With the search industry though, the only steady thing about it is change. Like the roiling waves of the sea, the 400+ changes that Google makes to its algorithm can toss around and even capsize a site that isn’t steady enough. But being too steady can mean that a site won’t be able to make course corrections and take advantage of new opportunities.

In this article, I’d like to talk to you about the activities you’ll need to engage in to both make your site unassailable from the roaring tides (the ballasts) and keep you nimble enough to adjust your course (the rudders) in this crazy ocean known as SEO.

The Ballasts – Stability Amidst Turmoil

In the early days of shipping, ballast stones were used to weigh down empty cargo ships that had either just dropped off their cargo or were going to pick up cargo. These stones kept the ships steady along the unsteady ocean journey. Without them, the ships would capsize quite easily. Coastal and port cities around the world have streets that have been paved using these ballast stones.

In the search experience, the ballasts for your search strategy are both physical and philosophical.

The foundational element of seoClarity’s Search Experience Framework (URA SEO) is Usability, which corresponds to building a solid technical framework for your site. Sites should be fast, stable and responsive to whatever device is the device or devices of choice for its users. This includes having servers with impeccable uptime and security, minified code, proper tagging and markup, and effective UI and UX. But there should also be an attitude of flexibility, continuous improvement and an acceptance of input from the technical SEO experts. Without these elements in place, a site can be toppled by security breaches, spikes in user sessions due to viral content, swift changes in the algorithms that target poor site performance, or any number of other possible eventualities.

In addition to the need for a solid technical foundation, the culture within a company can insulate a site from all of the many changes happening in the search engine algorithms. The core philosophy behind the URA SEO Framework is that the user should always come first and that chasing algorithms is a practice in futility. If Google’s many changes and modifications to the SERPs center around the user and improving the user’s experience, it should follow that a company with a “user first” philosophy would be aligned with Google.

Additionally, if a company has built within itself a culture of continuous learning, education and knowledge sharing, this will enable what I’ve written about before – the democratization of SEO. When all of the teams associated with a site or its content are working in sync with best practices, success is all but assured.

The Rudders – Providing Flexibility in an Ever-Changing World

A ship’s rudders help turn the vessel, and, depending on the size of the ship, having rudders at various points on the ship can greatly enhance its nimbleness. Without the rudder, the ship will wind up wherever the wind or the water currents take it, and it won’t be able to take evasive maneuvers as the need arises. In the same way, a site needs to be able to change course throughout the year as it becomes necessary.

For example, a company that uses a Waterfall development process, sets its development goals for the year and stays true to that course all year may find that technological needs have dramatically changed throughout the year or that the original technical requirements weren’t enough. In the same way, a site’s editorial calendar needs to be flexible and fluid, able to accommodate changes in both subject matter and medium.

At seoClarity, we’re seeing a steady stream of changes in both the size and the scope of the search engine results pages (SERPs). The standard 1000-result SERP with a few ads sprinkled here and there is a thing of the past. We’ve seen SERPs with fewer than 20 results and SERPs where Page 1 is dominated by Instant Answers, Local 3-packs and other Universal results, with no organic results above the fold. If a site sets its search strategy for the year and doesn’t adjust as the year progresses, it could be leaving millions of dollars on the table in lost ranking, lost click-throughs, and lost brand awareness.

As with the Ballasts, having a culture of continuing education and learning can help companies with this. SEOs should be staying up-to-date with the latest news and information related to the search experience and then sharing that knowledge with their colleagues across the organization. Analysts should monitor how users are accessing information, finding those well-worn paths and sharing that information with design and development so that they can, in turn, maximize the user experience on-site. Designers and content producers should run A/B and multivariate tests to see which designs and which content elicits the best responses from users.

This culture of continuous improvement has helped some of the most successful online organizations get to where they are today. From the executive leadership team to customer support, embracing this philosophy will help your organization as well.

Photo credit Flickr

The post Being Nimble and Sturdy in the Turbulent Sea of SEO appeared first on Relevance.

