What is the best SEO strategy in 2022?

A new year means a new opportunity to refresh your SEO strategy! Ensure you’re staying up to date on the latest trends in a critically important digital marketing channel. By implementing a strong SEO strategy, you can organically grow your business and reach new customers in a cost-effective way.?

Even if you’re already utilizing some SEO tactics in your marketing, it’s always a good idea to stay up to date on the latest digital marketing strategies, as things are constantly evolving. There are many complexities to a good SEO strategy, and several factors to take into account as you work to improve your search rankings. At Padula Media, a local SEO company based in Philadelphia, we can help you improve your digital marketing strategies to reach new customers for your business.??

Here are some things to focus on as you re-evaluate your SEO strategy to get the best results.??

Improve your user experience

Having a good website experience for your user is a key factor that Google takes into account when ranking sites. If your site visitors aren’t able to utilize your website properly, you will have a higher bounce rate and Google will subsequently decrease your ranking on their search results.

The goal is to have a customer visit your site, spend a significant time engaging with the site and also take an action like clicking or filling out a form. This indicates to Google that your site is user-friendly and the content is engaging with the viewer and reaching its target audience.?

Some simple ways to improve user experience include:

• Make sure your page is mobile-friendly. Did you know that 64% of searches are done on mobile? You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check and make sure your website is up to standards.
• Add a navigation menu or search bar for customers to easily find the content they’re looking for.
• Double-check that all the links on your website are active and go to the correct destination.?

Update and repurpose old content

An easy and important way to stay top of your local SEO strategy is to not only produce new content for your site but to go back and update your previous old content. This can be done in a variety of ways like turning an old blog post into an infographic or podcast. Go back and double-check that all of your content includes a call to action that includes your keywords like “Call us today for a free real estate evaluation!”

You can also simply go back and update your old content with new information or data to stay relevant. If you’ve added new content or pages, make sure you go back through your old content and add internal links between the content. This tells Google that there is a relationship between your content and not just a random page.??

Don’t forget about images

Did you know that nearly 20 percent of Google search results are images? That means that not paying attention to how your images are presented and the quality of them can impact your ranking in Google. To ensure your images are helping your SEO ranking, and not hurting it, start with high-quality images that are relevant to the keywords you’re using. It can also be beneficial to compress your images so that your website’s loading times aren’t slowed down by large files. Adding in alt-text is critically important, as it allows search engines to read and understand what an image is. It also increases readability and accessibility — something that also plays a factor in Google’s rankings.?

When you’re adding in your alt-text keywords, make sure you’re being authentic to the image and its content. Google is able to decipher if the keywords actually relate to the content shown in the images. The best way to prevent this is to actually use photos that relate to your keywords! If you’re a small business looking to increase your local SEO rankings, consider showcasing images of neighborhood landmarks or images relevant to your community.?

Above all, create quality content

None of your SEO strategies will matter if you are not producing authentic and high-quality content for your audience. This will continue to be a huge key to success in 2022 and beyond, so it’s worth investing in! When you create content that is relevant to your audience and incorporates the appropriate keywords you’re trying to rank with. When you’re developing your content strategy, you should take some time to consider what your value proposition is and how you can differentiate yourself. How can you develop content that’s unique to you and provides value to them??

When developing your content —?whether it be a blog or a new internal website —?make sure you’re also including the keywords in your URLs and the back-end of the site. This will also amp up your keyword usage and provide an added boost to your SEO strategies. And remember, the more frequently you publish the fresher your content will appear to Google, further boosting you in search rankings.?

Just like any form of digital marketing, SEO strategies and trends are constantly evolving based on the search engines and their best practices. It’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends to ensure you don’t get left behind in the digital dash for top rankings! If you’re looking for a local SEO company to help you navigate these complexities, contact us at Padula Media to get started. Locally based in Philadelphia, we can help you grow your small business through these proven tactics.?