If you want your business to stay relevant, your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy must evolve with the times. The basics and core technical methods will always be important, but not following other current SEO trends could still leave your business nowhere to be found.
Continue reading for SEO advice that'll take your digital marketing to the next level. Here are 5 SEO trends that are useful for 2021 and beyond.
The bottom line is this: Create a great user experience (UX). Potential customers tend to abandon websites that have slow loading speeds or a difficult user interface, resulting in a higher "bounce rate" (when someone leaves the same web page they entered on) which can lower your Google search rankings.
Your digital marketing strategy must consider the user experience of both your core site and landing pages, optimising the performance on all devices (especially mobile!). If the UX proves to be slow, frustrating, or unsafe (such as no SSL certificate), it will have a knock-on effect for all other SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising efforts, making them much less effective and/or more expensive to achieve results.
Google created its assessment for content quality as Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness (otherwise known as EAT). These are Google’s guidelines for ranking content, which while initially aimed at financial and health industries (content covering sensitive/influential topics with potentially life altering consequences), the core values still hold true to all websites - quality, trustworthy and original content matters. If your website fails to deliver on these principles in the eyes of Google, it's not likely rank highly within their search results pages.
The importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to rise across many industries, with Data Prot’s recent report that the AI industry is projected to earn around $118 billion by 2025.
AI is a great way to gain an understanding of ranking algorithms. With AI, you’re able to capture data performance metrics on top SEO trends like user experience and keywords. You can also track data elements that allow you to adapt and improve the success of your SEO efforts.
Mobile and home voice assistants are popular and they're often used to perform searches. When speaking search criteria, a person uses longer phrases than when entering text. Voice search creates the need for long-tail keywords that consider a conversational tone.
For example, someone might perform a text search for "logo designs", but when using voice search they'll say something like, "what makes a good logo design" or "where can I find a good logo designer near me". Studying phrases associated with searching for your business can help you uncover new SEO opportunities which you can incorporate into your content strategy.
Your SEO strategy should consider all avenues and the free ones are a no-brainer. Google My Business (GMB) is a free portal where businesses enter directory information that can be seen across all Google platforms.
GMB, alongside other online directories such as Yell, Bing Places, FreeIndex, Yandex and more, is your free ticket to increased visibility. Users no longer have to search multiple pages to find your business location, hours of operation, and customer reviews. Having all information appear in Google Maps increases the likelihood of a visit and provides a great boost to local SEO.
If you're not keeping up with the latest SEO trends, the chances are that you could be missing out on new business opportunities.
Viron Media is a Peterborough based digital marketing agency that specialises in SEO for small and local businesses. Our expert team can help develop and execute your SEO strategy, analysing competitors and results, and improve your campaigns for the best results.
For a consultation and a free quote, contact the Viron Media team today.
Every modern business knows they need an online presence, but few know how to implement an effective digital marketing strategy correctly.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are two different marketing techniques that can massively boost your online presence and sales revenue.
However, if you do not understand the processes or the pros and cons, it can be easy to spend your advertising budget while seeing little return on investment (ROI).
Read on to find out more about how SEO and PPC can drive targeted traffic to your website.
SEO is the process of designing your web pages to be as search engine friendly as possible. This can relate to the structure of a page, ensuring images are labelled correctly, and creating useful content for consumers.
Search engines then use algorithms to determine where your web pages should rank when people type in words or phrases related to your content.
There is considerable skill involved in mastering SEO techniques, but it can pay rich dividends if you get it right. For convenience, you can work with a professional company that can achieve amazing online results.
One of the most attractive aspects of SEO marketing is that it doesn't have to cost a fortune. Content creation is affordable, and you can post online for free.
As you build up a portfolio of helpful articles and videos, the cost per lead can be very cheap compared to paying for ads.
Consumers tend to believe the companies that appear on the first page of search engines are trustworthy.
When using organic marketing, you can increase your search engine ranking and benefit from this perception when you begin to appear high up in the listings.
Local SEO can be particularly effective as you can appeal to customers in your community who are seeking a reliable firm in their area.
Search engines will continue to give you credit for your website content even if you don't post new articles for a while.
It's always best to freshen up your posts as often as possible, but if you don't have time, you can still obtain visitors from your previous content.
While SEO may sound like a cost-effective dream come true for businesses, there are some potential downsides. Of course, the positives overwhelmingly outweigh the negatives, but it's still worth taking these factors into account.
Search engine algorithms usually do not push you to the top of the rankings quickly. It can take time to create content and gain the approval of the various search engines.
If you are trying to take advantage of a trend that is likely to be short-lived, this is probably not the right marketing channel for your business.
