Whether or not you drink or watch Game of Thrones, you most likely want to know things. Knowledge is power. People who know things are concentrating on the following areas to maximize search engine optimization (SEO) in 2019.
Analyze Audience Behavior
When aiming to optimize your website, you should be thinking primarily about people, not search engines. Your website will be successful if you understand what your target audience thinks and what makes your customers click.
Start by examining your Google Analytics data. Which pages do well with your audience? What do your customers like to read and spend time on? What keeps them coming back? What pages do they avoid?
Once you know more about your target audience, try running a few tests. Optimize your web copy to cater to your audience behaviors. Edit it. Condense or combine information and then look at your analytics again—did your optimization work? If not, try another few tweaks and see what happens.
Spend some time on this one. You’ll never regret discovering and supporting what makes human users want to use and stay on your site.
Plan SEO for Real People
As I mentioned in What is SEO?, there are several things you can do to make your human users happy with your website.
- Provide plenty of fresh content often.
- Try not to duplicate your content from page to page.
- Ensure your user can find information quickly and easily via headers and links.
- Don’t bury useful content in Flash or Javascript.
- Ensure your website has and SSL certificate and is an HTTPS site.
All of these will also help ensure your site is being found and ranked positively by search engines like Google.
Ensure Mobile Optimization
Have you ever looked up a restaurant website on your phone or tablet and been unhappy with the user interface? Did it load too slowly? Was the information truncated or not legible? In today’s world, websites have to be optimized for mobile phones and all kinds of devices.
If yours isn’t, it’s doubly bad for business because Google now seems to be penalizing slow sites that don’t load quickly in its search engine. Offer your users a great mobile interface with lightning-quick connectivity to keep your customers happy AND stay relevant in searches.
Don’t Skip Social Media
Word on the street is social media is getting more and more important in the SEO big picture. This means more users are finding additional content after skimming through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Going to social media first and finding in-depth content second is relatively new. Plus, search engines are taking social media into account more often and social media posts are figuring more highly in algorithms. Be sure to keep the social media outlets you use up to date and in shape.
Optimize for Voice Search
Alexa, Siri and other voice-activated virtual assistants are becoming indispensable in households across the U.S. So, it’s important to learn the lingo of the voice search world and optimize your content for voice searches.
To improve the chances of your site being found during a voice search, write abundant, natural content that uses a conversational voice. Structure your content around long-tail keywords. Become an expert in your subject matter to receive plenty of backlinks to your website and elevate your site rankings. Update your content often to increase your chances of getting sampled in a “featured snippet” on Google.
If reading this section was like reading Anna Karenina in the original Russian, check out my blog, How can I optimize my web content for voice search? for more details about voice optimization.
Reach Out
The world of SEO is continually morphing. Do you have questions about implementing an effective SEO strategy? Sublime Creations can help. We are an eco-friendly company providing local and small businesses with website consultation, design and personalized training solutions. Contact Sublime Creations online or call to schedule your free 30-minute consultation.
