By Asad Shaikh, Associate Director for SEO at Bruce Clay MENA.
With Google continuously updating its algorithms to improve user experience, SEO finds itself in constant evolution. If you want to make sure that your pages get to the top of Google’s search results, here are 6 things you need to integrate into your SEO strategy:
Voice search optimization
Aren’t we all growing more and more accustomed to using or hearing people use phrases like “Hey Siri” or “Ok Google” to search the internet? Thanks to virtual assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant, voice search is indeed becoming increasingly popular.
This technology allows users to perform searches on the internet using voice commands rather than typing.
With this growing popularity, voice search optimization has become a must. This means that the content on your web pages should be optimized to appear in voice searches.
For example, people tend to use longer and natural-sounding phrases when voice searching. Rather than typing “chocolate chip cookies recipe”, they tend to ask Siri for the recipe, so make sure to take that into consideration when optimizing your pages’ SEO.
Featured snippets
Special boxes that appear at the top of Google’s search results page are known as featured snippets. They can be definitions, lists, steps, tables, or videos, and their goal is to offer quick and precise answers to search queries.
Having a featured snippet is crucial for SEO, as it allows you to drive more organic traffic to your website, increase visibility, and position yourself as an authority on various topics of discussion. To create featured snippets, keyword research is essential, as well as knowing exactly which questions your users are asking. Google’s People ask for box can also be very helpful. Optimize your content for featured snippets by providing specific, accurate, and high-quality answers to your audience’s questions.
Google EAT principle
Google’s EAT principle is one of the most important factors for SEO ranking. It is used by Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of the content found on your website. EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These three criteria are especially relevant for your money, your life (YMYL) webpages, i.e. page offering information that directly impacts the user’s life, happiness, or stability, such as medical or financial advice.
Ensure and maintain quality content by creating buyer personas, understanding your audience’s search intent, and producing content in the format preferred by your users. Don’t forget to include reliable external links, cite reputable sources, and add author information that shows their expertise.
Long-form content
Consider investing in longer content. Long-form content (typically more than 1,200 words) ranks higher than short-form content in search results. This is not simply due to word count, but to the fact that longer content has a higher chance of earning backlinks and getting shares, which increases your SEO performance. Since users spend more time on long-form content, your website’s dwell time – i.e. the time spent on your website – will also increase.
The many advantages offered by long-form content often form the backbone of a content and SEO strategy. So get typing!
Video Marketing
Here’s some food for thought: more than 80% of all online content is video content. If you haven’t already, you need to find a place for videos in your SEO strategy. Videos help increase a website’s ranking, traffic, and dwell time, further extending the online reach. Think about adding a video to the landing page. Optimize the name of a video channel and provide a user-friend description of the content you are offering. Use relevant keywords and hashtags and avoid keyword stuffing, which is not only ineffective but also incredibly annoying.
Local listings
46% of all Google searches have local intent, which means that nearly half of all Google users are looking for local information. It is, therefore, crucial to set up a strong local SEO strategy that drives more people to your business. Local listings are very important for SEO. One should aim for their business to appear in the search results shown by zero-clicks – i.e, searches that are answered directly on the results page, without the need to click on a search result. These results are known as the local pack. To get into the local pack, start by creating a Google My Business page, and try to establish a strong backlink profile.
SEO is an ongoing process, this because Google is frequently revising its search algorithm and ranking system, these tips will help your business become more discoverable in 2022.
