2019 SEO Trends that Would Still Be Relevant Next Year (Part 1)

You know what’s important regarding SEO today? It’s none other than: CONTENT. If you missed the first SEO Mythbusters episode, Martin Splitt reiterated the importance of content quality. If you want Google to recognize your website, you better start working on polishing your content. Add various digital media files to your blog posts and experiment on your writing style.

SEO Strategy Planning

Ready to read some tips? Here are some SEO trends you need to apply right now:

  1. Say Goodbye to Unnecessary Content.

Your ranking is not constant. Just because you are number 1, it does not mean you are number 1 tomorrow. These numbers constantly changes no matter how hard you try. You can’t have the top spot forever.

Google is always looking for new websites that are relevant and that are providing useful information to the users. They will rank the websites that they think their users are visiting lately. They will put these websites on top so that the next time that users will search for the same thing they will immediately see it.

When you are on the first page of the search engine results, it could mean that some other website created a better page that the users prefer. So, update these pages in order for them to the newly ranked pages.

If you have outdated content, these things will bring you down. Better to cut ‘em down or edit to keep up with the changing times. More articles are getting really specific. Writers present statistics, surveys, facts, and actual examples that are relevant to the users.

You always get what you deserve. So, if are constantly give shallow and half-baked articles, then, you would get shallow results as well. People will just skim through these pages and hit the ‘x’ button as soon as possible.

Aim to get the attention and interest of your readers. Because if you don’t have it, all your content will be deemed irrelevant. Thus, no gains for you whether in views, page clicks, and revenues.

  1. Add More Resources on Content Research and Creation.

There’s a B2C research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, and it clearly states that 56% of content marketers spent more resources on content creation in the past year. It would mean that in 2019, these companies are determined to:

  • Plan carefully the scope of their content.
  • Research on the relevant keywords that people are looking for.
  • Writing and optimizing the content.
  • Editing and enhancing the said content.
  • Adding multimedia files to their content.
  • Of course, advertising their content on multiple social media channels.

Google Trends can vouch that indeed content marketing has upgraded. People won’t settle for mediocre articles. They want a well-researched blog, and companies are finally listening to what they want.

More money and resources are now allocated in creating excellent content. How can you write a high-quality blog post that readers would take time to look at? I’ve listed some tips in simplifying content right here. If you need to know more about 10 Secrets In Writing Content, just click here.

Present Your Meta Description Using 3 Unique Ways

Writing page titles and meta description are more important than you think. What happens if you would not? You will definitely miss a lot. Martin Splitt, a Google webmaster, clearly stated the importance of crafting unique titles and descriptions. As he said, “Having the same title (or description) is bad.” Read my article on the summary of SEO Mythbusters here.

writing meta descriptions

So, in this post, I will help you in writing your own meta description. What the different ways in making these descriptions distinct? Here they are:

  1. Why don’t you ask a question?
  • Why do people tend use search engines? Yes, that’s right. It’s because that a question waiting to be answered.
  • You can ask the searchers questions such as, “Do you want to know quick and easy to do SEO tips?”, “What’s the latest on SEO this 2019?”, or “Want to learn about the building a website without being an expert coder?
  • These questions will definitely pique the interest of the searchers. It tells them that your web page can provide the answer to these questions. Whatever you topic may be, it’s always helpful to inform the readers that you have answers their questions.
  • This is particularly helpful when you are out of ideas. To be honest, this also my go-to meta description format when I’m having a hard time in conjuring attention-grabbing words.
  1. Be very specific.
  • Meta description should have clarity. Tell your audience what they are going to get upon clicking your page. Who cares if you are selling a shirt? You just need to be clear that this shirt is ideal for bookworms. It features hand painted designs from your favorite books.
  • Now, that emphasize that your audience are the book nerds and the bibliophiles. If you don’t specify a thing or two, searchers might think that you are just another website. So, be clear at all times. Be very clear on what you are selling and who your target customers are as to not confuse the public.
  1. Tell the world your unique selling point.
  • It’s important to know your company’s USP. This makes you market your products better, and this enables you to make an effective meta description to all your web pages.
  • Your audience can clearly identify you from all the other companies out there. A unique selling point could be an additional service you provide. It could be adding more product features. It could be emphasizing on the quality of your products.

Let’s take a look at Better World Books.

  • An example would be Better World Books (BWB). This company is known for its FREE worldwide shipping. No matter where you are, BWB ships for free. Whether you order a box of books or only 1 book, you are sure that they won’t add an additional charge for shipping.
  • Not a lot of websites offer free shipping to any country so this is definitely a unique selling point for BWB. They also have a “One for One” policy just like TOMS shoes.  Adding emphasis this USP makes Better World Books are better option for bookworms. Customers can buy their next favorite book, and at the same, customers get to be instruments of change.

