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Whether we like it or not, search engine optimization is a constantly evolving technical skill. What worked yesterday may fall completely flat next week. Constant research and updates are the meat and potatoes of every SEO agency.

Search engine companies, for their part, continue to update their algorithms to provide a better user experience. Frequently, they will release an algorithm update into the wild without much in the way of advance notice.

To better understand how successful SEO tactics really work, it might help to check out the 2014 film "The Lego Movie." In that cinematic masterpiece, the protagonists Emmet and Wyldstyle elude their murderous pursuers by constructing a high-powered getaway vehicle out of random bits of Lego as they run at full speed down an alleyway. At the last possible second, the engines snap into place, and our heroes launch themselves to safety.

Putting together a successful SEO campaign and keeping it afloat is only slightly less harrowing. Any number of factors can influence the results showing up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Given the ever-shifting terrain of SEO and your need to focus attention elsewhere, hiring an agency can be a somewhat daunting, albeit necessary, task.

Ideally, you will partner with an agency that will grow organic traffic to your website. They'll work to improve your search rankings and help you generate more leads. Should you elect to go this route, there are several questions you can ask that will help you determine if potential agencies really know their stuff and can help you move ahead in your market niche. Listed below are nine to consider.

1. Can you guarantee specific results?

Be wary of anyone who answers "Yes." Why? Because it is almost impossible to promise a specific ranking status. If the company you are considering "guarantees" a certain number of visitors to your website, a percentage of increase in sales, or a specific ranking position, you might be hearing more hype and hustle than anything else.

Most agencies will tell you they're confident of the results they can produce based on past clients. However, anyone who promises a specific ranking or traffic level is not being entirely truthful. (Let's just say it that way.) Instead of being drawn in by extravagant promises, focus on doing business with companies that commit to following search engine protocols established to provide benchmarks for quality of work. Go with verifiable "best practices" rather than pie in the sky.

2. How long will it take to see results?

Committing to effective SEO practices represents just the first step on a journey. Again, if anyone you are considering promises overnight results, they are showing you that they haven't been working in the SEO niche very long.

First, your digital footprint must have a solid foundation and strategy. That foundation often takes the form of reliable, high-quality content on a well-maintained and mobile-optimized website. After that, you'll need that onsite content to support your link acquisition goals. Once you have a stable platform, you can begin securing link acquisitions.

Anyone who promises instant results isn't using sustainable techniques. Simply stated, they aren't being honest about the realistic possibilities or working with SEO.

However, that reality shouldn't prevent an experienced agency from giving you an estimated time frame for results. You should generally expect results from reliable providers within six to twelve months, depending on how demanding your goals are. Any number of factors can rise up to skew your hoped-for results. It all depends on the competition, your site's domain authority (DA), and how difficult it is to rank for your specific keyword.

Some niche businesses may see results within a few months. Others could take significant time to see any return. Keep in mind that many third-party factors lie outside anyone's ability to control. This is all part of the SEO process. Consequently, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

3. Have you ever worked with a similar company before?

One of the best ways to know if any SEO agency can handle your project is if they've already achieved similar results in the same niche as your company. If they have, they'll already know some of the strategies it takes to get results. They should be able to explain clearly how taking you on as a client wouldn't result in a conflict of interest.

However, if they haven't previously worked in your niche, that shouldn't immediately disqualify them, either. Many of the tools and tricks that work for one niche are transferable to another.

What you're trying to learn through this question is whether or not your company is a fit with their agency and vice-versa. One positive sign is the courageous sales rep who is transparent about never having worked in your niche.

4. How has SEO changed within the last few years?

Be careful if an SEO agency you're considering explains that SEO is more or less the same today as it was a few years ago. While it is true that the core fundamentals haven't changed much, many specific tactics have been updated to keep up with changes.

Recall that search engine companies frequently announce significant changes to how they index websites. As the online marketplace shifts attention from one highlighting metric to the next, these algorithm changes can't help but affect site rankings and SERPs.

If you want to walk in better prepared, spend at least a few minutes charting the various updates to the Google search algorithm over time. Take notice if the people you're talking to can't walk you through specific updates and demonstrate how they'll impact your business. You need an SEO agency that can speak both technical and business in understandable terms. If, on the other hand, you feel your head start to spin in technical jargon, that's not a good sign. Say something about it and gauge the response this request receives.

