The Future Of Search Engine Optimization

As an online business, you need to make sure that you create a website that first and foremost serves your target audience. However, to take advantage of the lucrative traffic from organic search results, you also need to know how to optimize and promote your website for the best positions on SERP. In this short article, we are going to outline a few of the key ranking factors you need to be aware of in 2020 as the future of SEO changes.

Keyword Searcher Intent

RankBrain is the machine learning part of Google’s ranking algorithm, and it has advanced lots in recent years, making it better at quickly determining the searcher intent behind the search terms inputted. So, when you are carrying out keyword research, you need to understand what is meant by searcher intent. The main types of keyword intent are navigational, transactional, informational and commercial investigational. Once you know searcher intent, you can optimize your website to match the expected needs of traffic from search engines and thus reduce your site’s click-thru bounce rate. That is important because the click-thru bounce rate remains an important ranking factor.

Clean Website Code

Making sure that your website’s HTML code is easy for Google’s bots to crawl, classify and index is something many people overlook. The truth is that if Google can’t render the code on your website, essential content will not be indexed. Furthermore, excess code or poorly formatted code can significantly slow down page loading time, and page loading speed is a crucial ranking factor.

Linkless Mentions

It is predicted that linkless mentions will become an increasingly important ranking factor before the end of 2019. Increasing the number of linkless mentions of your business organically means working on building your brand reputation. You want to get other people talking about your business on all of the most popular social media networks and online media outlets even if they don’t attach a link to your website in the mention.

Backlinks

The number and source of links to your website have been a key metric used by Google to determine a site’s authority for years. Therefore, you should continue to build quality high-quality backlinks in 2019 as part of your SEO marketing strategy. Link relevancy and the use of natural anchor text remain essential.

Voice Search Optimization

As more and more people are now using voice-recognition enabled devices like Google Home and the Amazon Echo to get answers from the internet, optimizing for voice searches has never been more critical. A key thing to know about voice searches is that they tend to be longer, conversational and question-based. Voice search keyword research is something every online business should do. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to start ranking for voice keywords is to add a structured FAQ to your website with many “What?,” “Where?,” “When?,” “How?,” and “Why?” questions and answers.

Mobile-Friendly

In 2020, it’s unlikely that your business website is not optimized for mobile browsers, but it’s still worth mentioning that mobile optimization is a crucial ranking factor. According to Plastic Surgeon SEO, sites that fail to support mobile devices may find themselves invisible to searchers in Google’s 2020 search results. While desktop users might be your target audience, the mobile-first update to the indexing and ranking algorithms means even users searching for your website on a desktop won’t see your site in results until it’s mobile friendly.

Above we have talked about some of Google’s key ranking factors, but it’s important for all businesses to ensure they also look beyond Google when creating their online marketing campaigns. The reality is that Apps and social media platforms are also lucrative sources of traffic.

Outsourcing Your Business’s SEO

Outsourcing various digital marketing activities such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no longer new in the business landscape. With SEO outsourcing becoming a hotbed for cost-effective solutions targeted for companies of every size and nature, it no longer surprising why more and more businesses looking to free up their internal resources choose this route these days.

Why Outsource

Such a trend is evident in the enterprise-scale business sector, where the majority of the companies rely on technical SEO and content development to improve and maintain their presence in the search landscape. Since both SEO and content development takes significant in-house resources and in-depth technical expertise to execute on an on-going basis, it has then become a strategy for many enterprise-level companies to hire an SEO outsourcing agency to do these tasks for them.

Enterprise SEO outsourcing is an extremely effective way to stay competitive in the search arena without compromising total involvement and control over the more important areas of the business. However, just like other outsourcing initiatives, one simple mistake in this endeavor could lead to failed campaigns and wasted money.  Choose your SEO agency carefully and make sure they are familiar with Google’s best practices and use future proof SEO techniques that don’t put your website and your business at risk.  If you are struggling to find a reputable SEO agency who follows search engine best practices then here are some things to look for.

Your Company’s Role

If you’re a digital marketing manager of a large company and planning to outsource your SEO soon, you must ensure that your investment will run without any issues and deliver nothing else than the optimal performance. To help you achieve such a feat, here are the top tips that can get you started and stay on the right track of SEO outsourcing.

  • Assign a Contact from In-House Staff
  • Clarify the Role with the Agency
  • Check if the Agency Has References and the Experience to Take on Your Project
  • Ensure that the Agency Uses a Project Management System
  • Request for a Sample Report

SEO is best handled by experts or you run the risk of not just wasting money but you could potentially damage your site and not be able to recover.  Working with the right SEO partner who not only understands how Google and other search engines work but they also get your business can provide a tremendous ROI.  SEO is an investment and when done right gives an amazing return.

Why Your Site Needs SEO

While you may be familiar with SEO you may not completely understand why your site needs SEO and how it can impact your bottom line. Ranking higher in the search engines means more traffic and more traffic means more sales or clients for you.  If you want to understand just what it takes to help boost the rankings for your site the first place you should look are the Google Guidelines in your Webmaster Tools.

In the past agencies and SEO service providers have had a less than stellar reputation.  Many of them used “blackhat” techniques to fool the search engine into giving them better rankings.  When Google makes updates to their algorithm and they do this regularly many of these sites end up penalized.  But search engine optimization agencies who know their stuff can drastically boost your traffic, here is how they do that.

A good SEO team will:

  • Make sure the technical elements are in place to help boost your rankings
  • Make sure that your meta descriptions are included and well written
  • Add high quality content to your site to rank for more keywords
  • Do extensive keyword research so that you show up for relevant products and services
  • Create a plan to make sure that you get solid traffic that converts

When to Hire an SEO Team

The best time to hire an SEO team is now, the second best time is when you are designing or re-designing your website.  They can transform the look and feel of your site to make sure that is built with both the end user and the search engines in mind.

Adhering to Best Practices

You not only want an SEO team that will adhere to best practices that have been outlined by Google but also best practices when dealing with clients. Here are some things that you should look for before you hire anyone to take care of your SEO.

  • Experience: SEO is a learned skill like any other and they should be able to back up their knowledge by showing you results that they have gotten for other clients
  • Knowledge: They should have a working knowledge of Google Webmaster Tools and other products to track your progress
  • Create Content: They should be able to create or at least improve the existing content that is on your site.

You should also look for a team that is transparent with the methods they use.  An SEO company that won’t share with you how they are promoting your site or what changes they are making is not one that you want to do business with.