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Why SEO Is Important In Any Website Strategy 

Office Workers Discussing SEO

Important discussion about SEO strategy

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies in the early days (I’m going back to the turn of the century) was how one could best ‘game’ the various search engines so that your website would rank higher. The importance of SEO in the ‘early’ days was not as highly regarded as it is today – it is so much more competitive today as the number of websites continues to be added to the ‘net’ daily at an exponential rate.

The complex ranking algorithm created by Google has become so intuitive that the constant searches performed by the Google ‘bots’ will soon recognise a site that is not playing by the rules. Google, which is the #1 search engine, constantly revises the SEO algorithm on a daily basis, which means that we all need to be “on our toes” as it is constantly evolving.

How You Use Keywords Is An Important SEO Strategy

In earlier days “keyword stuffing” (where one would repeat the keyword multiple times into the meta description & article itself) was very common as well as some more creative “black hat” SEO techniques were used to assist in ranking a site higher. These techniques are heavily frowned upon nowadays and your site will be penalised from a rankings perspective by the relevant search engines.

The method that Google has used to measure and rank your site has become more sophisticated and will continue to be refined further as new technology (Artificial Intelligence – better known as AI) is refined which will allows it’s bots to become more human like when it is ‘crawling over’ a website.

The mantra for Google’s appraisal of a website is now all about the user experience when someone makes an online visit to your business. So what you need to consider when drawing traffic to your site is:

  • When a visitor clicks on a link or your meta description in search of information, products or services then the information better relate to their enquiry
  • Is your information written naturally so that the keyword density is not more than 1-1.5% in the article?
  • How easy is your site is to navigate around – many visitors (I’ve experienced it many times myself) give up in frustration due to poor navigation.
  • Images – the images that are included on pages & articles need to be referenced – so that when you hover over the image some text explaining or referencing the image should be displayed. Keywords should be used in the image if possible. At the time of writing the ‘bots’ do not have the AI to understand what the image is about unless there is text integrated.
  • Is your site using a theme that is “mobile friendly” – meaning does it reformat correctly when someone opens the site on a mobile device? If not your site will be penalised by the search engines.
  • How much time does a visitor spend on your site and how many pages are being read will all be measured by the bots.

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Be Important In SEO Strategy

All the big players from Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Intel, IBM, Amazon…….the list goes on as they race to become leaders in this rapidly developing technology. It is already with us in our everyday lives with smartphones, self-driving cars from Tesla, Google & Apple as well as many other applications. What it will be providing in the future is mind-boggling. Venture Capitalists (VC) have been investing in AI for 5 consecutive quarters that indicates there are some amazing things happening in this technology niche.

Speaking for searches on mobile devices will explode over the next few years. So rather than typing the words into your search engine you will be speaking into your mobile device (you do already with Siri – with mixed success). However the quality of Siri’s competitors is about to go to a whole new level. An incredible statistic is that currently 20% of mobile searching is now done by voice activation.

So What Does AI Searching Have To Do With SEO Strategy?

You will need to ensure that your site is going to not only be optimised for written keywords but also for spoken keyword searches. You now need to consider what your prospective clients will be speaking when searching for information, solutions to problems, products or services.

A couple of examples:

Written Keyword Spoken Keyword
Great seafood restaurant in Manly “What’s a good seafood restaurant in Manly”
Reliable Ford mechanic in Brookvale “I want a Ford mechanic in near me”
Northern Beaches mortgage broker “connect a mortgage broker near me”
Fast reliable Northern Beaches Plumber “I need a plumber who is nearby”

 

SEO is changing at the same rate that technology is and for that reason we strongly advise that you stay in touch with your technology experts to ensure that you do not fall off the search engine radar.

If you would like more information or would like to discuss an SEO strategy for your business than please contact us at CG Digital Services or phone 1300 968 960.