Can you believe that Google handles billions of searches every single day?
If you own a business, then learning how to increase your Google rankings should be a top priority. This can lead to sustainable growth for many years to come.
One way that you can improve your online reputation is to follow SEO trends. Keep reading for ten trends that every business owner should know about this year.
1. Checking Your Backlinks
The benefits of backlinks can’t be stressed enough. It’s crucial to ensure that your website has plenty of backlinks so you can boost your rankings on Google.
Since you can accumulate hundreds of backlinks over time, you should try to check your backlinks on a regular basis to track your progress. It’s also nice to have peace of mind that any backlinks you’ve paid for in the past still exist, so you get the most value for your money.
2. Boosting User Experience
With so many websites on the internet, people have the luxury of being picky when they’re browsing for the content they want. If your website is slow, confusing to navigate, or unappealing to look at, then people will click away at the speed of lightning.
Since Google pays attention to user experience, you can’t afford to neglect this aspect of your website if you want to boost your search engine rankings.
3. Creating Video SEO Content
One of the most creative ways that businesses are ranking higher on Google is by starting a YouTube channel. Since it’s easy to add SEO keywords to video content, you can beat any competition that doesn’t have a YouTube channel yet.
For example, if you have an auto shop, creating tutorials for simple car repairs can build trust and encourage new people to come visit you for more extensive repairs.
4. Prioritizing the Mobile Version of Your Website
There’s no denying that browsing on a computer can be a much more luxurious experience since the screen is bigger and there are lots of cool features. However, most people have busy schedules, and they always have a smartphone on hand.
This means that people spend a lot of time browsing on these devices instead. Take some time to make sure that the mobile version of your site runs just as well as your desktop version.
5. Optimizing Voice Search
For the majority of the internet’s existence, most people wrote out everything that they wanted to search. Since people want to be fast when they type, businesses had to get creative by working awkward phrases like “pizza near me” into their websites.
Nowadays, plenty of people take advantage of voice search technology. This means that it’s becoming more important to use natural phrases like “Where can I find the best pizza near me?”
6. Localizing SEO
Some businesses can operate on a national or international basis with ease. If you can ship products anywhere, then it makes sense to focus on big-picture SEO keywords so you can attract the largest audience.
However, if your business relies on customers visiting a physical storefront or booking services nearby, then you have to have to increase your local SEO efforts. This will allow people in your community to discover your business and share it with everyone else they know.
7. Posting Long-Form Content
In the earlier days of SEO, starting a basic blog was essential so businesses could outshine their competition. Now that many businesses understand the value of running a blog, the bar is higher.
Google gives higher rankings to websites that post new and useful content on a regular basis. Publishing more long-form content allows you to share more insights and sneak extra high-search keywords in without overdoing it. If you’re not a talented writer, then it’s worth investing in professional SEO blogging services.
8. Search Intent
In an attempt to make Google even more reliable, search intent has become a much bigger deal. Keywords still matter, but businesses also need to pay attention to the intent behind each keyword they use to maximize their online success.
The four main categories that are worth learning about are informational, commercial, transactional, and navigational. This distinguishes between people who want to learn, browse for the best products or services, complete a purchase, and find a specific page on a website. Sometimes having a mix of all four types of keywords can end up boosting your sales more than just focusing on transactional keywords.
9. Ditching Black-Hat SEO Practices
It’s understandable that you want fast results for your website ranking so you can take your business to the next level. This desire to succeed can make some businesses follow black-hat SEO practices to try to cook the books. While this can cause your website to skyrocket in popularity, you’ll always run the risk of getting caught by Google.
Google has made it clear that it’s not tolerating black-hat SEO practices, and there are more tools in place to detect these websites than ever. Lots of businesses have accepted that good things take time, and they’re devoting resources to following good SEO practices.
10. Creating Evergreen Content
If you’re running a news blog and trending topics, then trending topics are your bread and butter since this is the content that your audience expects. Most websites can’t compete with the top news resources, so they choose to publish evergreen content instead.
The benefit of posting more evergreen articles is that they will retain their value over the years. You may have to revisit these pages as time passes to make minor tweaks, but this is better than having useless articles that no one will click on anymore after a week or two.
You Have to Try These Top SEO Trends
The importance of SEO can’t be highlighted enough since we live in a digital world. Now that you’re caught up on the latest SEO trends, you can take your website to the next level.
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