The SEO landscape is forever changing, which means it can sometimes be difficult to decide what you should be focusing on in order to improve client rankings.
While there will be a lot of different opinions about what you should be focusing on during the last half of 2019 and the first few months of 2020, we have put together a list of the tactics we believe are most worthwhile at the moment. There is a good chance that this could change by the end of the year though, so be sure to keep reading up on algorithm changes.
Key SEO tactics that offer good ROI
1. Create content that solves problems
Yes, creating videos, blogs and any other type of content that solves a customer’s problem or answers their questions is very worthwhile if you want your client rankings to improve. Not only can this content drive more traffic to their site, but it also increases the chances of it being tagged as a featured snippet. This way, even if a user doesn’t click through to your client’s site, the brand will still receive some exposure.
To get blog ideas, pay attention to the questions that clients usually ask your sales team. You can also use Google Search Console to explore the queries that are already driving people to your site and build on that. And you can also just ask people directly to know their concerns and thoughts.
Another approach that you can take is to look at your client’s best-ranking content and see how or if you can improve upon those blogs in order for it to be more of an answer to a question.
2. Audit your client’s site
Getting the basics such as the technical aspects of a site right is still as important as ever, which is why site audits are still a worthwhile tactic and one that you should focus on in the coming months.
Basically, you want to look at aspects such as missing metadata, broken links and duplicate content. The good thing is that there are so many free tools out there that will help you do just that, so there’s no need to invest in new tools unless there is something very specific that you want to achieve.
Once you’ve identified any issues that might be affecting the performance of a client’s website, you can slowly start correcting them before resubmitting the site to Google. Cleaning up issues such as broken links will provide website visitors with a better experience, which is why SEO rankings will improve too. Ensuring that all of the most important website pages have optimized metadata will also give searchers more reason to click through to a client site, which will also improve their SEO rankings. This can be time-consuming if your client hasn’t been checking in on issues in the past, but it can definitely make a difference to site performance.
3. Don’t worry too much about voice search
While this blog is about what you should focus on, many marketers are very focused on voice search when they don’t need to be, which is why it’s worth mentioning.
There has been a big emphasis on voice search of late, but there still isn’t any definitive way to keep track of the results of your efforts. Many marketers are still spending a lot of time trying to ‘win’ at voice search, even though they can’t really report back on the real results of their efforts.
Instead of getting distracted by voice search, rather spend more time focusing on creating content that answers user queries – this really is your best chance of tapping into voice search right now while still being able to provide proof of your efforts.
4. Create an internal and backlinking strategy
Linking is also still one of the most worthwhile SEO tactics to focus on. To begin with, your internal links help tie everything together on your site and encourage visitors to spend more time on it. Developing or updating your client’s internal linking strategy can increase time on site and the average number of pages viewed, which will have a positive effect on their SEO rankings.
Aim to link your cornerstone content to give searchers and website visitors the best chance of finding answers to their questions. As you develop new content that will help build this story, you can add to the internal linking strategy.
Building backlinks is another time-consuming tactic, but one that is capable of producing exceptional results if it’s done right. When you have more high-authority sites linking back to your client’s site, it signals to Google that they’re doing something right. You can try Rich Media Citations, By diversifying citation sources and incorporating rich media elements, businesses can strengthen their online presence and attract more potential customers.
5. Optimize for no-click searches
There has been a major increase in no-click searches, meaning users are presented with the information they need without them having to click through to a website or any other platform.
Google’s featured snippets dominate page one, and because they stand out, searchers tend to focus on them more than the other results. On top of this, most people don’t need to navigate to a website to get the information they need, which is why more brands are doing what they can for their content to be tagged for featured snippets.
There are a number of things you can do to optimize for no-search clicks, such as ensuring your client’s NAP information are consistent and using header tags as well as keywords correctly. This blog will give you more detailed information on how you can optimize for featured snippets.
All of the above suggestions can easily be implemented on any client website, regardless of the industry or size. Now it’s up to you to make the next six months count.
