SEO is a living beast. It grows, it changes, and, sometimes it’s moody. So it’s only natural that we analyze SEO trends every once in a while.
But here’s the thing: not all trends are created equal, much like not all your SEO work will prove of value. When I say value I’m talking about profit. Cold, hard cash. After all, you’re running a business, so why would you invest in something that doesn’t boost your bottom line?
If you’re still not convinced that SEO can do that for you, bear with me for a second. Read the statistics below before you move on to another article.
Why should you invest in SEO?
If your business has an online component, then SEO should definitely be at the top of your marketing priorities. Search engines drive up to 300% more traffic than social media.
Yes, you read that right. 300%!
Obviously, if you plan to make money online, you need traffic. 300% more traffic sounds like a good start.
If you think the percentage is too high, consider this: 93% of online experiences begin with a search.
And there’s more: this is not just meaningless traffic. You have a 14.6% chance of closing a lead that comes through SEO compared to a 1.7% chance of closing an outbound lead.
Now that you know what SEO can do for your bottom line, let’s take a look at what you can do to make wonderful things happen.
6 SEO trends to leverage for extra profit
1. It’s not about you, it’s about them
By them I mean your readers and potential customers.
The key to profitable SEO is user intent. Before you write an article or a landing page, before you even start keyword research, think about your users and what they need.
Go back to the basics for a little while.
You started your business in order to fill a need or a want, a gap in the market. What is that need? How would people search for it? And, more importantly, what would they expect to find once they click on your article or web page in SERPs?
For instance, my company sells SEO content writing services mainly to SMEs. I could use this precise term as a keyword.
But if I want to get even more granular and respond to an actual need, I would use variations like ‘affordable SEO writing services’ or ‘SEO writers for hire’.
Next up, I should make sure that the articles or pages behind those keywords match the user intent. I could write about how to find the best SEO writers for hire (as a blog post) or why my company offers the best affordable SEO writing services (as a sales page).
The key here is to stick to the point and to the user intent. Deliver on what you promise.
2. Map keywords to your business goals
Start by learning from my mistakes: when I first launched Idunn, I also launched into a blogging frenzy. I wanted to show that we’re good at what we do and that we know our stuff.
And while I did achieve that, I didn’t achieve any sales.
You see, I was blogging about copywriting and SEO writing tips and tricks. How to write the perfect blog post. How to avoid being boring in your copy.
I did get traffic. Because people were searching for these in-depth guides. But not the kind of people that would turn into customers. I was soon flooded with resumes and potential hires.
Other writers were the people looking for what I was delivering, not business owners.
It took me a few good months to realize the error of my ways. When I did realize it, I switched gears and started blogging about how to find the best copywriters and the best digital marketing agencies.
This is what brought in leads that were very close to converting.
Bottom line: it’s nice to help people learn stuff. It’s great, actually! But remember that you are running a business, not a charity.
Make sure that the keywords you choose have ROI potential. Connect user intent with your business goals and you will be on your merry way to higher revenue.
3. Put quality above everything else
Again, this is about putting readers and potential buyers first. You don’t want to be too sales-y in your blog posts. And you don’t want to make false claims in your sales pages.
Make sure that everything you write brings value to the table. Do your research. Yes, even on topics that you know very well. Add credible sources to your claims.
Quality is what establishes you as a thought leader in your field and what helps you stand out from the crowd. If you don’t have the time or money to invest in quality content, you’re better off with CPC ads.
Think about this: there are over two million blog posts published worldwide EVERY DAY. Poor content gets churned out easily. Hire good SEO copywriters or don’t hire at all. The days of the $5 articles are long gone.
Finally, make your content easy to read. Photos, bullet points, short phrases and paragraphs, subtitles – all these help the reader easily skim through the text to find the very piece of information they are interested in.
4. Use LSI keywords in your SEO content
Context is everything. You want to let crawlers and bots know in which context to place your content.
For example, a blog post about windows could be referring to replacement windows or to the operating system developed by Microsoft.
Sure, a human reader can easily tell the difference. But before you get there, you have to pass the bot “inspection”.
LSI keywords like “Microsoft”, “Bill Gates”, “operating system”, “Excel”, “software” and so on will let bots know that you are talking about a tech product.
On the other hand, LSI keywords like “wood”, “window treatments”, “vinyl” will show them that you are a contractor.
Briefly put, LSI keywords place your text in the right context. They are not synonyms with your main keyword, but they belong to the same “family”. Since they are often seen together, bots can easily recognize what belongs where.
You can read my in-depth guide for leveraging LSI keywords here.
5. Make sure you are mobile-friendly
If your website doesn’t look as pretty on mobile as it does on a computer, you are non-existent, no matter how great your SEO content.
40% of people search ONLY on a mobile device. Furthermore, almost 60% of all search now come from a mobile device.
Thinking that your content is good enough for users to put up with bad UI? Don’t even finish that thought!
It’s not just that they aren’t willing to do that. It’s also about the mobile-first indexing Google strategy. This means that the mobile version of your website is now your ‘online business card’ and the first thing users see. Better (or worse) yet, it means that if your website isn’t responsive, you won’t even be listed in search results from mobile queries, no matter how much you deserve to be there.
6. Check your page load time
Conversions drop by 12% for every extra second of load time. Even more, Google penalizes websites that load slowly right after users do so.
Test your loading time here. If things don’t look well, talk to your web developer immediately.
Pro tip: JavaScript is the usual culprit for low speeds.
Key takeaway
The number one reason for underperforming SEO content is the lack of need for it. If you don’t map your content to user intent AND to your business goals, you’re wasting time.
No matter how on-point your keyword research is or how pretty your photos are, you won’t see any lead converting from content that doesn’t answer real needs or that isn’t well-written.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. If you can only afford to publish one high-quality post per month, it’s still better than four poor ones.
If you need help with high-performing SEO content, we’re just a click away. My team at Idunn and I helped dozens of companies get excellent ROI from their SEO efforts and pad their bottom line.
Adriana Tica is an expert marketer and copywriter, with 10 years in the field, most of which were spent marketing tech companies. She is the CEO of Idunn, a digital marketing agency that helps clients all over the world with copywriting, social media marketing and marketing strategy. Follow her blog here: http://idunn.pro/blog.The post 6 SEO Trends to Boost Your ROI and Your Visibility appeared first on SiteProNews.
Source: Site Pro News
Link: 6 SEO Trends to Boost Your ROI and Your Visibility
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