5. What metrics do you think are most important to measure?

Rankings, traffic, and backlink numbers are all essential to monitor constantly. However, leveraging effective SEO tactics means doing more than simply increasing rankings, decreasing bounce rates, or improving traffic levels. People spending more time on your website means very little if that loitering traffic never actually purchases anything. Rankings matter most when they're helping your business generate qualified leads.

What you've defined as your business needs should drive which yardsticks you use for measuring success. It's essential to look at various metrics based on specific goals you might have. For example, some metrics could include the ranking position for a keyword or how much traffic a site is getting for that keyword. Tracking these metrics will help you understand the progress being made and if an agency fully grasps what you mean by success.

Ultimately, you want an agency that can tie its SEO efforts back to your bottom line. You need an agency that can visualize the big picture and articulate that vision to you. An SEO agency's success metrics should be based on your personal business goals. Individualization of statistical reporting will be critical for your review sessions.

6. How do you choose the keywords to target?

Effective keyword research requires considerably more effort than most realize as they begin their initial foray into the world of SEO. The overall relevance of any selected keyword is crucial, of course. However, trying to understand the default headspace — a.k.a. "search intent" — of the person conducting an internet search is equally as important.

What's typically going on in the thinking of someone who might have at least some interest in your products or services? What terms are these people likely to type into search engines? That might sound like an impossible question to answer, but it isn't. Meaningful statistics can be harvested and brought to bear, providing a solid starting point.

Make sure any potential agency you're considering refers to search intent as their basis for crafting your SEO campaign. They should also be taking into consideration keyword difficulty, as well as search volume. Not all keyword targets are created equal, so a good agency knows the balance between what is achievable and worthwhile and what isn't.

Ask them to speak at some length about the specific tools and techniques they use to determine keyword intent. If the entire conversation revolves around the number of searches for a keyword they've targeted for your needs, they're more than likely operating on outdated SEO practices.

7. What's your link-building process?

Some SEO agencies will promise to build thousands of links on your behalf within a short period of time. However, the unpleasant reality is that those links may not be valuable if they originate from a bunch of low-quality, low-DA sites.

Your conversations should focus on building quality links over a large quantity of links. You want to ensure that the links you receive come from sites with some authority in their niche and that the content your links are in is relevant to the site where they are placed. If you're a health company and an agency secures you a link in a home renovation site in content that has no connection, it may not be relevant. While you can't stop anyone from linking to you as they wish, you'll get more positive backlinks when you publish consistently excellent online resources.

Online users are quick to click away when a link doesn't yield anticipated results. Modern link-building practices favor those who provide high-quality content relevant to the site on which it will be published. You probably won't move the needle if you're not getting that.

8. How should SEO be incorporated into our overall marketing strategy?

The most successful SEO initiatives are integrated into an overall marketing plan. SEO goes hand in hand with content marketing, public relations, and social media activities to create effective links. Your potential SEO agency should be open to collaborating with marketing, web development, and sales teams and your existing marketing initiatives.

The alarm bells should start to go off if the SEO agency you're talking to ignores or downplays what's worked well for your company in the past. The number of successful companies that need to "chuck it all and start over from scratch" are infinitesimally few. Instead, an SEO company that knows its stuff will take the base you've established and elevate it to new heights.

Properly understood, successful SEO is a blend of onsite content, link acquisitions, and even some aspects of digital PR. Strategic link acquisitions from external publications are also a vital piece of the SEO puzzle. Typically, well-regarded publications agree to link to your content using a specific keyword. Keep in mind that high-DA sites are only interested in linking to high-quality content as they realize that their linking practices affect their credibility.

External digital PR that mentions your brand helps signal search engines that you are recognized as an authority on a specific subject. Incorporating digital PR and boosting your domain authority will provide another shot in the arm to help you rank well.

9. What do you need from clients to be effective?

Reliable SEO agencies should have a long list of questions and needs. To conduct their work effectively, they'll need detailed information about your audience, industry, and goals. Pay attention to their eagerness to interview you just as much as you want to interview them. You can take that as a bad sign if you sense they're going through the motions.

SEO agencies need flexible and cooperative clients to make SEO-focused site changes. The clients who tend to see the most success are willing to let an agency guide onsite strategy and link acquisition strategies. Clients should be able to keep the high-level goal of ranking for a specific keyword as the focus of the relationship.

