Google gets over 4 billion daily searches and only the top five results get 67.6% of the clicks, making SEO a really complicated process. Unlike what countless businesses think, SEO isn’t just about stuffing keywords into your posts. Here are six essential SEO elements that you should be focusing on instead.
6 Essential SEO Elements
Receiving And Monitoring Backlinks
You might think that having more backlinks leads to higher rankings or vice versa, but that is not always the case. If Google sees a massive amount of links, indicating you have participated in link schemes, it will drop your ranking like that. Contrary to popular belief, the amount of backlinks has nothing to do with your ranking. What matters is the quality of the backlinks, and creating genuine content is one of the best ways to earn links naturally. It shows you are an authority in your industry, creating backlinking opportunities for your content. That is also why companies that blog receive 97% more backlinks to their site. This way your site won’t make Google’s algorithm scream “red flag” for having spammy SEO practices.
Optimizing for voice search
Voice search is a rising trend, but it’s one that many businesses aren’t prepared for. Nearly 50% of people search for products using voice search. In fact, a study has found that around 45% of millennials use voice-assisted search when shopping online. With voice-assisted search, the customer can be more specific, which is making long-tail keywords more popular. Here is how voice search can affect your business: For example, while typing “women’s boots size 10 purple” may not necessarily be a specific search keyword. But when saying it out loud, you can make it incredibly specific that you want women’s size 10 purple boots. Evidently, businesses need to make changes to their SEO in 2021.
Using Video Marketing
People watch more than a billion hours of videos each day. So, it is no surprise that videos are the most popular type of content on the internet. That is why Google is taking video marketing seriously, which is evident in its recent algorithm updates that reward videos with a higher ranking. Today, having a video on your homepage can help you rank higher. Because in the search engine results pages, videos can help your business stand out from competitors. Additionally, 89% of video marketers say video gives them a good ROI because it has helped them increase traffic to their websites. Businesses have also experienced a 60% returning customer rate using video marketing. So, videos are undoubtedly here to stay.
Investing In Local SEO
Local SEO was developed back in the early 2000s as a local listing feature to help users find businesses and services near them. However, businesses are yet to incorporate it in their SEO strategies properly even though local results are often the first items displayed on a Google SERP. Interestingly, voice search is also 3x more likely to be local-based. So, local SEO is rapidly becoming one of the most important SEO factors that influence ranking. Local SEO works on the principle of ‘be local, think global.’ It is probably the best way to connect with your local customers as it allows you to cater to a hyper-segmented buyer persona.
Using Low Search Volume Keywords
Many businesses mistakenly believe that low search volume keywords do not matter – that they are irrelevant and not worth their time. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. While it may be tempting to “set” these terms aside, you should reconsider. Low search volume can often lead to very valuable keywords – especially if your business appeals to specific niches or highly localized areas of interest. In fact, Google regularly checks and updates the status of low search volume keywords. “If the number of search queries for these keywords increases even a small amount, they’ll be reactivated and will start triggering your ads to show again.” Google has assured that low search volume keywords don’t have a negative impact on your account. But they also advise removing them “if you are hitting account limits.”
Embracing Direct Website Visits
Direct traffic is the number of visitors that arrive on your site through a direct entry, such as typing your website URL into the address bar of their browser. Users reach out to your site directly when your authority on a topic is so high that they don’t want to go to any other sites for expertise. It’s important to track and measure direct traffic because it can provide valuable insight for improving your SEO efforts. And apparently, Google loves direct traffic because if your site attracts high direct traffic, it shows the search engine that your users love your content so much that they are willing to search for it directly.
Optimizing Your Company’s SEO
At Digital Mules, that’s exactly what we do. We help you understand your SEO metrics and identify the root cause for your strategy’s success or failure. We offer affordable and expert SEO services for goal-oriented businesses. Contact us through our website, and speak to our experts to get your customized SEO strategy right away.
