The art of search engine optimization has changed quite a bit over the years and the evolution shows no signs of slowing. The days of focusing on just one aspect of marketing or SEO as the primary driver of your strategy are coming to an end. Now, more than ever before, it is important to have a well balanced approach when it comes to optimizing for search engines as well as overall marketing strategy. This is because Google’s algorithms no longer emphasize just 1 or 2 parts of a website’s profile, but instead look at everything and the interconnectedness that exists for a website’s online presence.
With this change, synergies in your strategy matter more than ever before. It helps your website characteristics appear natural to search engines and in turn helps reduce the risk of large swings in traffic due to the downfall of one particular strategy. There are many different necessary parts to consider in a well-balanced SEO and SEM strategy.
One of these can be simplified into the term “usability”. A number of variables fall into usability, but ultimately it is anything that affects the user experience in using and navigating your website. Things like page load speed, design and user interface, and accessibility are at play here. Google actively tracks all of these things via a number of mechanisms including how long it takes their bots to loads page and many metrics that serve as surrogate markers such as bounce rates and time on page statistics.
Another important consideration in a modern SEO strategy is the age old cornerstone: content. It is important to offer users what they are looking for or that will really drive down the other markers that Google uses to try to gauge the quality of websites. Content that is engaging and relevant is more important now than it has ever been. Content really is king.
One of the newer strategies that should be considered is with social networking and online reviews. It is important to have a strong presence in both and especially on the mega websites such as Facebook, Google local (if applicable), Twitter, Instagram, and Yelp (also only if applicable). Try to make regular updates to these websites and be sure to engage visitors. Try to build your following on these sites naturally as buying likes or anything similar to that can really hurt your site if the deception is uncovered.
Finally, synergize your online strategies with whatever marketing you do offline. This will actually have an impact even on your online success as customers in the real world go online and post reviews, interact with your pages, etc. Remember to stick to a balanced approach and you will minimize risk while optimizing your chances at successful and sustainable growth in your website in terms of traffic, customer engagement, and even sales. The old days of backlink spamming and poor content are long behind us and the new framework will really reward those who favor quality- that is likely a good thing for legitimate webmasters and customers alike.