In a more traditional commercial transaction, you pay money to acquire a product or service. The extent of your commitment is cutting a check. Working with an SEO agency will require making payments, of course, but it's also better to think of the process as a relationship rather than a transaction. Both you and the agency have a vested interest in making sure you see results from the relationship.

Conclusion

Your goal is to make an informed decision when choosing an SEO agency. Hopefully, the questions above have laid the groundwork for that. It might initially feel intimidating to ask a lot of questions about different SEO options. However, asking the right questions at the outset will only set you up for success.

Agencies that know what they're doing will be open and honest about their processes. With a bit of homework on your part — and a willingness to walk away if you have misgivings — you're more likely to find an agency that delivers what you need by asking them these questions. Factor in some after-action time to evaluate their answers to determine the best fit for your niche. Knowing the techniques and policies an SEO agency employs before you dive in will serve you well as you seek to own the industry you operate in.

Blogging is hard work. For starters, you have to hire the best writers, figure out how often to post, and create a consistent tone for your company. Consequently, it’s a lot of moving parts in the name of improving your SEO ranking. However, it's essential to compete in today’s world.

I need more!

So consider this. What are you doing to make yours even better? Which marketing bloggers should you be emulating? What are the pros doing? Above all, how can you help your growth marketing efforts?

If you want to be the best, you need to read the best. As a result, finding the best of your peers and competition is how you stay on top of the game. Firstly, understanding how they utilize style, tone, and overall structure to benefit their business traffic will help you do the same for yours.

So who are the top ten to follow in 2022?

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a New York Times best selling author dubbed a top influencer by the Wall Street Journal. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and under 35 by the United Nations. His specialties are online ad creation, content marketing, and SEO rankings.

2. Steve Kearns

Steve Kearns leads blog and social media marketing strategy on behalf of LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions business. Moreover, his team runs Linkedin’s “This Week in Marketing” newsletter, providing advice on relevant B2B content marketing to its subscribers.

3. Michelle Ngome

Michelle Ngome is a fractional diversity marketing consultant that guides businesses on inclusive content marketing in the B2B space. As a result, her blog focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusive practices in the marketing sphere.

4. Tequia Burt

Tequia Burt is the EIC of Linkedin’s Marketing Solutions Blog. She has spent her career perfecting her craft with multiple major businesses, like B2B Marketing USA and Spirituality and Health Magazine. Nowadays she writes about effective marketing practices on LinkedIn’s blog.

5. Matt Marshall

Matt Marshall is the founder of VentureBeat.com, an excellent tech blog that discusses brands, the metaverse, and cybersecurity. In the same vein, this blog is used to drive traffic to his major event, Transform, which is an informational summit about AI and technology.

6. John Doherty

John Doherty is a B2B marketing consultant specializing in growing businesses through blog optimization. He has articles on blog maintenance, major platforms, and business prioritization.

7. Ileane Smith

Ileane Smith is a blogger specializing in digital media creation and live streaming. With 11k YouTube subscribers, her site aims to help individuals and businesses grow their audiences through created content and specialized distribution methods.

8. Ann Handley

Ann Handley is a blogger, digital marketing pioneer, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author. In addition, her company MarketingProfs is a top rated B2B training and consulting resource for companies looking to up their content marketing skills.

9. Ryan Robinson

Ryan Robinson is one of those content marketing bloggers specializing in large-scale content marketing and profitable blog management. Consequently, he has been featured in HubSpot and Forbes and uses his platform to simplify blog creation strategies for the public.

10. Adam Enfoy

Adam Enfroy is an entrepreneur blogger with over 500,000 monthly readers. Enfoy looks to teach new entrepreneurs how to maintain blogs and utilize software to elevate their business profits. Most importantly, his more recent articles highlight the best SEO practices for start-ups.

There’s a few things you can learn from the big marketing bloggers that dominate the industry. They all use similar formats and write interesting, informative pieces for their readers.

Quick Takeaways

Here’s four ways to up your blog writing game.

1. Write the perfect blog posts.

Obviously, right? However, marketing bloggers know that a solid foundation is crucial to success. As a result, to have the best chance at visibility, you have to follow a quality strategy — consistently.

While the mass text and message you’re trying to convey is important, it isn’t just the “meat” of the article you need to worry about — it’s the little details too. Things like:

Likewise, get the small techniques together to improve the big picture.

What Has Led to Your Biggest Traffic Gains?

Source: Neil Patel.

