The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is evolving at a rapid pace, posing a new set of challenges & opportunities for businesses. It is challenging for digital marketing professionals, experts, agencies or in-house individuals to imbibe all the SEO strategies together.
Organisations need to keep pace with these trends to thrive in the competitive digital landscape in 2023. SEO ages like a fine wine, one of the prominent SEO Consultant, Jill Whalen has rightly defined the work of SEO as:
“Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when ranking algorithms change”. – Jill Whalen
However, most marketers struggle to rank despite having a Good SEO. It is understandable that keeping up with the rapidly changing Google algorithms, and trends, a marketer would face challenging situations.
This piece of information is here to equip marketers struggling to maintain a good SEO score. We will explore a broader overview of SEO, factors contributing to the puzzling occurrence and offer guidance to overcome these obstacles
E-E-A-T: Latest SEO Trends 2023
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) play a vital role in SEO by influencing how search engines evaluate and rank web pages. Google uses E-E-A-T to gauge the site’s credibility to offer users the best online experience. (E-E-A-T) is not a direct ranking factor but can be utilised for boosting expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness:
- Creating Quality, well-researched content
- Analysing data for accuracy & link to credible sites & resources
- Consistently updating old blog content.
- Obtaining Quality Inbound links & mentions
- Fetching positive reviews from customers
- Too “Good” To Be True SEO Strategy
Many website owners are under the impression that implementing “good” SEO practices can get better ranking on SERP. There is no denying that the effectiveness of SEO strategies is indeed significant but owing to the competition prevalent in the digital realm, there are many other factors beyond simply SEO that contribute to a website ranking.
- Failing to Strike A Balance B/w SEO & User Experience
In the quest for better search engine rankings, some websites often overlook the significance of user experience and just focus on SEO. They overload the pages with extravaganza of keywords, neglect mobile responsiveness and use rigorous pop-ups that can scare off visitors leading to a higher bounce rate and lower rankings. Therefore, balancing SEO efforts with a seamless user experience is of significant value.
- Technical Faults Hampering Ranking
Technical glitches must not break your website. Glitches such as slow loading speed, broken links, sitemaps & duplicate content can drastically affect the site’s ranking. Search engine
s considers websites that offer a smooth and seamless experience and does not have any technical issue.
- Do not Underestimate the Power of Keywords & Backlinks
While keywords and backlinks play essential roles in SEO, it’s crucial not to underestimate the significance of content quality. Content that is thin or irrelevant fails to captivate users and undermines a website’s credibility. Creating engaging, thoroughly researched content keeps visitors on your page for longer, sending a signal to search engines that your website provides valuable information.
Strategies to Boost Your Rankings
- Optimize URLs
URL Stands for Uniform Resource Locator that serves as the web address we input into a web browser to reach a specific webpage. The construction of URLs holds paramount significance. A properly structured URL promotes easy navigation of information and offers a birds-eye view to search engines regarding the content of the respective page.
To craft an ideal URL, optimize your URLs with relevant keywords that offer a clear understanding of what the page content is all about. Implementing these practices will significantly improve search rankings as against disorganized URLs.
- Minimize Website Load Time
Google regards user experience as one of the critical indicators that dictate SERP. Make sure your website is not taking ages to load. The average visitor expects your website to load within three seconds.
Various factors can impede the loading speed of your website, including issues like code density, large image files, JavaScript complications, caching issues, superfluous plugins, excessive redirects, and hosting, among others. It’s crucial to identify & address these problems to deliver exceptional user experience.
- Build Quality Backlinks
Backlinks go a long way to build authority in your respective niche & improve search engine rankings on intended keywords.
Incorporate the following to build quality backlinks:
- DO NOT use links built via spamming.
- Turn your back to sponsored links.
- Ensure backlinks are not hailing from irrelevant sites
- Discourage backlinks from non-indexed sites.
- Make sure that the anchor text used for backlinks does not match the keyword targeted by the page.
- Selection of Right Keywords
The right selection of keywords and strategically incorporating them into your content can significantly enhance your website’s visibility in search engine results. It is important to look for the ones that depict niches & create content around them to drive your search engine ranking & attract a good audience base. Keyword research involves meticulous research and a careful understanding of user intent.
- Create Suitable Content
The content you produce plays a significant role in increasing organic traffic. Search engines favour content that addresses the depth of a topic and makes information readily accessible. Ensure the content is informative and helps people navigate answers to their questions and explore the solutions they are looking for.
- Optimizing Page Titles, Descriptions, and Images
One of the thumb rules to increase your SEO score is to optimize page titles, descriptions and images. These elements are the gateway through which search engines and users discover and understand your content. Crafting concise and relevant page titles and descriptions, paired with image optimization techniques, not only enhances your website’s search engine visibility but also improves the overall user experience.
In a nutshell, we have touched upon the challenges faced by marketers while ranking a website. We must understand that SEO is an ongoing effort, and staying vigilant is key to long-term success. Have patience if your site doesn’t skyrocket on Search Engine. Just make sure to be consistent and incorporate good SEO practices to rank well on search engines that come in the way of website progress.
