top of a search results page in order to make it easier for customers to find and use a business. But the deeper into the mechanics of SEO you get, the less clear best practices become.
Identify and remove duplicate content
The pages have to create unique enough value that they can be distinguished from other similar pages by the search engines. Lacking that intrinsic value, they will have to be distinguished by inbound linkage. Domain authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. Results driven, intelligent search engine optimisation. Anybody can optimise a site with a little know-how. Many marketers talk about the specifics of algorithms, content updates, spider-bots etc, but there’s no need for many business owners to worry too much about this. All you need to do to focus is assume that search engines want to get the most relevant articles, posts and products in front of an audience. Modern SEO is about so much more than keywords and meta tags.