2. Craft a winning content strategy.

Crafting your own unique winning content strategy is necessary to your blog’s success. Moreover, a content strategy is a holistic approach to delivering information to audiences, those for whom you already have a customer profile. On the other hand, it is different from content marketing, which is the general execution of your strategy.

There’s multiple steps to creating your content strategy, like creating a content calendar, establishing your brand voice, and setting your metrics.

Consequently, creating your key metrics is a driving force behind how you create your strategy. Metrics include things like:

When you have created a measurable way to see how your blog is doing, it becomes easier to see where you are performing well. Likewise, you'll discover which areas of your blog require improvement.

3. Maintain a social media presence.

Making sure your blog is optimized for search engine ranking is important to getting and keeping readership. However, it's not the only way to get your post in front of consumers.

Enter social media.

Social Media Marketers' Platform Usage Trends in 2021

Source: Marketing Charts.

All successful marketing bloggers share in common large social media presences across multiple platforms. Consequently, many of them have created vast networks of content that promote their other content, maximizing the attention they have of their viewer.

Neil Patel creates crash course videos on his YouTube page aimed at helping clients improve their marketing efforts. Likewise, in all of his posts and his videos, he mentions his blog, Twitter, Instagram, and his website — directing the viewer there to his blog where he directs them to his YouTube page.

Getting the idea yet?

In short, crafting an efficient cycle of promotion through social media channels is important to blog traffic generation.

Consequently, this method of stretching your content helps maximize your budget as well. Why create a video and let it fade into oblivion on YouTube? When you recraft your content effectively you reach more prospects in a cheap efficient way.

4. Ask the pros for guest posts.

Finally, you know what everyone could use more of?

Credibility.

As a result, contracting experts in your field for guest articles can help your blog in several ways:

Some might say "We can’t afford an authentic guest writer, it probably wouldn’t even be worth it.” However, budgeting the extra money as part of your marketing plan can be an extremely valuable investment for your blog.

For example, think about it this way.

If you were concerned you were sick and wanted to research opinions on different illnesses, would you go look at a blog with a random medical professional’s opinion, or a respected specialist? In short, you would be looking for the opinions of the most respected doctors in the field.

Obviously, marketing is a little different from medicine. However, the fact is that influencer and specialist opinions have a huge effect on the credibility of your blogger. Consequently, with their large audience and important titles, a partnership is valuable for both sides.

Wrap Up

You have the references, you have the budget, you have the facts. As a result, it’s time for you to take your blog from good to great.

However, if you still are having trouble or looking for advice, you can check out more content marketing resources here on Relevance.com.

Is there anything more disappointing than stumbling upon a treasure map that ultimately leads to...nothing of any real value? And yet, businesses that over-emphasize the use of advanced search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to the detriment of their content strategy run the risk of doing just that.

On the other hand, companies that stress content strategy without bolstering their technical SEO efforts make the opposite marketing mistake; they are, in effect, burying marketing "treasure" (i.e. great content) in the vast sands of the internet wasteland without bothering to create a keyword map.

For search engine success, make sure you do not treat SEO and content strategy as two distinct and separate marketing disciplines. While it's certainly possible to do so, it's not a winning SEO content marketing strategy for building long-term customer engagement.

Your SEO strategy should inform your content strategy. Similarly, your onsite content strategy should be tailored to your keyword research. Consequently, great content targeted to specific keywords and arranged in a topic cluster can help your brand rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

We was like peas and carrots.

SEO and content strategy tactics can helpfully be compared to a keyword treasure map that leads to buried marketing treasure. SEO and content strategy go together like peas and carrots. Peanut butter and jelly. Pick whatever metaphor works for you; the point is that you'll need both to succeed.

As you look to begin content marketing or raise the profile of your existing enterprise, keep the following critical SEO content practices in mind. Refer to them often as you strategize, hire, acquire, reboot, conduct your keyword research, and reconfigure your content plan.

1. Zero In on Your Target Audience

The old axiom certainly proves true in the world of content strategy. "If you aim at nothing in particular, you're sure to hit it."

When engaging in online marketing, you absolutely must know who you are trying to reach. If you attempt to reach everyone with your existing content, you are increasingly unlikely to use the right keyword strategy or engage with anyone.

Do your keyword homework. The time you spend on your SEO content strategy will pay dividends later on.

Build a handful of buyer personas to guide the efforts of your writers, website developers, and marketers as they optimize your SEO strategy to hit your keyword sweet spots.

