How to make the best use of upgraded SEO practices in 2020?
Mary Annie Sujitha J (Annie Joseph)
Wordsmith with a technical backbone. Bridging the gap between technical and creative. Open to collaborate, learn, and ignite change.
Among so many domains that evolved to great heights in the recent past, digital marketing is an important domain that started to pick up momentum many thanks to the digital transformation. However, it is up to you to make the best use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices of digital marketing strategies effectively and take advantage of it. Let us read on to figure out how to make the best use of the upgraded ‘SEO practices 2020’!
1. Top 10 Strategic SEO practices 2020
SEO practices are strategies methods adopted to increase the ranking of a website in terms of search engine results. When you build a website, your ultimate aim is to show up on the first page of the search engine results page. And to come on the first page of the search engine results page, you need to optimize your website based on many optimization strategies. The following are the top 10 SEO practices 2020:
1.1. Voice Search Optimization
Ever since ‘Siri’ and ‘Alexa’ became way too human-friendly, our instinct to voice search on the mobile has increased. ‘Change is the only thing that doesn’t change’ and therefore it is essential to adapt accordingly. Since we have stats confirming the increase of voice search, you need to make sure that your website is voice-search optimized.
Also, try to incorporate the voice search option on your website so that when people reach your website, they will be able to zero down to the exact search result through voice search. You may encounter hiccups here and there, but take heart, work on it to remove the glitches for this will help your overall SEO ranking in the longer run.
1.2. Natural Language Processing Optimization
Since there is an evident increase in voice search it is essential that you optimize your website for Natural Language Processing. Google developed a technique called BERT - Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers a couple of years ago. BERT is basically a neural-network-based technique for Natural Language Processing. It is used to understand the nuances better with respect to the context of words that are searched. Using this technique the query raised can be addressed better. You need to make sure that your website is optimized in order to process the natural language queries over voice search.
1.3. Content Optimization
In the present day scenario, content optimization is given utmost importance and you need to have a sharp eye on each and every word that goes on your website due to the fact that it directly contributes to the overall SEO ranking of your website. The following are the three essential aspects of content optimization to look into carefully:
1.3.1. Keyword Optimization
Keywords are the terms that are typed on search engines by users to find something on the internet. Keyword research has become a mandate these days since Google crawlers look into each and every word on the websites in order to search them according to the keyword query on the search bar and display appropriate search results. With that fact stated, it is critical that you optimize the entire content on your website in accordance with the keyword research results.
1.3.2. Content-Length
Content-Length is an important factor due to the fact that the amount of time taken to read an article or a blog is directly proportional to the overall SEO ranking of your website. The more time your audience spends on your page, the more evident it is for Google crawlers to confirm that your website/content page is the answer to the query on the search bar. When you go for blogging and article writing keep the ‘reading time’ in mind. An approximate 1700-2000 word count blog is ideal for increasing the ‘dwell time’ on your website/page. So, make sure to keep this point in mind while optimizing your content based on content length and make your content creative and informative to the readers.
1.3.3. Content Quality
The quality of the content is very important because it determines the bounce rate (if the user doesn’t find the necessary content/information as per his/her query, he/she tends to immediately close your website) of your website in the first place. When a search query is initiated, Google crawlers search the whole of the internet and pick the appropriate search results and displays. When the user clicks the link and spends a decent amount of time navigating through the website, it means that the link/website has the required content in accordance with the search query. This is a positive sign to Google and it enhances the overall SEO ranking of your website.
1.4. Effective use of Video Content
If you’d looked closely into many websites you would have guessed it by now. Usage of video content is pretty much fruitful and you need to make sure that you create video content for your website as well. An increase in backlinking is profoundly observed in the case of video content and this only goes on to boost the search traffic. So when you optimize your website for video content you need to take care of the following aspects of the video content:
- Creativity and Authenticity
- The size and quality of the video content
- Relevancy of the content with apt captions
- Choosing engaging thumbnails
- Maintaining professional aspect ratios
When you use video content on your website keep the above-listed points in mind and create meaningful videos and add them to your website.
