SEO is getting increasingly harder, but the wins are going to be longer lasting if you can get them.
With fall fast approaching, it is time to put on our SEO white hats and review current SEO tips and trends for the upcoming season. SEO or search engine optimization is in constant refinement and those that play by the rules with white hat techniques and strategies and stay on top of emerging trends will have a better chance of reaching their optimization goals.
SEO Tips and Trends Check List
While Google’s goal has been to eliminate spam and enhance the user’s experience by providing better content, here is a list of things to check for the fourth quarter.
- Review your content strategy: Make it a goal to create unique and valuable content for your blog and web pages. Some experts recommend, as a general guideline, that articles have 400 to 600 words. But, there is a growing consensus that more in depth articles of up to 1,000 words or more have increased value. By ensuring that your articles are unique, offer value and are of proper depth and detail, you will avoid Google’s low quality content or shallow content ding that the Panda algorithm update of 2011 addressed.
- Review your titles: Title tags should be uniquely crafted with no more than 6-8 words and should not to exceed 70 characters. The most important keyword should be at the beginning of the title and keywords should not be repeated.
- Review your description meta tags: Meta descriptions should not exceed 156 characters as Google will cut if off after it reaches that character length. Check each page’s meta description tag to be sure that they accurately describe the content of that page. Google may use the description tag to create the rich snippet or the few lines of text beneath the linked title in the search results.
- Ensure that quality content is above the fold: Make sure that you have quality content above the fold on your web pages. “Above the fold” refers to the content of a web page that can be seen when you first open it on a computer without scrolling. Google rolled out the Page layout algorithm improvement in January of 2012 as part of the company’s ongoing effort to provide quality and relevant search results. Sites that are top heavy with ads felt the sting. To be certain that you website is not affected by this update, be sure that you are showing valuable information above the fold.
- Utilize the power of Google Plus: Google Plus has become a major influence in getting web pages indexed almost immediately in Google’s search results. Rolled out in 2011, Google Plus is a must have tool in your SEO tool chest. If you have not set up an account, make it a priority.
- Set up Google Authorship: After you have set up Google Plus, set up Google authorship and link it to your blog/articles. Google Authorship has significant SEO benefits including your photo being displayed in the search results. It also helps to inspire trust and confidence which may result in higher click through rates.
- Prune unnatural or spammy links: Google’s Penguin algorithm roll out of 2012 was a shock wave felt worldwide. One of Penguin’s objectives is to identify and devalue sites that have too many low quality inbound links leading to your website. Those who had participated in link exchanges or purchased links felt the sting of Penguin’s wrath.Even if you have not taken part in these activities, it is a good idea to check the backlinks to your website. Using Google’s Webmaster Tools you can identify any links that look unnatural. We had one client’s site affected by another site that had been hacked. There were hundreds of unnatural links to the client’s site from the hacked website. A plan of action to remove unnatural links if you do discover them includes:
- Identifying them through Google Webmaster Tools
- Asking the website owner/webmaster to remove them, and
- If they will not remove them or request a payment to remove them, use Google’s disavow tool to disavow the entire domain name.
- Encourage natural links: Encouraging natural links goes hand in hand with your content strategy. By focusing on creating unique and valuable content, you will be encouraging others to link to your website naturally. Content marketing rather than link building should be the goal.
- Use Google Webmaster Tools: If you haven’t set up a Google Webmaster Tools account, make it a priority. Google’s Webmaster Tools offers a variety of important reports to help you identify areas of concern.
- Google Local: If your business depends on search traffic from the local community, you will want to set up Google Local after you set up Google Plus. With Google’s Venice update in 2012, the search engine giant considers the physical location of a business and shows them in organic search results. Google reviews will show in the results along with the business name, phone number and physical address. The influence of Google Local on search results is expected to grow.
- Responsive Design: If your website is not created with a responsive design, make it top priority. Google recommends a responsive design to enable your website to fit any screen size that the site is viewed in using the same URL, style sheets and HTML. “The search engines will give increasing weight to sites that can provide a good mobile platform experience to users.”
- Social Media: At the June 2013 SMX Advanced Q&A session with Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land’s founding editor asked Matt Cutts what the most overrated thing out there in SEO was. Matt responded, “Short-term social data. Longer-term, though, will be different.”As long-term social media data has been identified as an emerging influence by Google’s Distinguished Engineer, social media marketing interactions should continue to be implemented. By utilizing social media sites, you will be able to engage with users and ultimately drive traffic to your website. Determine the best social media sites where your potential audience is and foster engagement. Google Plus should be a top priority due to the SEO advantages.
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