2. Pick Topics Based on Your Expertise

Avoid the SEO content strategy mistake of trying to appeal to everyone with a wide array of marketing information.

If you're like most companies, your business operates in a specific niche. As a result, you will want your SEO content strategy to remain solidly in your lane. Start asking others if you struggle to identify what makes your business special. As part of your content strategy, pay particular attention to the inquiries that routinely come your way via social media or other channels.

Many business owners are tempted to hold back a bit at this stage in the SEO content strategy. The operational (though faulty) logic is to reserve your best bits for paying customers.

However, living in a world where people consult a Google search result to answer everyday issues, this is a shortsighted content strategy. According to the Content Marketing Institute, it's been clearly shown that companies who consistently put out reliable content marketing information without paywalls tend to build up social media followers and, ultimately, customers.

3. Choose Your Keywords Carefully

Keyword research is the "secret sauce" that separates a successful content marketing strategy from one that's solidly mediocre. This is the second step at which taking the time to conduct research will be most helpful. If your content strategy focuses on a keyword that's too broad, larger corporations are likely going to bury your content marketing efforts.

Long tail keywords can be key to a winning strategy as you seek to reach a specific target audience. A long tail relevant keyword typically consists of three to five words. This keyword strategy helps your content marketing cut through the noise and yield targeted search results more likely to result in a conversion. At the end of the day you want to be targeting the keywords that your audience is searching.

4. Create Content To Build Topical Authority

Now that you are clear on your target audience, areas of expertise, and marketing keyword, you're ready to begin producing new content.

Every decision of your content strategist should be driven by the audience research you conducted in Step One. Your content marketing needs to show up wherever your people already are, not where you expect them to travel. 

Stick with what you know best and create the content that your brand should be known for. You'll struggle to rank for your target keywords if you don't have a strong web of content on your site around your key topics.

In addition, your content strategy should be tightly bound up with search intent. Are people looking to purchase when searching your target keyword? Or are they looking to get information and education on a subject? In other words, focus your content on what your users need when searching that keyword. If you are trying to rank a product page when people are looking for educational guides when searching that keyword, you likely won't see the progress you're hoping for.

5. Link, Interlink, and Backlink

If you've published high quality content, especially content that solves problems, you can reasonably expect other people to begin linking to your site. Good content is its own advertisement, though initially you might want to augment your visibility with Google Ads or some other paid content marketer service. Backlinks suggest to search engines that you are a leader in your field. This, in turn, will help boost your domain authority and your rank on a Google SERP.

You will want to interlink these pieces within your website as you produce value-laden how-to guides, white papers, instructional videos, and more. Then you can start link outreach efforts and see if you can get other authoritative sites to link back to your content. You may even start ranking for your target keywords with your rankable content. The point is that relevant keyword linking practices is a strategy that will pay off in the long run.

6. Commit to Ongoing Improvement

Search engines are constantly crawling the internet and updating their SERPs according to the latest data they can collect. As a result, a keyword that worked great as part of your content strategy just two weeks ago may already be starting to slip a bit. This is where your SEO audit comes into play.

Make sure you consistently monitor your Google Analytics and social media platforms. Similarly, collect empirical marketing data ahead of your decision-making. Dive into what is working and what isn’t for your content marketing by looking at what content is driving traffic in Google Search Console or some other SEO tool that suits your needs. You might even share your search engine data with an SEO agency and have them provide additional marketing insights.

Analytics, search engines, marketing statistics, and spreadsheets might not be "your thing," and that's OK. However, you owe it to your company's future marketing success to ensure that someone you trust is combing through the piles of search engine data to identify current trends. In a time crunch, it might be tempting to leave outdated videos on your site or hold off on retooling a page with a high bounce rate. In those moments, remind yourself of your marketing strategy. Recall how you felt when you were led to information on the web that wasted your time.

Wrapping Up

Every business, large or small, thrives by providing valuable products and services at a competitive price point. Along the way, you refine and sharpen your niche-specific expertise. When that expertise fuels content ideas and you share it freely, you kindle potential customer gratitude. In today's world of eCommerce and SEO content, successful businesses are learning the value of reliability. Trust and appreciation are vital for gaining the attention of search engines and (ultimately) making sales.

Your content strategy will probably need a tune-up every so often. However, the time you invest in SEO content marketing is well worthwhile.