Google Webmaster Martin Splitt Shares the 3 Most Important SEO Factors

In the first episode of SEO Mythbusting, Juan Herrera asks Martin Splitt questions like, “What is a search engine?”, “How would Google know which results are relevant and which results are not?” These questions (and more) are answered on the 10-minute Youtube video.

Google sign

How to Determine a Web Page’s Relevancy?

Before we go to the important SEO factors, let’s discuss first on how Google select the pages that are relevant to the user’s intent.

Martin Splitt shares that Google has more than 200 factors, and it will scan details such as the title, the meta description, the content, and more.  Google looks at a lot of factors, but basically that’s it.

So, let’s get into the top 3 SEO factors shared by Martin Splitt.

SEO Tip #1 Nothing beats good content.

When Martin Splitt was asked about the top 3 important factors to consider, he discussed the importance of content.

He emphasized that as a website, “you have to have really good content. And that means you have to have content… that serves a purpose for the user.”

It should be something that users need or want. Of course, it would be best if users both need and want it. He used ice cream as an example. Everybody loves ice cream, but it’s important to use the words that people use when searching. People don’t go searching for “creamy ice cream”, “smooth”, “premium quality”, or “fantastic ice cream.” Users will just type “buy ice cream” or simply “ice cream.”

So, your content needs to say what you do, where you are, and how you are going to fulfill a user’s intent. This helps greatly when people are exploring for the ice cream near their current location. They would not know what specific ice cream is available. Thus, it is really important to incorporate in your content the language that the general public used when searching for products.

SEO Tip #2 Add meta tags.

So, what are these? Martin Splitt talked about the need for “descriptive titles and helpful snippets.” These are technical, but meta tags help describe your content.

He further said that meta descriptions allow you to have a little snippet in the search results page and these excerpts will help people select out of all the thousands of results handed to them. They can easily determine if one page is useful to them basing on the given meta tags.

He also shared that “page titles should be specific to the page that you are serving.” Having the same title is bad. It’s better to have “titles that change with the content that you are showing.”

SEO Tip #3 Enhance the website performance.

Making a website faster helps it become more visible to others. A swift page load time helps enhance the user experience. AND ALSO IT INCREASES YOUR DISOCVERABILITY! Martin says that website speed is good for website visibility. Google is concerned at how fast users can access a page quickly.

Martin Splitt shared, “We want to make sure that the people clicking on your search result, clicking on your page, getting this content quickly.”

There you have it, guys! These are the top 3 factors that Google looks into. I did learned a lot today. All thanks to first episode of SEO Mythbusting. If you do have the time, please watch their discussion on Google Webmasters’ YouTube channel.

How to optimize a Google My Business Profile

Having a strong Google My Business profile is very important if you want to rank well in local searches on Google. If your profile isn’t complete or if you don’t have one at all, it’s going to be very hard to rank.

There are several factors that determine how often your business is displayed in local search results. These include the relevance of your business to the search, the distance your business is from the searcher and the quality of your GMB profile. Even if your business is next to the searcher and is exactly what they are looking for, you probably won’t show if your business isn’t up to scratch.

Don’t worry, however. Optimizing your GMB profile isn’t hard. Here’s how you can make the most of your profile in four easy steps.

 

1. Start by claiming your profile

Okay, this is an obvious one. But there are thousands of businesses out there that haven’t claimed their profile yet. If you’re one of them you can get started by going to google.com/business, searching for your business and verifying that you own it. If your business is brand new, it might not show up when you search for it. In that case, you’ll need to create a listing for it in Google.

 

2. Complete your profile in full

Once you’ve claimed your profile, you’ll need to fill in all of the information Google wants from you. Fill in everything! The more information you provide to Google about your business, the better your chances of ranking.

You’ll need to fill in your:

  • Business name
  • Address
  • Category (what type of business you are)
  • Opening hours
  • Phone number
  • Your website
  • Your attributes (other services you offer to customers such as WiFi or outdoor seating

 

3. Don’t forget photos and consider a virtual tour

Once you’ve filled in all of your business information, it’s time to add pictures of your business. Upload high-resolution pictures of the outside and inside of your business, as well as pictures of your logo, your products and your services. If you can’t take quality pictures on your own, it’s worth hiring an expert photographer to help.

