While the fundamentals of SEO stay the same (keywords, quality content, etc.), this fast-paced industry is always changing to adapt to the world at large. We are going a time of great change in terms of how users use the internet and what they expect from their online experiences.
To stay competitive in a saturated online environment, SEO experts and content creators need to adapt to the times. We already have a number of strong clues where SEO is headed in the near-term future. These 4 tips are here to help show you the way.
Start building links through guest posting
No, guest posting isn’t dead by a long stretch. In fact, with sites like Medium, Smashing Magzine, Inc.com, and many more on the rise, you might argue it’s going stronger than ever.
With consumers’ attention being pulled in every direction, they are also becoming a convenient way to curate content. There are many benefits tied to guest posting for both guest blogging platforms and guest content creators:
- Get exposure to brand new audiences
- Make connections and build relationships within your industry or niche
- Re purpose old content or content in a different format
- And, of course, the opportunity to build backlinks to your site from reputable and high-authority sources
This combination should make any SEO expert’s heart beat a little faster.
Of course, guest posting does take a little bit of extra effort. You have to find a relevant, high-authority platform, pitch your idea (which often seems to be the most difficult and important part of the strategy), produce the content according to their guidelines, audience, and niche, etc. Some even argue you should create higher quality content for guest posting because it’s meant to create a great first impression. If you don’t quite have all the resources in-house, a guest posting service could be a great way to get your foot in the door.
Use more infographics, videos, and images in your content
Although content marketers have known for some time that visual media is an important part of the content, this trend is only going to increase. Attention spans are still falling and free time to read is dwindling. Instead, readers are increasingly preferring bit-sized visual chunks rich with info.
Infographics are one of the most powerful tools for generating backlinks and social shares. A study by BuzzSumo and OKDork showed that it’s the type of content most likely to be shared.
By 2022, it’s predicted that as much as 82% of all web traffic will consist of video. Brightcove also estimates that video can increase your organic traffic from SERPs by 157%. And, according to Sprout, video can increase an article’s CTR by as much as 96%. According to these stats, it’s clear that video is going to be a dominating factor in the future of content creation.
Invest in your website’s performance
Speed has been a ranking factor for Google since 2010. It continues to be one of the top three metrics for the search engine giant when ranking landing pages and distributing ads. Since this “Speed Update”, Google has also implemented mobile-first indexing to account for the growing share of mobile users.
However, page speed is even more important from a direct user experience perspective. Google themselves have said that more than half of people abandon a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load. With speeds increasing and patience decreasing, this trend will also continue to grow.
This puts website admins in a pickle, as using more media also slows down pages. That’s why investing in your performance through CDNs and proper development will become crucial. CDNs focussing on images and mobile, like ImageEngine, will become vital.
Focus on mobile
Mobile is pulling ahead of the desktop as users’ preferred method of accessing the web. 51.65% of all traffic now comes from mobile devices while 64% of organic search engine traffic from Google is also from mobile. This takeover by mobile is one of the driving factors behind Google’s mobile-first indexing.
However, it also has important implications for how content creators and SEO experts accommodate mobile users. Content has to be produced in a way that’s easy to access and consume on mobile. That means not only thinking in terms of device screen sizes but also limited data caps and battery life. It also means better integration with social media apps and taking advantage of any opportunity to let readers share content.
Making the most of mobile-specific methods to convert users, like CTC and Google Maps integration, will become more crucial than ever. This is especially true for small businesses since there is a strong connection between mobile and local search SEO.
The future is yours if you want it
SEO is a dynamic industry that’s always shifting as people’s habits, preferences, and needs change. Not to mention search engine giants like Google that want to keep content creators on their toes and their search engine users happy. To catch the wave, implement these tips into your strategy ASAP and keep tabs on the latest changes to stay ahead.