Regardless of your niche, there's almost certainly a way to leverage your knowledge and insights. You can create quality content that cuts through all the search engine clutter and results in SEO success. If you are struggling in the digital marketing space or need help balancing your content strategy or other SEO services, don't go it alone! Feel free to schedule a time to chat with one of our subject matter experts.

7 Innovations in Search Engine Optimization and Their Application

The search engine optimization industry is constantly making innovations. Likewise, new technologies regularly emerge to help marketers and developers streamline their content creation strategy to achieve better organic search results. As a result, to ensure that your brand stays relevant in search engine results, you'll need an SEO expert to adapt to these fast-changing technologies and the latest trends in online marketing, social media, and more.

Don't get left behind. To reach your potential customer, your search engine marketing plan will need to combine social media, link building, email marketing, keyword research, Google AdWords, backlinks, and (of course) great fresh content. Your targeted audience will find you once you begin to rise in search engine ranking.

Learn to scale your SEO process, use specific keywords, tweak all of your core web vitals, and generate a high-quality search result. Do this by implementing these seven innovations in search engine optimization as a core component of your marketing strategy. There is a lot of trial and error involved with attaining effective SEO and digital marketing success, so plan on that!

1. Mobile-First Indexing for Improved SEO Ranking

Did you know that 50.81% of total global website traffic comes from mobile devices? Search engines, as a result, have begun prioritizing mobile-friendly content.

Smartphone proliferation has grown by leaps and bounds. As a result, more and more users are switching to mobile search rather than using desktops, laptops, or other devices. Your SEO efforts and content marketing will stall out if you're designing and marketing for desktop and ignoring what Google Analytics is trying to tell you.

In response to the dramatic increase in mobile search, Google Search introduced the approach of mobile-first indexing. This approach uses the mobile version of a website to index and rank it in search engine result pages (SERPs). Consequently, Google rolled out its mobile-first indexing for every website. That being so, optimizing websites to be mobile-friendly and cross-device compatible has become more pertinent for marketing than ever.

Google is steadily moving toward indexing only mobile versions of websites rather than desktop versions. If your website is still focused primarily on its desktop index and not optimized for mobile viewing, then it is likely that Google may not index it at all even if your relevant keywords are all top-notch. Obviously, this is likely to significantly affect your search engine rankings and ROI.

The need of the hour is to switch to responsive website design with Google mobile-first indexing, fast loading time, and improved user-friendliness.

Optimize dynamic website content and images to deliver enhanced mobile experiences. Mobile-first indexing can help boost your page rankings and organic traffic and backlinks using a mobile-optimized version of your site.

2. Natural Language Processing: Producing Effective Short-Form Content

Ever since Google rolled out its 2019 Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) algorithm update, Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a technology innovation powering the SEO industry.

Using NLP, Googles algorithm looks at the context of a word as it appears within a sentence to understand its meaning. This means that Google will no longer rely on particular search terms and phrases to provide the most relevant answers. Rather, they will look into the intent behind the search.

Leveraging BERT, the Google algorithm now understands the context behind every search and then provides appropriate information.

"By trying to understand the 'context' of search queries, and by mining the relationship between stop-words with other words in the query, Google's BERT algorithm pushes the limits of how a traditional search engine understands a user's needs. With Google weighing in on NLP to gain a deeper understanding of user queries, it implies that content-makers who get more specific, relevant, and descriptive with their content and information - including links - in their pages tend to rank higher."

Jaya Kumar Data Scientist, Deep Learning and NLP Specialist

From the perspective of SEO, NLP is important to marketing because creating high-quality, informational content will help make it most relevant to a searcher's intent and not the keywords they are using.

3. SSL Certificate Labeling for Strengthening Customer Trust

While often overlooked, SSL certificate (HTTPS) labeling is an important SEO trend that businesses must consider. HTTPS is a crucial ranking factor for Google as it secures improved trust with your target audience. Ongoing innovations in search engine optimization have only reinforced this requirement.

Websites that hold an SSL certificate are labeled as "HTTPS" by Google. This indicates that the site offers high-level security and integrity. The security of user data is a vital factor! It can help boost your search engine rankings and drive increased traffic.

A site that does not hold SSL certification or is a non-HTTPS site will be labeled as "Not Secure" by Google and other search engines. This can significantly affect search engine rankings. Additionally, end-users will be reluctant to visit any site that is not safe.

The implications for innovation in this space are clear. To boost search engine rankings and offer a secure browsing experience, websites must obtain a basic SSL certificate. It's now an integral element of any SEO strategy.