If you want to take things to the next level, you can hire a Google-certified photographer to take photos of your business and turn them into a 360-degree virtual tour. Doing so will generate twice the interest in your business according to Google.

 

4. Generate as many reviews as possible

Getting lots of positive reviews about your business is incredibly important. A lot of positive reviews will increase your business’ reputation in the eyes of your customers and increase the likelihood that they choose you over your competitors. But it can also help you show up more often in search results because Google uses reviews as a ranking factor.

Don’t be afraid to ask customers to leave reviews. In many cases, customers won’t leave a review unless they are asked. You should make it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews, too. One way to do so is to include a link to your Google review in emails to customers.

Complete every step on this list and you’ll be well on your way to having an excellent online profile.

How to tell how quickly your website loads

It has never been more important to have a website that loads quickly. Because of the huge rise in mobile browsers, having a speedy website is now mandatory if you want to give your customers the best user experience possible. It’s so important that Google is even using it as a ranking factor, demoting websites that don’t load quickly.

Having a faster website can have a huge impact on your business. Not only can it help you to rank better in Google, it can also improve the way in which your customers interact with your website. Having a faster loading website can increase the time they spend on your site and increase the rate at which browsers convert. In short, improving your website’s speed can have a big impact on your bottom line.

 

How to test your website with online tools

No one knows how fast their website loads until they test it. The good news is that there are several online tools that business owners can use to check the speed of their website. Some will even provide recommendations on how to make your pages load quicker.

Let’s take a look at them.

 

Google PageSpeed Insights

Given how much importance Google is placing on site speed, it’s no surprise that it has its own tool for measuring how quickly pages load. Google Page Speed Insights will give your website r ranking out of 100 for both mobile and desktop versions. It will also provide a list of recommended improvements that you can make.

There’s a good chance that one of these will be better-optimized images. Images can play a big role in how quickly your website loads and having smaller images is essential. Luckily, Google will even provide you with optimized versions of all your images automatically.

 

Pingdom

Google isn’t the only speed testing tool on the web. In fact, it’s not even the best. That award goes to Pingdom, a very comprehensive site speed tester that provides loads more information that PageSpeed Insights. On the Pingdom site you are able to test how quickly your pages load at various places around the world, including Sweden and Australia. This is great for global websites who need their pages to load quickly outside of the U.S. Pingdom also gives users a complete breakdown of how long it took to load every single element. This lets you quickly see which file took the longest to load so that you can make the necessary changes.  

 

Web Page Test

The final tool you should consider is Web Page Test. This tool will let you test the speed of your website in various browsers. Some are faster than others and they all handle your website differently. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your website is loading quickly in every browser.

If you’re serious about making your website faster, you should be using all of these tools to do the job. Doing so will give you a comprehensive view of how long your website takes to load and hat you can do to improve it.

What is PPC Marketing?

PPC marketing is short for pay per click marketing and it is a method of advertising on search engines like Google. Instead of ranking organically in Google’s search results, businesses can pay Google to appear in the ads at the top of results. What’s great about PPC is that you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ads, hence the name.

PPC advertising is a great way to get users to visit your business without having to do all the hard work needed to rank organically. It is particularly good for brand new websites that would struggle to rank in Google anyway.

But it’s not perfect. Google’s PPC platform can be expensive, particularly for the most competitive ads. It’s not uncommon to be paying north of $10 per click for some of the most competitive terms. It can be hard to decide whether you should invest in PPC or not. But this article is here to help.

 

How to PPC ads work?

Let’s start by looking at how PPC ads work in general.

You start by creating your ads in Google Adwords. Each ad can have a title, a description and a link to a page on your website that you want to direct searchers to. You’ll also need to set which keywords you want your ad to appear to and set a budget of how much you are willing to spend in total and each day.

Once Google has approved your ads, they will start showing immediately. Exactly where they get shown is difficult to say, however. It’s not simply a case that the ads that bid the most get shown at the top. Google uses a couple of other factors to rank adverts.

One is the quality score of your ad. This is a score out of 10 based on how good Google thinks your ad is. It uses a number of factors to calculate this including your ads CTR, your landing page and the relevance of your ad.

A second is whether or not your ad has an ad extension. Google lets advertisers add extensions to their ads like a link to their website, a call out or the option to call your business with one touch on a mobile device. If your ad has an extension, there’s a good chance Google will give it priority.

 

What are the benefits of PPC to small businesses?

Using PPC ads has several benefits for small businesses.

One is that it lets them see results much faster than they could achieve with SEO. It can take months of hard work to rank organically in Google, but just minutes to set up a PPC ad. You’ll also know roughly how many people you can expect to visit your website, too.

