How long has your business been online? How long have you been using SEO techniques to market your website?
Do they still work the way they should? Or are they penalizing you from getting better rankings?
Google’s strategy is to deliver the best-ranked content to its users. To do that, it changes how it ranks content all the time. Google does that through a complex algorithm that sorts data into the best possible results. These algorithms change over time, and if your website is still built with old technology, your ranking could be impacted.
Want to make sure your SEO strategy is still helping you rank as well as possible? Do you use any of these SEO techniques?
Exact Match Domains
Once upon a time, keywords were everything. The more you used your keyword on a page, the better you’d rank. And if that keyword happened to be in your domain name too? Gold. Things like:
- PortlandFurnaces
- VancouverPizza
- OregonPetSupply
Yep, those were considered a goldmine. Not so much anymore. Google got smart to how that helped rank and took that added benefit away. In some cases, it even penalizes small companies who use that as a strategy.
On the flip side, how does using a generic website like that help brand your company? Companies that have used this strategy usually have their own branding in place, and their company name and domain name don’t match. That confuses your client base, and thanks to Google algorithm changes, it impacts them too.
Keyword Stuffing
Have you seen website pages where the keyword is listed over and over and over and over again? Ugh.
That’s called keyword stuffing, and it used to work to fool search engines to give you a higher ranking.
When you ran across a page like that, it was annoying at best. You went there for information, not to see the word you searched for used a half a zillion times.
So way back when, Google learned just how annoying that was, and started penalizing websites that used that as a part of their strategy.
A study put out by SEORush shows that while keywords do remain a part of the algorithm process, they aren’t at the top of the list. It also shows that 18 percent of all domains ranking for high-volume keywords don’t actually have the keyword in the body.
If you’re paying attention to performing SEO techniques the right way, keyword density becomes a moot point.
Keyword Variations
When companies first built websites, they’d create a service page and list out everything they did.
Then as Google changed ranking strategies, it became more beneficial for a company to have a different page for everything they did. So they separated out every service they offered.
One more way to create depth in their sites. One more way to add keywords to the domain.
- Water heater repair
- Water heater inspection
- Water heater installation
- Water heater maintenance
Why not just have one page – water heater – and list out everything you do? It makes sense to a visitor on your site, so in the end, it made sense to Google too.
This process cleans up your site and makes it easier to understand from a searchers point of view. They don’t get lost in transition trying to figure out what you do.
Customer experience is everything.
Content
If you’ve been paying attention, you know that content is king. In Google’s mind, content is everything.
The best online marketers know that a website has a blog and they aren’t afraid to use it.
But the best SEO techniques also include producing the right content in the right length, at the right time of the day.
Because content is useless if it doesn’t attract attention from your visitors or from Google.
Write for your audience. And if you do it the right way, Google will spread its love.
Today’s algorithms are so sophisticated they can spider through a site and pick up on exactly how well you write. It can tell the difference between good writing and poor content. It knows which will attract more attention from the visitors that find their way onto the site.
Look at your current content – what does it say? How long is it? How much value does it offer to those looking for information?
While length of the post is only one consideration, studies do show that longer is better – up to a point. If you publish 1,000-word posts, chances are it will rank better than one 100 words in length.
But that doesn’t mean you should add words just for the sake of doing so. You need to have something to say. It has to have purpose. It has to be of interest to those that want to do business with you.
Only then will it help you rank well in the search engines.
Local SEO
Who do you do business with?
Most businesses are locally owned, locally driven. Think a plumber in Portland wants to attract attention in Italy? Or a car dealer in Vancouver wants to gain traffic in Kalamazoo?
Local traffic matters. And that’s why companies are focusing more than ever on receiving local results.
Small tweaks to your SEO techniques can have a major impact. You should be focusing in on on-page signals like keywords in titles or domain authority. You should be getting your customers to write reviews. You should pay attention to click-thru rates and mobile clicks to call.
Sure, you can ignore all of this and continue on with business as usual. But your competitor isn’t.
Conclusion
SEO is changing all the time. Google never stands still. They are in an ebb and flow of figuring out what its customers want, and tweaking the algorithms to ensure that’s what is delivered.
What works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow. But one thing is always constant: quality material.
It’s easy to see where we’re going. We know mobile is taking over. We know artificial intelligence is growing in ability. We know content is king – as long as it’s delivered in the way your audience wants.
The only question is: are you delivering? Are you using the best SEO techniques to help you reach your goals?
If not, we can help. Give us a call today.