4. Automated Content Curation Using GPT-3

If you are looking for true innovations within the SEO industry and digital marketing, the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer Number 3 (GPT-3) is worth your attention. One of the most prominent examples of its application is a 2020 story published by The Guardian on its website - written entirely by a robot.

Using a broad pool of datasets, GPT-3 technology is trained to mimic the way humans write. Some of the datasets it uses come from Wikipedia, Common Crawl Dataset, historical books, etc. When you input a writing prompt into GPT-3, it will read the relevant information on the internet and predict what will follow next.

As such, the GPT-3 API is a revolutionary content curation tool you can use across different SEO applications. These include tasks such as writing emails or creating the first draft of a report. All you need to do is feed the API some bullet points as an outline, keeping your keyword ranking in mind, and the robot will write it automatically.

5. On-Page Automated SEO Optimization for Enhanced Search Experience

Google has been continuously updating its algorithm to offer an improved search experience to users. As a part of its algorithm update, the search engine giant now considers long-form content as a vital ranking factor. Long-form content ideally takes a more in-depth approach to the topic and, as such, tends to meet the searcher's intent.

However, writing high-quality and relevant long-form content is not easy. It involves considering a wide range of factors such as competitor research, keyword discovery, topic selection, creating engaging headings and subheadings, providing valuable insights, constructing a social media support strategy, and much more.

Continuously creating unique content that is of value to your readers is one of the more challenging innovations in search engine optimization.

"One of the first places I turn for new article ideas is the 'Top Content' area found within my Google Analytics account. There, I'm able to access a quick list of the posts on my site that have been viewed the most often, providing me with some interesting insight into the subject matter that my audience finds most interesting."

Eric Siu "Easy Market Research: Leveraging Your Existing Data for Content Creation"

New AI-Powered Tools Speed Content Creation

Normally, the next step would be to spend several hours editing and optimizing each piece of long-form content for search engines. This is where on-page automated content optimization and technical innovation come into the picture.

Tools such as Content Harmony or Frase AI streamline the process of content research or checking top-ranking pages. They provide useful data developers can use to curate high-quality content.

Content Harmony helps design content briefs automatically, helping meet a searcher's intent in a shorter amount of time. Writers only need to provide a keyword/keywords and the software will analyze SERPs automatically based on various data points. The generated results help the author create content briefs.

The Content Creation Process Is Evolving to Meet Recent Innovations in Search Engine Optimization
Source: MarketMuse (All rights reserved.)

6. Optimizing A/B Testing for SEO with Augmented User Interaction

Most SEO professionals tend to focus on end-user A/B testing rather than SEO A/B testing in digital marketing. The former involves picking website visitors randomly and assigning them to various versions of a web page. Based on the user's interaction with the pages, professionals use these SEO activities to gauge overall online marketing performance.

However, SEO A/B testing adds Google bots assigned to analyze the same version of any page. In essence, you are showing different elements of any page to Google to test their SEO-friendliness. These include meta description, featured snippet, title tags, H1, schema markup, anchor text, etc. SEO A/B testing helps clarify what works well for the page and what does not. Optimizing a page based on these results will help boost its search rankings and visibility.

7. Innovations in SEO Do Not Negate the Need for Non-Text Content

The purpose of using non-text content factors in SEO is to offer an improved user experience on your website.

Text alone lacks the engagement factor that keeps audiences interested, especially in long-form content. As a result, adding non-text content factors is crucial. These include images, graphs, infographics, videos, animations, audio clips, slideshows, PDFs, etc. will help improve the quality of your content. Likewise, doing so will make it more relevant and engaging.

Conclusion

With modern technology developments such as those already mentioned and Google Search Console making their way into the industry, it is evident that SEO optimization is definitely not dead. On the contrary, custom SEO has never been more important, especially local SEO. This will continue as Google constantly changes its approach to how websites are ranked in SERPs.

Do you want to leverage the potential of SEO to boost your search engine visibility, drive organic traffic, garner quality backlinks, and improve ROI? If so, you must commit to staying current on these technologies and implement regular modifications to achieve quality results. You might even consider partnering with a professional SEO service.

If you would like to connect with an SEO strategist to speak more about implementing innovative strategies and learn more about technical SEO, contact one of our Relevance SEO experts.

