As an industry, Search Engine Optimization or SEO marketing has experienced plenty of changes in the last few years. If in the past, getting a page to rank highly in searches was all about getting in as many keywords as possible, today marketers take a more topical approach. Google’s algorithm has changed, adapting to the ever-increasing amount of data online and taking this into consideration when deciding which pages fit the criteria of ‘helpful’ and ‘relevant.’
Since context matters as much as keywords, a marketer should ensure that he or she is making a post that will benefit the readers, keep them coming back to the website, and encourage them to share the website’s content with their network. This means writing posts and articles that appeal to both the target audience and the algorithm.
With this approach, marketers can plan for keywords and brainstorm related topics. They can also fine-tune existing articles to attract the right audience and map out pages to help surface the topics they want people to see when they land on the business’ website. To do this, they must run through a list of tasks that produce quality topic-driven content.
1. Conduct regular website audits
Optimizing for search engines requires an understanding of the business’ leads and where the sales funnel might be experiencing leakage. This means continuing on strengths and best practices and remedying the weaknesses. Are people tuning outright upon landing, do they stay for a while and then click out, or do they reach all the way to the CTA but fail to take action? Knowing where the pages ‘lose’ viewers is an important part of creating a strategy.
Once a marketer has figured out which pages experience leaks, they can take steps to solve these. Making new content to link to pages that must be optimized, adding backlinks, making existing articles more efficient, or engaging with audience members are all starting points.
It is also vital to figure out a web page’s organic presence. Targeting all possible keywords in a field or specialty will not help a page’s rankings. Instead, to improve visibility, a page should target phrases with high volume search ratios. These should be specific, niched-down phrases that a lot of people search for overtime.
2. Find out who visits the business’ website
Planning for a more effective online presence also means understanding the potential viewers or customers that the business aims to reach. Google Analytics is a free tool that enables just that, as they can help businesses understand the actions users take on their website.
Analytics records which pages receive the most hits, what time of the day the pages are popular, and the areas where pages are most read. Other things may also be available, such as basic demographic information of visitors and other topics they search for or are interested in.
Investing in a company’s social media marketing efforts can also provide insights into how many people are interested or invested in the brand’s message. If the company has a page, organic comments and shares are possible indicators of how many people interact with the brand.
3. Know what competitors are doing
Analyzing competitors is also a good way to figure out what a company needs to be doing. Tools such as SpyFu, SEMrush, and other marketing-focused analytics platforms can help a company identify its competitor’s targeted keywords and the websites that backlink to them.
Being aware of their display advertising, campaigns, keywords and the like will help a company build a profile on the competitor’s positioning, scope and distribution, and any gaps in their product’s features or in their services.
Conclusion
At present, SEO is a thriving industry that looks very different from how it did a few years ago. Today, marketers must take a more nuanced, integrated approach to optimizing websites.
For digital marketing in Calgary, get in touch with our experts at Kingz Marketing today! We are one of the top digital marketing agencies in Canada, and our team is dedicated to helping you ramp up your SEO marketing efforts!