Another benefit is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This effectively means you get free brand awareness every time someone sees your ad but doesn’t click on it.

PPC is far from perfect, however. Unlike SEO, you’ll stop seeing traffic as soon as you stop paying for it. This leads many business owners to invest in SEO for long-term success instead.

How to make affordable SEO work for you

SEO can be incredibly expensive if you’re not careful. Some companies spend tens of thousands of dollars each month on their SEO efforts. But high quality and effective SEO doesn’t have to cost the earth. It’s very possible to find a high-quality SEO provider who will charge an affordable rate for their services.

It’s not easy, however. When you try to find affordable SEO you will usually be confronted by dozens of providers offering SEO for next to nothing. The trouble is that they will usually deliver nothing, either.

Here’s what you need to know to find an affordable SEO provider who works for you.

 

What is affordable SEO

The cost of SEO can vary massively. Some agencies will charge as little as $100 a month, some as much as $10,000 a month. Affordable SEO is anything in the $300 to $1000 a month range. Any less and it’s not worth paying. Any more and it’s too much for a lot of business owners to afford.

 

When is affordable SEO a good fit?

Affordable SEO is not a good fit for everyone. There are certain companies that definitely shouldn’t pay for affordable SEO. If you are a national or international company, or an online store looking to attract buyers from across the country, you’ll need to pay more to see real results.

If you are a small local or regional business, however, affordable SEO is normally a sound choice. That’s because it’s much easier to rank for local terms than it is national ones so SEO providers can do high-quality work for less.

 

What your affordable SEO must include

Some cheap SEO providers will try and fob you off with a cheap service that doesn’t have everything you need. Be careful to make sure you are paying a fair price and getting great value. Here’s everything your affordable SEO package should include:

  • Technical SEO – your website needs to work properly in order to rank. This makes sure that the structure is sound.
  • On-page SEO – Every SEO campaign should start with a thorough on-page SEO assessment and optimization if necessary. It doesn’t have to be ongoing but it has to be included
  • Content creation and optimization – As part of your on-page SEO review, it’s likely that your content will need to be optimized. New content should also be created on a monthly basis to ensure you rank for as many keywords as possible.
  • Local SEO – Because you are a local business, local SEO is essential. Some providers will charge more for local SEO and label it a different service. But if you’re paying for SEO it should definitely be included.
  • Link building – Every SEO package should include link building as it is the most important part of SEO. Yet many affordable packages will leave it out or create spammy links. Make sure that your package includes link building and that the links they build are high quality.

If you’re looking for an affordable SEO provider, give us a try. Get a free consultation today.

Get to the top of Local SEO results with these tips

Local SEO is a different beast from the one it was a few years ago. Getting to the top of the map pack results now requires a lot more thought and effort. It’s not enough to create a bunch of citations and hope for the best.

Here’s what you need to do to ensure that your business gets to the top of Google’s local SEO results in 2019.

 

Make sure your address is in the city you’re targeting

You can only rank in locations where your business is actually based. So even if you serve a much larger area and are willing to travel to different cities, it will be almost impossible to rank in any but the city your business is based in. What’s more, the closer your address is to the city center, the more likely you are to rank.

 

Sort out your Google My Business profile

If you’re serious about ranking in Google’s local SEO results then you’re going to need a completed and verified Google My Business profile. You’ll also need to make sure that it is properly optimized by selecting the right categories for your business. Don’t forget to include your business’ opening hours, photos of your business and any other information that a customer might need.

 

Create new citations and optimize existing ones

Citations on their own aren’t going to get you to the top of Google’s local results. But they are still an important weapon in your arsenal. That’s why you’ll need to make sure that you create citations on all of the biggest and most relevant directories. You’ll also need to go through your existing ones to make sure that the same name, address and phone number is used in every instance. Consistency is key when it comes to citations.

 

Don’t forget about on-page SEO

On-page SEO is still important, even if you are only trying to rank in the local SEO results. You should have a page on your website dedicated to each of your business’ location. If you are only located in one city then make sure your address and phone number are listed on each page and that the city is mentioned in your website’s title tags and heading tags.

 

The more reviews the better

If there’s one thing that you should focus on, it’s getting more great reviews for your business. But you’re probably going to have to ask your customers if you’re to get any reviews at all. That doesn’t mean you have to spam the inbox of every customer you’ve ever had, however. Just go out of your way to ask your best customers for reviews when you get the chance. It doesn’t matter where they post their review, either, Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, they all count.