The principles behind search engine optimization (SEO) make sense for businesses looking to capture target audience interest in a particular field, industry, or product type. For example, a consumer enters the phrase "brown spots in lawn" into the Google search bar, and multiple lawn services providers pop up. Their profiles feature content filled with tips and tricks as well as Google ads for useful products. This search result tactic works wonders for businesses with large audiences that address problems most everyone faces. But SEO also works well in niche markets, assuming it's leveraged correctly.

Obviously, some businesses don't have large audiences. How can SEO be as effective for them to target a potential customer? If you are operating within a niche business, read on. Learn how you can effectively leverage SEO for online success.

Understand Search Volume

Search volume is an important concern for SEO. It is essentially how many people are searching with the intent of finding and interacting with your niche.

No matter which SEO tool you use, researching search volume will give you a good idea of the size of your online audience. Scanning through Google Search Console, for example, you'll learn what terms your target audience are using to search for your industry or your business in particular.

The best way to research search volume is through Google's Keyword Planner, which you can access through your Ads Account. Here, you can find graphs pertaining to the popularity of different words and phrases used in the search. Because you are working within a niche, you are likely to discover that your search volume is low.

However, it shouldn't be non-existent.

If you do try to use a keyword phrase that is associated with little to no traffic on any search engine, the Google Keyword Planner should tell you that your keywords aren't contributing to SEO success.

Search intent is a bit different from keywords. While terms, phrases, and related keywords used in the search query factor into intent, they aren't always directly descriptive of what a web user wants in the search results.

Google is getting better at understanding and identifying intent through machine learning tools like BERT. Accordingly, you should try to work with search intent within your content to increase the number of keywords you rank for and boost your search volume.

Research Keyword Specificity

Usually, specific keyword phrases are better for SEO because there is less competition for them.

For instance, huge corporations tend to rank for "financial services," but smaller, local businesses have more opportunities to rank for "financial services Modesto CA." This is a great example of how to approach an SEO strategy in niche markets. Using local SEO and niche driven SEO allows smaller businesses to rise in ranking for a specified target audience.

However, there is a fine line between appropriately specific and obscure. You need to be careful not to cross that line. If you do, you'll lose whatever meager web traffic you can get.

Keyword research is difficult even at the best of times. Still, when you are trying to balance on the edge of specificity, you should consider hiring an SEO expert or marketing agency. Many specialists can provide SEO services such as keyword research, niche driven SEO, or technical SEO a la carte or provide a comprehensive package.

SEO agencies have the right keyword tools to help you track and choose the best terms and phrases to target, especially when your search volume is low, to begin with. They will start with a content audit and an SEO audit. They will conduct keyword research and help you assess your current domain rating. Plus, experienced SEOs know more about managing search engine intent with keywords.

Research Your Search Competition

It is likely that you operate within a smaller niche because you discovered a need and worked to fill it. You might be the only business of your kind. However, you will still probably have some sort of competition for your keywords. A cursory glance at your website's Google Analytics can help you see how your niche edit is performing.

To dominate in your chosen keyword categories and develop a content strategy, you first need to know what pages you are up against. The very best email marketing effort, blog post, or affiliate marketing campaign won't boost your domain authority if you are getting drowned out by your competitors. And yet you certainly don't want to waste time chasing every Google trend.

It's important to note that your competition might be firmly established in your industry. They might be ranking for your niche keywords for a completely unrelated reason. Regardless, you should look into their content and SEO tactics and work to best them in every way. Specific factors include domain speed and image quality to content quantity and relevance.

Develop Niche Content

Content creation is easily your most powerful tool in attracting a niche audience. The more content you have, and the higher quality it is, the better your link building will be and the higher your search ranking factor will be. That result is irrespective of the volume of searches coming your way.

You likely know your business and industry inside and out, so you can begin developing content and social media links for your target audience today. Right now.

However, creating your own content for the purpose of inbound marketing isn't a terrific long-term strategy. For one, lacking an outsider's perspective on your industry and products can be a hindrance to your business's ability to relate to and engage its audience.

For another, you might not have the time or skill to produce high-quality content on a schedule. Additionally, you might lack a network of publishers for the placement of your content to garner backlinks. Now or later, you should contract content marketing services. They will provide the expertise you need to execute your niche content properly.

It is more difficult to practice SEO within a niche market. You might quickly see your domain rise to the top of the search results. However, you might never obtain the huge influx of traffic that businesses in larger industries experience. Still, niche driven SEO remains an important digital marketing tactic. You should look into leveraging a niche marketing strategy for business success today.

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