The Keys to a Successful Marriage & SEO are pretty similar!
Search engine optimization is an evergreen subject of the digital marketing landscape.
Whenever people hear about SEO updates and jargon, they feel overwhelmed by fear of the unknown.
There are just assumptions and tests when it comes to SEO.
No agency or consultant, an active SEO practitioner, can claim to have figured out exactly how Google ranks pages.
Does that mean SEO is not a good marketing technique? Absolutely not.
It is a multi-billion dollar industry that has helped thousands of people grow their careers. Startups became multinational companies, and freelancers became consultants from SEO.
Borrell Associates has said that brands will spend $80 billion on SEO in the US alone.
So, the bottom line is SEO has the potential.
But, the question is ‘how’? How to stay consistent with good SEO results.
There are tons of valuable articles and guides available online on SEO factors and best practices, but we will not talk about them.
I’m also not going to share link-building and outreaching strategies because that’s not why you are here.
I remember I read The Art of SEO book in 2015, which is now in our office bookshelf for other SEO technical teammates.
I’m going to initiate a thought of how the SEO will work in the coming time.
Current State of SEO
It’s no secret that SEO is no longer the same as what it used to be.
After on-page, you could do 15 directory submissions and 20 social bookmarks for your website, and boom — your site getting ranked in SERPs.
This used to work ages ago.
In the first two weeks of August, there was a flood of tweets from webmasters who experienced significant rankings.
They were calling it another update from Google.
Few days prior, there was a glitch at the backend of the search engines giant, at least that’s what John Mueller said on Twitter. (Yeah, they make mistakes, duh!)
The bottom line is, you can expect anything in SEO, ANYTHING.
One day, you wake up and see Google Analytics find out your site is no longer getting ranked for 90% of the keywords.
I’m not exaggerating things, it happens, and that can be not very safe.
Although Google’s algorithm changes result in such an impact, you will recover quickly if you have done SEO ethically.
The current state is focusing on technical SEO and delivering quality content. In my experience, SEO doesn’t end there; and I’m going to share what I mean.
Why People Think It’s An Endless Pit
I’ve seen people saying that SEO is dead. SEO is no longer relevant, and so on.
Those tactics which were working like magic might no longer be relevant. But SEO can never be dead. It is ever-evolving.
Google’s algorithm is run by artificial intelligence and machine learning, and they self-learn from user behavior and intent.
Anyway, people want to have an ideal Google Analytics graph with a rising line of search traffic.
Although you can raise your monthly search traffic, the every-rising line is impossible, at least as per my experience.
SEO is all about ups and downs.
There are some behaviors that I think will rule the SEO in the coming time.
Brands that go Omnichannel will Win
Writing press releases and submitting them on the so-called high DA websites is an old-school technique, which now probably also causes adverse effects in your rankings.
You have to take a step back and analyze the digital ecosystem with a bird-eye view.
Down the line, omnichannel marketing will play a vital role in boosting search engine rankings.
You need to ensure that Google takes your brand as a reputable entity. And how does Google find it? By observing your brand keyword frequently searched online.
Brands will have to leverage other advertising channels to increase curiosity among targeted audiences and encourage them to find out more about the brand on Google.
When people search for you, Google takes it as the green sign that people want to know more about you.
And Google is all about giving a good user experience to searchers.
If they see people are interested in what you are, they will raise your rankings online.
And after that, your on-page and off-page optimization will show its power.
It’s a ripple effect.
Different segments of SEO empower each other to work exceedingly well down the line collectively.
But first, you need to leverage other channels like
- Social media
- Messenger Bots
- PPC
- Influencer marketing
To create curiosity among your audience.
The focus will Shift on Creating a Brand
Gone are the days when backlinks and on-page factors were enough to outperform your competition in SERPs.
Now, people already know websites that are great at sharing certain content.
If you have a blog on health and fitness, how can you expect to outrank Webmd or HealthLine?
Or, if you have an eCommerce, how are you planning to rank above Amazon.com?
People know these sites.
And the websites have a track record of consistently sharing valuable content.
So, Google already knows that whatever these websites share about the niche would be accurate and of good quality.
Now, it creates a loop.
More clicks — better CTRs — more rankings.
It works as a loop.
And the loop starts with creating a brand image over time.
Just trying to beat them only by link building and on-page SEO will be almost next-to-impossible for new sites.
Build a Reputation
Another critical area to make your brand enticing for search engine rankings is to develop a solid reputation.
Now, make sure you are doing it appropriately.
By appropriately, I mean that your brand should be conceived as an authority in your niche.
For example, your agency’s key focus is to do social media campaigns for real estate, and you will have to show your presence on the website where decision-makers of real estate companies hangout.
- Influencer marketing
- Podcast
- Speaking at online and offline conferences
Now, this is not an off-page SEO tactic.
It does two things
- Increase search queries of your brand keyword
- Increase traffic from a third-party source
We have already discussed the first point.
The second point relates to referral traffic from an authoritative site.
If you have published a detailed guide on how your agency scaled the sales through SEO for one of your real estate clients, it will work as a magnet.
They will find it valuable and would be encouraged to find out who published this article.
Then, they will come to your website, engage with your content, and so forth.
This way, google will observe that you are getting excellent traction from other trusted sources online. So, they would rank your key pages more prominently on SERPs.
Another example is for emerging platforms.
Let me explain.
We know that smart speakers and AI chatbots are on the rise, and so is the voice search.
So, brands have to figure out a way to create such a robust brand image that whenever users ask Siri or Alexa or Ok Google about a generic question of the market, their name comes up.
In the coming time, if a millennial asks, “Siri, show me hoodies and tank-tops for Father’s day,” Do you have that brand image that Siri will show results of your site by default because you have been already providing quality products?
Brands have to be Discoverable
Again, you want to make sure that your brand is discoverable across multiple platforms.
- Optimize your Google My Business listing
- Make a concurrent presence on social channels
- Ensure same communication across platforms
- Create content targeted for your ideal consumer
If users see your social media profile and get no authoritative information about it, it will create a negative impression.
Similarly, if they don’t see an optimized Google My Business listing, they would be reluctant to do business with you.
Make sure you are focusing on building a simultaneous presence across the platforms so that your business becomes easily discoverable to targeted customers.
Be Persistent
SEO will become more of a game of patience.
You cannot expect to increase organic traffic by building links on high DA sites through guest posting.
You have to build toughened skin to not getting anxious every time you see a dip in organic traffic.
Understand this — a search engine runs on a computer program, and that is evolving every moment.
It will keep surprising you with unpredictable behaviors and changes.
SEO can never be a straight or ever-increasing graph.
It would help if you kept upgrading yourself and testing new ethical ways to rank higher; that’s the only way to outperform your competition down the line.
All these forecasts which I discuss so far are interrelated.
You can make a Venn diagram and put all of these forecasts into different circles.
The brand that hits the middle part will thrive.
Remember, SEO is like a marriage. If you’re looking for hookups, you are most likely to fail eventually. Check out my full video where I exactly explain in one of the digital marketing virtual summits.
Please comments your feedback on this youtube video. Thanks.