1.5. MFI Optimization
The full form of MFI is Mobile-First Indexing. The significance of MFI is that your website needs to be optimized for mobile/smartphones in order to be ranked better and MFI indexes will help you tick off the checklist needed to do so. Once you optimize your website go to Google Page Insights and analyze and evaluate the performance of your website. You will be able to evaluate the performance of your website both on the desktop/laptop and mobile/tablets etc. Since the majority of users browse on their smartphones, it is essential that your website is optimized accordingly in order to enhance your overall SEO ranking.
1.6. Efficient use of Snippets
A small piece of information that Google displays on the topmost search result segment is called a snippet. The snapshot below is an example of the snippet.
Google search crawls over the internet and tries to pull out the best solution to the question/inquiry asked on the search bar. You can make the best use of this strategy by writing precise content in your blogs. When you are crystal clear of what you are writing, you tend to make notes in a unique way and try to express it in the best possible way. And that is what makes your content stand out in the first place and might as well be pulled out by Google crawlers as snippets. Take some effort and work on snippet contents so that you can add on the weightage of your website and increase the traffic and the ranking at the same time.
1.7. Adopt the ‘Go Local’ Strategy
If you are an international player/brand and your customers are from all over the world, then it is a must that you adopt the ‘Go Local’ strategy. Among the many factors that make your viewers/customers build trust in your product/service, being available locally plays an important role. For instance, take Amazon, when I happened to type ‘www.amazon.com’ the following popped up. Since I’m from India, there was the boxed information displayed, take a closer look at the boxed information in the below snapshot.
The information displayed on ‘www.amazon.com’ is a very good example of following the strategy of ‘Go Local’. This increases your credibility and helps earn trust from your customers. Google appreciates this strategy of catering to local customers by ranking you better from an SEO point of view.
1.8. Website Loading Speed Optimization
Website Loading Speed is very important since this is yet another critical factor that contributes to the bounce rate of your website. There are many reasons why your website might load slowly apart from internet issues such as:
- The elements on each and every page of your website
- The size of the video content on your website
- The graphics used on your website
- Leaving cache unattended
- Unoptimized/too much use of Plugins
When your website doesn’t load in a couple of seconds, viewers/customers tend to lose their patience and close your website immediately and this increases the bounce rate of your website which is a negative impact. Take care of the above-listed factors and make sure that your website loads in no time since it critically affects the overall SEO ranking of your website.
1.9. Effectual use of Social Media Platforms
Social Media Platforms play a crucial role in anything and everything these days. The following social media platforms are most predominantly used by the majority of people all over the world:
- YouTube
Apart from the above-mentioned social media platforms, there are other platforms as well. It is crucial that you create an account on all these social media platforms for your venture and make sure to post from time to time. This helps you to keep your audience engaged and thereby you need to have a hyperlink to your social media accounts enabled from your website itself. Again, this strategy pays off by enhancing your overall SEO strategy.
1.10. User Experience (UX)
User experience is an important factor to keep in mind while designing your website. The following factors need to critically analyzed and brainstormed before they are implemented in your website:
- The color theme of your website
- The layout of your website (Grid Layout is preferred)
- Highlighting the ‘Call to Action’ button
- Ease of Navigation of your website
- Fewer formalities towards check out process
To give the best user experience to your users/customers, take the above-listed factors into consideration since it significantly contributes to the overall SEO ranking of your website.
2. Concluding…
Ever since the digital transformation started to have a serious impact on our day-to-day life, it has become essential to know the basics and more to fit in, survive and thrive from thereon. This is crucial for product and service-based ventures especially. In addition to the above-discussed strategies of SEO practices 2020, it is important that you have tight security for your website. Every customer looks for confidentiality when they share their information over your website. So, it is crucial to implement security algorithms on your website.
Be informed that new SEO strategic practice evolves now and then. Keep an eye on the changing trends and keep optimizing your website according to the updates SEO practices from time to time. The above-discussed strategies would have given an overall idea of how to make the best use of the upgraded SEO practices in 2020, analyze your website and use those strategies to rank better.
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