If you don’t already use SEO to increase your business’s reach, then you are missing the mark in terms of ranking higher in online searches. SEO is one of the most effective ways for your business to flourish online. As we finish 2018 and head into 2019, you start to reflect on how increasingly important SEO has become for a business. It’s become more evident now more than ever that businesses need SEO ranking to be found online. At Social Media LV, we’re SEO savvy and have mastered the ins and outs of all SEO bases.
SEO trends have changed drastically this year which leads to many people wondering if their SEO strategy needs to be reworked. In order to be consistent with your rankings on Google searches, it is important to stay competitive and aware of your social media strategies and being willing to make changes when needed. Just like staying in trend with social media in general, it’s important to change your game plan occasionally.
If you’re not too familiar with Google SEO, here is a helpful guide to keep in mind as you get started on your Google tactics and strategizing:
Publish Relevant Content
If you haven’t already been told, regardless of whom your audience is – always publish relevant content. There is absolutely nothing that can substitute this because loyal and new followers depend on the content that engages them. Asking yourself questions such as: “What does my consumer research?” “What is new in my industry?” “What is trending right this minute?” are important to be asked every day as the answer to these questions can change daily.
Sometimes, businesses can become so caught up with improving their SEO search that they sacrifice the quality of their writing just to appear higher up. While it is very important to use keywords and phrases to rank higher in Google search engines, it’s the quality of the writing that truly sticks with people. As you are writing and publishing relevant content, also remember to make it unique and appeal to the user, not just the search engine!
Perfect Your Meta Data
Your Metadata is the first thing that your audience sees upon searching for something on Google. This is usually the time where they decide if they should move forward and click on your website link. Everything from your title to your description matters – so don’t take it lightly. There is usually a limit to the Meta descriptions so choose your words wisely. The best thing to do is condense your writing into your best two sentences and adjust it to exactly what you imagine the audience or consumer is asking when searching about the topic.
Always Include Links
Link specific words in your writing to anything that leads to your website whether it be other tabs on the website, other blogs you’ve written and your homepage. Of course, don’t overdo it! Keep each link as unique as possible. If you’ve written various blogs and articles, keep this in mind as you write blogs/articles. You’ll have tons of links and content that you can reference in your writing. Creating relevant links within your writing will improve your search engine rankings and the page that you’ve linked it to.
Don’t Overlook ALT Tags for Images
One of the most commonly overlooked ways that could benefit your webpage is the ALT tags attached to the images you use. Yes, even your images can improve your search engine optimization! ALT tags are a shorter term for alternative text descriptions. During instances where pictures don’t fully load, viewers cannot see the image, or in text-only searches, alternative information will be provided to view the tag and your website will still pop up because of the alt tag attached to the image. In other words, this increases your reach because your images will always pop up on Google.
2018 SEO Trends You Might Not Know About
SEO trends are dominating in 2018, which means, along with these basics, there are new trends you might not know about that could potentially affect how your business gets ranked on searches:
- 55 percent of teens and 40 percent of adults use voice search daily. This ratio is growing faster than type search which means the verbiage used when searching is different and much more conversational.
- With the sudden rise of voice search, it is imperative that your websites are mobile-friendly as most of these voice searches are conducted on mobile phones now. Mobile SEO has truly grown!
- Video SEO is a thing now! Videos account for over 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic which means that in a few years, video content will be much bigger than and possibly surpass other forms of content. It may not be this year, but it’s definitely on its way!
