SEO remains a key component within your online branding arsenal
Traditionally thought of as a purely technical approach to digital marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) is continuously expanding to create more organic experiences for consumers. Rather than fearing each algorithmic shift, businesses can take advantage of these user-centric adaptations to enhance their online brands and conversion funnels.
Not-so-pro tip: We often refer to conversion funnels, which is a fancy way of labelling the processes you create, via your online channels, that nudge your consumers towards making purchases. Think of a funnel (beer or otherwise) – wide net at the top with lots of chilly leads that become narrower and warmer via each desired action they take towards purchase.
How SEO works to bring valuable leads into your online shop
Search engines’ whole purpose is to put information that matters in front of people who will care about it. In the spirit of this, they want to know you are legit and users will be happy they’ve been directed into your humble online abode. They achieve this through a number of highly complex processes, but basically, your content gets scanned for upfront and backend content. Based on the vibe you’re putting out, the search engine says yay or nay to whether you align with the searcher’s objective.
Admittedly, paid advertising skews this because, in addition to this journey of benevolent matchmaking, search engines also want to make a whole lotta coin. However, over and above strategically investing in online advertising, there is a ton of work you can do to organically attract relevant users to your website. The following tips signal to the Googles of the world you are a worthwhile source of information. More than that, they ensure once your customers have landed on your site, they like what they see and feel more inclined to stick around.
Use these 2022-centric SEO strategies to remain upwardly mobile in the ongoing battle for search engine supremacy
Make friendly with mobile usage best practices: For years, SEO experts have been warning businesses who fail to optimize for mobile that this will be their undoing. However, now that more than 80% of people say they use their phones to make purchases (with many preferring it to going on a computer), the importance of ensuring your mobile experiences exceed expectations is irrefutable.
Siri and Alexa are officially the popular kids and you want to sit with them: It’s official, voice search is taking over and these lovely ladies are starting to determine, more and more frequently, what your target audiences find. With more than 70% of people preferring voice search to typing and 50% of them using it to find items to purchase, it’s time to get with the times and ensure your website descriptions reflect natural speech rather than a smattering of keyword phrases.
People’s attention spans may be short, but long-form content is key to SEO success: Google hates copycats, robots and cheaply written content more than the next person. Over the past few years, algorithms have become much smarter at determining if your content is authentic or if you are just rambling off popular phrases in the hopes of ranking.
Long-form content that leverages semantically relevant terms and phrases has long since (pun intended) begun to outrank pithy 300-word posts. This is because the former creates an immersive user experience while the latter is like one of those lawn signs that skips on letters in an attempt to push a lot of information in a too-small box. But, Google Cs Wut Ur Tryn 2 Do, and it’s not buying your bargain basement messaging. So, instead of repetitious keyword stuffing, craft stories.
Last but certainly not least, optimize your images so the search gods know what you are posting. Not only should you be ensuring each image you post on your website has optimized alt text, but you need to do this across your social platforms as well. While businesses continue to ignore the importance of image optimization, the fact that 20% of searches occur via the image function shows consumers certainly are not. If your images are not properly labelled and compressed – and all you use are stagnant stock photos – you are going to drop to the bottom of this key ranking pool faster than a freshly poured margarita.
Care about turning online browsers into buying customers? Don’t skimp on the SEO best practices that bring them to your site & keep them there.
If you don’t feel incentivized to optimize your consumers’ online experiences, keep in mind that the global average cart abandonment rate is more than 70%. When, for lack of a better word, crappy user experiences are a top cause of this dumping, you cannot afford to pooh-pooh on the importance of optimization. From slow download speeds through to 401 errors and poorly publicized CTAs, your customers are looking for reasons not to convert.
Don’t hand them over on a silver platter. Alternatively, create an irresistible online experience that keeps shoppers interested and engaged long enough to say, “I do,” to your devilish charms. If you want to learn more about optimizing your digital platforms for user experience and sales, we can give you a rundown of the short- and long-term opportunities you can take advantage of to survive the search engine hunger games.
