Jared Atchison January 18, 2021 When you have a question, what’s the first thing you do? If you’re like many people, you pull out your smartphone or open your laptop and pull Google up on your screen. Google is the most visited site of all time, and that’s not going to change any time soon.
Currently, Google receives over 3.5 billion searches every single day. People are doing more than typing in open-ended questions. Many consumers are looking for specific products or services. If you’re a small business owner or the head of a marketing team, you know the importance of a robust SEO strategy.
The thing is, mastering SEO takes plenty of time and patience. You have to learn about a wide range of topics and merge all of the information together to maximize your chances of making it to the elusive first page of Google. It’s possible to bridge some of the SEO gaps many marketers face by adding new techniques to your existing strategy.
Today, we will share a few of our favorite SEO tips for 2021. These strategies can be used independently or together to get more people to your website and increase your sales.
Let’s begin.
Update Existing Content
The number one way to improve your SEO ranking is through your blog. Content adds relevancy and context to your website, which makes it easier for Google to crawl and rank. Consequently, you’re able to rank for specific keywords by using them organically throughout your posts.
After publishing a post on your blog, do you share it on social media, then forget about it? If so, you’re not alone. A shocking number of business owners and marketers don’t update their existing content.
Check your Google Analytics account and find the most popular posts from your blog over the last couple of years. These frequently visited posts are known as compounding articles, and they are responsible for 38% of all blog traffic.
Because people frequently click on these articles long after they’ve been published, sometimes information becomes outdated. Updating these posts gives Google another chance to review and rank them accordingly. At the same time, you’re able to deliver timely and relevant content to your target audience, which also contributes to a favorable SEO score.
Use a project management tool to plan your content calendar and make article updates a regular part of your schedule. We recommend updating your compounding posts at least once per year.
Focus on Link-Building
When people visit your website, you want them to find what they are looking for, right? Similarly, when Google crawlers navigate through your website, you want to create an easy to navigate “map,” so the bots understand the point of your site.
Internal links can help you accomplish both of these tasks. There are several occasions when you’ll want to use these links for maximum searchability. In most cases, you’ll want to include internal links when you briefly mention a broad topic in another post. These internal links are there to help consumers see the big picture.
Instead of reading an article and having no idea what you’re talking about, they can navigate internal links and learn more about the broad topics mentioned throughout your original post. At the same time, these internal links frame your website’s context, which improves visibility with Google crawlers.
External links are also crucial for ranking at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) for your chosen keywords. We suggest creating evergreen content that’s packed with useful statistics. When other businesses are researching topics for their blog, they may refer to your post if they need a stat, which gives you another external link.
You can also look for guest posting opportunities with other brands and publications in your niche. Simply reach out to the editor or owner of the site and ask if they accept guest posts. If they are, and you can include links to your site, write a high-quality article. Include a couple of references back to your site, and you’ll build more backlinks.
Use Long-Tail Keywords for Voice Search
There’s a good chance that you’re trying to rank for multiple keywords at once. But, here’s a question; are you trying to rank for long-tail keywords?
Before the voice search, long-tail keywords were vital for reaching users with specific pain points on Google. While this strategy still holds true, voice search has made long-tail keywords more valuable than ever before. Over 30% of consumers in the United States have used a voice-activated device to look for product information or make a purchase.
People tend to say more than they type. Optimizing your content for things that your target audience might say can help you dramatically improve your SEO score.
So, if you have an online store that sells gardening supplies, you may want to rank for keywords about killing weeds. Instead of targeting words like “kill garden weeds,” you may want to target a long-tail phrase like, “how do I kill weeds in my flower garden?” This subtle shift in verbiage could result in more people hearing about your site when performing a voice search.
Like all keyword strategies, you’ll need to monitor performance over time. You’ll find keywords that work and some that don’t. If you’re auditing your keyword performance every quarter, you can start to tune in on which voice search keywords get results for your business.
Improve SEO on Videos
Finally, we are going to discuss the importance of optimizing your videos for search. Believe it or not, videos play a massive role in the ranking of your website. Research shows that you’re 53 times more likely to make it to the first page of Google if you include videos on your blog.
Adding a couple of videos to your blog post sounds like an easy fix. The truth is, there’s more to it than embedding a video from YouTube and calling it a day. You should add subtitles to your videos and make sure you type out your own. The auto-titles generated by sites like YouTube are about 75% accurate, which could lead to plenty of confusion.
When you type out your own subtitles, you’re giving Google additional text to search and improving UX for visitors that may have trouble hearing or just prefer written transcripts.
It’s also essential that you optimize the title and description of your video. You don’t want to leave anything to chance in this situation. Including relevant short and long-tail keywords will build additional context around your video, which makes it easier to rank.
This tip is beneficial if you’re looking to improve your mobile ranking. Videos often appear at the top of the search results for keywords. So, adding videos gives you an additional opportunity to rank and provide more value to your target audience.
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