It’s job security, right? I’ve even been guilty of glibly saying that Google’s 400 algorithm changes per year would ensure that I had a job for years to come. Any resistance I had to my budget and resource requests merely lengthened the time for which my services would be required. It has been very easy for SEOs to be arrogant about their roles in the past.

Today, however, with the advent of machine learning, the decentralization of Google’s search algorithm, the ever-increasing presence of personal assistants (Google Now, Siri, Cortana) and the imposition of personalized results where the query is about as generic as it could be, we’re seeing a future in which the two schools of thought in SEO will be:

• Algorithm Chasers
• Audience Pleasers

Algorithm Chasers

If you fall into the Algorithm Chasers group, you will continue trying to reverse-engineer each of the variations you see in your ranking reports, each rise and fall of your traffic, each major algorithm update from Google and so on. Rather than opportunities, you will focus on obstacles. At best, you’ll be a fast-follower for content trends in your industry.

Links will continue to be a focus area to compensate for poor rankings. Content strategies will appear fragmented, disjointed and random. Technical SEO efforts will have the primary focus of trying to maximize internal link equity amidst an ever-decreasing domain value.

Audience Pleasers

If you fall into this group, your focus will be creating engaging and effective content, keeping your technical infrastructure nimble and compatible with the latest interfaces, and setting the trends rather than following them.

Links and social engagement will come naturally, thanks to shifting your focus away from manipulation to conversation. Content on an Audience Pleaser’s site is not just informative and engaging; it leaves audiences wanting more, even after the purchase is made. Audience Pleasers build their brand outside of their owned media. They’re unafraid of social networks, video platforms, forums and new & evolving personal mediums.

And frankly, this shift perfectly aligns with Google’s evolution.

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Google as a Personal Assistant

Many years ago, one of my first jobs out of college was a cold-call computer salesman. I did so poorly at that job that I don’t even list it on my resume. But I learned something very valuable while calling potential customers every day: executive assistants (still called “secretaries” at the time … yes, I’m old-school) are the gate-keepers for their bosses. And if you don’t get on their good side, you’ll never reach the decision-maker.

This is precisely the direction in which we see Google going. Google will be the personal assistant that will act as the gatekeeper, basing its decision on whether or not to direct its users to your site on the users’ personal habits, preferences and quirks.

Additionally, it will determine if you’re worthy based on your site’s history of either pleasing users or turning them off. Rather than one single algorithm that fits the needs of most users, there will be 7 billion separate algorithms acting with autonomy to bring their specific user the best possible information, entertainment, educational material, goods and services. Think “Samantha” from the movie “Her.”

So, how you think about search and SEO going forward matters. If you think you’ll be able to manipulate your way into the top rankings in Google moving forward, you’ll most likely just wind up frustrated. However, if you focus on your users’ needs, their wants, their desires and the way they want to interact with sites, media, and each other—you’ll know how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of SEO.

How to Prepare for a Personalized Search World

At seoClarity, we have the privilege of working with some of the most advanced SEO teams in the industry, and we’ve been able to see what successful companies do in order to be successful.

1. They’re technically nimble, allowing them to embrace change and adapt to new channels quickly.
2. They democratize SEO throughout their organizations, which allows their SEO to focus on analysis and personal education, while their writers, developers, promoters, executives and marketers use the best web practices in their particular disciplines.
3. They build their content strategy specifically for their users, addressing their needs, speaking their language and meeting them wherever they are.
4. They re-align their metrics to focus on how engaging and sticky their sites are, rather than just chasing ranking and traffic.

As you start planning for the next fiscal year, think about the intent behind your content strategies and technical requirements for the New Year. Are you trying to game the system? Are you trying to attract users with blasé content produced with no particular passion? In other words, do you still see SEO as “search engine optimization?” Or have you evolved your approach to SEO to see it as “search experience optimization?”

How you answer that question will determine your success going forward.

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The post The New Schools of Thought in SEO: Algorithm Chasers vs. Audience Pleasers appeared first on Relevance.