Identifying SEO & Web Opportunities in 2021 — Part 2
Hey there, welcome back!
In Part 1 of my blog, I shared some background information on the importance of integrating SEO in your marketing strategy, and discussed three key concepts you should adopt as part of your 2021 strategy:
- Designing for your users
- Aligning content with search intent
- Optimising page speed
If you’re yet to read Part 1, I’d recommend you grab a cuppa and enjoy before reading the next three areas of opportunity I’m about to share.
Key SEO concepts for your 2021 strategy, continued…
4. Being proactive off your website
When we talk about being proactive outside of your website, we’re referring to getting authoritative backlinks. Authoritative backlinks can help boost your site’s traffic as well as boost your rank and authority on search engines.
Here are some areas you can start thinking about:
- Look at what your competitors are doing,
- Think locally (events, clubs, etc.),
- Search for unlinked brand mentions, and
- Monitor media callouts.
When it comes to finding media callouts, I use a site SourceBottle. This company connects people of all industries and backgrounds with journalists, writers and PR professionals. By monitoring these regular callouts, your business can remain nimble, dynamic and abreast of current trends. Supporting journalists through callouts will often lead to a quality backlink to your website, service page or profile depending on the topic and publication.
5. Use internal linking effectively
One thing that’s equally as important as backlinking is internal links within your site. Internal linking aids a user in navigating your website, defines the architecture and hierarchy of a website and distributes page authority and ranking power throughout your site.
There are a number of different types of links used on a site; these include homepage, navigation menu, post feed and so forth. Then there are links within the content on your site; these are known as contextual links. Contextual links guide users to interesting or related content similar to that on their current page. This could be a complimentary service, FAQs, case study or relevant blog article.
Search engines use contextual links to determine what content on your site is related and its value. So, by this logic, if a post or page gets a lot more links (whether that be internal or external), a search engine will consider this page to be an important or high-value article.
Search engines divide link value between all linked pages on a web page. For many sites, the homepage of a website has the greatest link value because it holds the most backlinks. With this in mind, consider linking to your latest blogs on the homepage, instead of just on the category page. Search engines will find these new posts quicker and add more value to them.
In practice, you want to use links that are natural, or organic, for the reader. Make sure that your informative link matches the context of the content and isn’t just ‘plonked in’ — increasing the chances of a link click. This way you are telling visitors and search engines that whatever you are linking to is potentially so relevant that a user may want to stop what they are reading to go to the next page.
I repeat: do not link for the sack of linking. Keep it simple and plan strategically. On that note, if you need any help writing website or blog content of any kind, reach out to the Orange Digital team, we would love to help!
6. Treat Google as your homepage
The way search results are now being displayed is leading to a greater push for businesses to start treating Google as their homepage. You’ll need to make sure you’ve established a clear brand tone, have key contact points and your main information or key offerings are defined.
As you can see in the image below, Google displays a LOT of information about your brand. So getting this clear, correct, and consistent is critical.
One of the most influential changes to how users navigate search engines and websites is through featured snippets.
Snippets are becoming more popular and common as voice search grows, as well as users wanting more relevant results faster. Snippets are most well-known for featuring in results when the search is a question. However, they are mostly used for a variety of search types, including recipes, methods (or steps), and ranking list, just to name a few.
Snippets, also known as rank zero (as you appear before any other rank), feature content from websites for FAQs, paragraph answers, lists, videos, and tables. On mobile, featured snippets can take up over 50% of screen space. The power of these little snippets and how they can influence users should not be underestimated. Reviewing competitors' snippets and improving your blogs or website content to best suit snippets can make a huge difference to user traffic and conversions.
Phew! There you have it. To recap, here are the six core concepts you should consider as part of your 2021 SEO strategy:
- Designing for your users
- Aligning content with search intent
- Optimising for page speed
- Being proactive off-site
- Using internal linking effectively
- Treating Google as your homepage
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these SEO strategies and if you’re implementing them already as part of your marketing strategy.
If you would like to speak with the Orange Digital team about SEO or marketing support, we’d love to help you out. Get in touch to book in for a coffee and a chat.
You can also connect with the team via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.
Don’t forget to also keep an eye on the upcoming events at Orange. We have some excellent topics in the pipeline for 2021.
Originally published at https://www.orangedigital.com.au on January 29, 2021.
