There was a time when SEO was looked upon as a manipulative tactic to improve a website’s ranking on Google. As Google’s algorithms gradually became more sophisticated, it made gaming the system that much harder, most notably with the recent Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates which worked to reduce/eliminate these manipulative practices. Keeping up with current SEO trends is the best way to ensure that your business remains relevant, search engine friendly, and useful for the users.
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Creating Quality Content
Long gone are the days when keywords, and their placement, were the main tactics used to achieve higher search engine rankings. Google’s Panda update, which rewarded websites that contained quality content, represented the natural shift to focusing on good, original content versus paragraphs stuffed with keywords. According to a recent survey by Ascend2, a research and marketing firm, generating quality content was ranked as the most effective SEO tactic. However, it was also ranked as the most difficult tactic to execute properly. While there is some debate on technical details such as what length the articles should be, whether they should be at least 550 words long or 1,000 words long, it is clear that high-quality content that adds value to its readers now outweighs keyword phrases like “Shoe Strings Australia”. In addition, variety of the type of content, such as videos, pictures, and even content on social media networks all contribute to make a more effective SEO campaign.
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Even more Google
Originally launched in 2011, Google+ has emerged as one of the most active social networks with millions of user accounts around the world. Unlike Facebook, it also adds a social layer across Google’s various services such as Gmail, YouTube, Android and more. In addition to strengthening your social media marketing position, Google+ also enables you to rank higher in terms of SEO by associating your online content with your Google+ account. The more you link your online content to your Google+ account, the more you increase your Google Author ranking, also shown as a +1. Once an article is shared on Google+, it gets its own canonical URL which helps improve page ranking.
Sharing content via Google+ has 3 main benefits that make it a great platform for SEO:
- Links’s that are shared via Google+ are crawled and indexed quickly
- Content on Google+ accumulates PageRank and pass link equity since they are also followed
- Since Google+ is optimized for semantic relevance, each post has most of the characteristics of an entire blog post which helps in ranking and in relevancy.
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Optimize Your Website for Mobile
With people now using their smartphones more than ever to access the web, it is increasingly apparent that websites that are not optimized for mobile viewing will eventually result in lost sales opportunities. Issues such as incorrect or confusing displays, long load times (as in more than 3 seconds) can quickly turn off a viewer and increase your bounce rate. With the popularity of smartphones higher than ever before, it actually is surprising the number of websites that still haven’t made the effort to be mobile-responsive. People will use cell phones while eating dinner, commuting to work or watching TV (known as second screen) which creates more website traffic. However, a site that is not mobile-friendly will not only lose conversion opportunities, it will lose also ranking with Google.
Conclusion
SEO has evolved significantly and is now more important than it has ever been before. Businesses that stay current with these online marketing trends will be able to further promote their brand and online presence and stay relevant by capturing sales and traffic.
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