It can be challenging to stay up-to-date with the many changes in how search engines rank your web pages. While your design may initially be perfect, it could need some tweaking a few months down the line.
When you already run a busy company, it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to research and implement new marketing strategies.
If you are in a hurry to become visible online or have an advertising budget ready to invest, you can consider using paid search methods. This involves paying to appear on search engines alongside the organic results.
A good example is Google Ads, which can quickly place you in front of your target market.
While paying for ads may sound simple, there is quite an involved process that requires the right knowledge to obtain a significant return on investment. But, done correctly, you can supercharge your sales revenue.
Pay per click advertising allows you to market to very specific customers. For example, you can choose to appear in front of people segmented by age, location, interests, and many more variables.
This can massively increase your chances of converting the sale.
While organic advertising can place you on the first results page, paid marketing can guarantee you appear at the very top of the listings. This is a great way to grab customers' attention.
There is no need to wait for your ads to appear in front of potential customers. As soon as you pay for the service, you can expect to see your ads appear almost immediately.
If you have a high-demand product, this method can rapidly get you ahead of your competition.
PPC marketing is a fantastic investment in your marketing campaigns, but it may not be the best option for every business. There are some drawbacks to consider before you choose this type of advertising.
You have to pay for your ads, so there is no option to market in this way if you do not have an advertising budget. There is also the risk you could lose your money if the ads are not effective.
If consumers are seeing the same ads time after time, they are likely to stop paying attention. Therefore, it's important to change the text or images in your ads to keep them fresh in customers' minds.
Both marketing methods bring excellent advantages, and there is no need to choose one over the other. Instead, the most effective advertising campaigns can utilise both techniques to create a strong all-round strategy.
While it can be challenging to plan and implement such a campaign, you can engage the services of a professional company that can manage it on your behalf.
Viron Media is a UK-based digital marketing agency that can help your business reach a global audience.
Our expert team can execute your advertising plan, analyse the results, and improve your campaigns for optimum results.
For a consultation and a free quote, contact the Viron Media team today.
On February 8th 2018 Google announced that their Chrome web browser will now be marking all HTTP sites as "not secure" from July of this year.
Traditionally, only sites which held user data and processed payments (such as online shops/ecommerce websites) required an SSL certificate, but with Google, Firefox and many other companies campaigning for a secure web, SSL for other sites has gone from recommended (due to SEO benefits) to essential.
Several webmasters reported a loss in rankings and traffic after migrating to HTTPS. This could be a reason for many to avoid the efforts of encrypting their own web project. HTTPS is associated with a lot of work, which is why Google announced to give webmasters sufficient time for migrating their site to a secure connection.
For those with technical experience and/or an interest in the work involved, Google provide some documentation on how to secure your site with HTTPS and site moves with URL changes. The basic tasks are as follows:
If you require assistance in setting up HTTPS/SSL on your website, get in touch with us today. We have years of experience with website migrations, SSL certificates and carrying out the switch from HTTP to HTTPS.
For our first article covering the topic of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), we thought we'd start off with the basics.
SEO is the process of improving the quantity and quality of visitors to a website through the use of search engines.
Below are a series of terms you may hear quite often when discussing or learning about SEO, given a brief and highly summarised description. We will go onto explaining them further in this article.
While social media, email marketing, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the majority is driven by search engines.
SEO is also one of the only online marketing channels that, when set up correctly, can continue to pay dividends over time. If you provide a solid piece of content that deserves to rank for the right keywords, your traffic can snowball over time, whereas advertising needs continuous funding to send traffic to your site.
Organic SEO is a marketing strategy that is aimed at ranking highly in search results without directly paying for them (the natural, non-sponsored listings).
This is an incredibly desired and effective type of SEO to go for due to the amount of trust visitors have in these results, as they are ranked unbiasedly on merit and authority by Google, Bing, etc, instead of existing/ranking there due to having a bigger budget and paying more than their competitors.
They also show when people have ad-blockers installed, as they are natural listings, rather than sponsored adverts.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising is an attractive marketing channel for many businesses as it is instant, measurable and controllable.
Unlike organic SEO, paid search will allow your website to appear on page 1, position 1 for search engine results almost instantaneously, provided you have a high enough budget, good/relevant content and a competitive edge (such a better keyword targeting or matching).
The beauty of the pay-per-click model is that you can set a maximum budget per day and you only pay when someone clicks on your advert, which gives you great control over your spend. Conversion tracking will also help provide you with return on investment (ROI) data.
For a more in-depth description and comparison of organic and paid SEO strategies, please take a look at our SEO vs PPC article.
