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06 Oct SEO is Alive and Well

Posted at 16:06h in Marketing Consulting, Search Engine Optimization by

SEO is not in a cemetery, it is alive and well

It is true that many alarmists in the Internet marketing world think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as being dead, but they are dead wrong. It is true that SEO has changed dramatically, but the intent of SEO is unwavering. It is to have as many Internet users as possible come to your site and convert.

Impact of Google Algorithm Changes

Misguided people believe that SEO is dead, because of the many changes made to the Google algorithm, and the often similar changes that follow by other major search engines. As far as SEO goes, these are the parts of it that are now worthless, they include;

  • Hiding and stuffing keywords;
  • Duplicating websites and/or categories on more than one domain
  • Using mass links that are bought and links to sites from directories
  • Spinning content
  • Optimizing a site just for higher search engine rankings (SER)
  • Many more

That is all this article will talk about these “black hat” techniques, as they are simply useless and cause you loss of SER and other problems with search engines should you be using these outlawed techniques.

What SEO Has Become

SEO is a constantly evolving strategy. Recently, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said for those retailers where online marketing success happened in 2014, the keys to success were;

  1. Making sure that marketing was optimized for mobile devices, laptops and desktops; and
  2. Optimizing marketing spending and strategy.

Other sources of data, identify search as the place that the majority of travelers choose to begin booking travel (64 percent of business travelers and 58 percent of leisure travelers.) Another study showed that 51 percent of all website traffic comes from organic search. The same study reported that more than 40 percent of revenue earned by a website come from organic search traffic.

All of the above data is expected to grow enthusiastically over the next few years. Until mobile, organic search tops the charts of SEO and content.

So, SEO remains as a combination of techniques to attract users to your website and convert. This is now done primarily through excellent content, that is optimized using allowable SEO techniques.

What techniques may these be?, you ask. Well, read on.

How to Improve Your SEO

Use Long-tail Keywords

Keyword stuffing is a bad, but using long-tail keywords (sometimes called derivative key words is good, within limits. This is when your key word is cook, you may use it once or twice in your copy, but, derivative words include;​

  • Cooking;
  • Home cooking;
  • Chef;
  • Baker; and
  • Sous Chef.

Words like these help to improve your site’s SER.

Optimize for Mobile

Chances are that if you are a small brand, and have a website more than two years old, it is not optimized for mobile search, this means that 20 percent of searchers using their smartphone or tablet do not get an optimized view of your website. What looks great on a laptop or desktop might not look at all good on a mobile device. That 20 percent of mobile searchers is a number that is growing daily, and failure to address this with your website is a huge error. The data show that conversion rates for smart phones are in the neighborhood of 1.4 percent and growing. In 2014 users on mobile devices increased by 16 percent

Use Rich Media

If you follow our blog, you know that Webociti believes in the use of images, infographics and video. (If you don’t read our blog regularly, sign up now!). But, a mistake often made by DIY website designers is using too much media and not enough text. Search bots cannot interpret images (unless you use the ALT tag) and short content does not rank as high as relevant, unique does with one or two images.

Contact Webociti

Need help making your content and SEO efforts to get better results? Call Webociti at 678-892-7157. For other methods of reaching out visit our contact Webocti.

Photo Credit: Molly SVH License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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