 

Make sure your site is fast

Google has started to place more importance on having a fast website. That means you need to speed up if you’re to nail one of the top three spots. Having a fast website won’t just help your site rank, either. It can also increase your website’s conversion rate as customers are more likely to continue using it after landing on it.

What’s the difference between keywords and keyphrases?

Any business owner who has done even a preliminary bit of research on SEO will have come across the term keyword research. If you’ve read a little more, you’ll understand how important it is to do correctly if you want to rank well in Google, Bing, and company.

If you’ve read and learned about keyword research then you will have probably come across two terms: keywords and keyphrases. At this point, you might have a couple of questions. What is the difference between the two? Should keywords only be one word? Which should you focus on? What’s the best way to guarantee traffic from Google?

In this post, we’ll look at the difference between keywords and keyphrases, and how you can use both to make sure your keyword research is good enough to rank with.

What is a keyword?

Let’s start with keywords. A keyword is the one word that best describes what your web page or blog post is about. This is the core search therm that you would ideally want to rank for. In truth, it will probably be too competitive to get on the first page for, but that doesn’t matter at this stage.

Let’s look at an example. If you had an auto store, the keyword for your tires page would simply be “tires”.

 

What is a keyphrase?

A keyphrase is a bit more detailed than a keyword and contains several words, rather than a single word. This will be the phrase that you would want your page to rank for in an ideal world. So when people search for this phrase, your page should appear in Google.

If we use the same example as above, the keyphrase for your tires page might be “tires for sale in Scottsdale”. As you can see, this phrase is longer and there is a much higher chance that your website will be able to rank for it.

 

So what’s the difference then?

The difference is really as simple as it seems. Keywords are single words, keyphrases contain multiple words. Keyphrases will also be much easier to rank for than keywords as they tend to be more specific.

 

How do keyphrases differ to long tail keywords?

If you’ve really done your research on keyword research, you’ll have probably come across another term: long tail keywords. By now, you’re probably wondering what the difference is between long tail keywords and keyphrases.

Let us explain. The answer lies in their specificity. Long tail keywords will almost always contain more than one word, but they may not. What they will always be is very specific. So “Michelin tires for sale in Scottsdale” is a long tail keyword, for example.

It is also a keyphrase as it has more than one word. But keyphrases don’t have to be so specific. Motorbike tires is a keyphrase but because it is still a very broad term, it does not count as a long tail keyword.

 

Get help with your keywords

If you’re still confused about keywords, we can help. Get in touch today for a free consultation and quote on leveraging our SEO service.

Why it’s important to focus on the long tail

Long tail keywords are one of the best ways to ensure that your website gets traffic from Google. Long tail keywords are very specific phrases that contain multiple words. They get less traffic than broader search terms but they convert better because they are so specific. It’s also easier to rank for them, too.

Want to profit from long tail keywords? Here’s what you need to know.

 

What are long tail keywords?

Long tail keywords are more specific, longer and less searched for phrases than typical keywords. Rather than receiving thousands of searches, they will typically only receive a few hundred if that. They work because the internet is so big and used by so many people that you will almost always find a couple of hundred people searching for even the most obscure things. If you can give these people what they are looking for, they are much more likely to convert than other searchers.

 

Start with your main topic

Your website will probably have a single main topic or theme. This might be something like food or sport, or, if you’re a business, it could be related to your service. If you are a law firm, for example, your main topic might be “lawyers in Scottsdale”.

 

Long tail topics come off the main theme

If you try to optimize every page of your website for your main theme, you’re going to quickly run into trouble, however. It’s going to ruin your search rankings and make ranking for anything much harder. But that’s where the long tail comes into effect. Every other page on your website aside from the homepage should be dedicated to a long tail variant of your main search term.

So if you are a law firm in Scottsdale, a long tail page might be “Criminal defense lawyers in Scottsdale” or “divorce lawyers in Scottsdale”. But it could also be non-service-based topics, such as “What happens if I get a DUI” or “How can I make the divorce process go as smoothly as possible”.

 

Why the long tail is so important

Long tail keywords are crucial to your ultimate SEO success. Without them, it’s going to be very hard to rank for any topic. But with them, you’re going to be able to rank for dozens or even hundreds of valuable keywords. That’s simply because there are fewer websites to compete with for these terms.

And because the search terms are so specific, the people who search for them are probably in a much better place to buy from you. If they are searching for something very specific, they’ve probably done their research and they know exactly what they are looking for.

 

Create great content to take advantage of the long tail

Focusing on long tail keywords only works if you are going to create high-quality content to go along with your long tail keywords. The better your content, the higher your chances of ranking and the better your chances of converting visitors into customers.