3 Ways to Get Your Business Ready for the Future of SEO Now

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The SEO industry is always in flux thanks to Google, Facebook, and other internet heavyweights. Investment in SEO has reached over $70 billion annually. And the growing sector shows no signs of slowing down in the future.

While SEO was previously viewed with suspicion by many marketers, it’s now well-established as an essential part of digital marketing. But what’s around the corner for the industry?

It’s always difficult to predict the future of any industry. None more so than the future of SEO.

What is the future of search engines? What is the future of Google? What’s the future of SEO?

It’s impossible to know for sure the answers to any of these questions. However, there are ways that businesses can adapt and prepare for the future.

Keep reading to find out how you can future-proof your SEO strategy to anticipate the developments to come. Let’s go!

1. Prepare for AI

Is there a technology that has ever received the same hype as artificial intelligence?

Commonly known as AI, it’s starting to become a reality in our lives. This has been brought about by two significant developments.

Voice Recognition and Interaction

The first is the vast improvements in the quality of the voice search and digital assistants.

If previously interaction with Apple’s Siri was the cause of yelling at our smartphones.

“Siri, how’s the weather in Tampa?”

“…I don’t know where you are…”

“WEATHER. TAMPA.”

“Here’s the weather today for Hammer, Minnesota…”

And yet, nowadays, the experience increasingly reflects a natural conversation between two intelligent beings. And things are set to continue to improve.

As voice search improves, the number of people using voice search will rise too. With over 50 percent of searches expected to be voice searches by the year 2020.

Smart Hubs

The second development that changes everything is the widespread use of Smart Hubs in the home.

There’s Amazon’s Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s Homepod. There are also new smart hubs coming out all the time by the major tech companies.

Over 38 million Americans report owning a smart home hub. This number is set to rise significantly over the next few years. Before long, every household in the US will have a smart home hub.

What Does This mean for the Future of SEO?

As any SEO expert knows, keywords are the cornerstone of an effective SEO strategy.

But keywords have to reflect what users search for on Google and other search engines. If the way people interact with search engines changes, so do the keywords used in your website’s content.

If someone is searching for an SEO company in Tampa, they’ll type the search different to how they would voice search.

Instead of typing “SEO Tampa,” they might voice search – “Are there any SEO companies in Tampa?”.

As a result, it’s important to include natural language keywords in your content. This includes keywords in the form of questions and full sentences.

There are many ways to prepare for the rise of voice search and digital assistant use.

Change Your Content

For example, you need to include a FAQs or Q&A pages on your website. This allows you to produce content in the form of questions and answers.

Are you currently writing your blog posts in a formal-style of language? You need to switch to a more conversational manner to reflect how people talk.

But users don’t just ask questions of the digital assistants. They also make commands. For example, “Search for the Future of SEO on Google.” It’s important to make sure your content is optimized to reflect this change too.

Answer Boxes Matter

Do you know the answer boxes that come up on SERPs (search engine results pages) you search for anything?

Previously they’ve not been especially crucial regarding boosting your SEO.

But with the rise of voice search, they become increasingly important. This is because the snippet will be read aloud by the digital assistant to the user.

2. Link-less Link-Building

You know link-building? Well, this in Link-less link-building. I know, confusing.

Link-building remains a significant part of SEO for small and medium-sized companies.

But with the introduction of updates to Google’s algorithm, especially Penguin and Fred updates, it’s not easy to build up your links anymore. Google and other search engines are no longer turning a blind eye to poor quality links. You can’t trick the system anymore.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to concentrate your SEO efforts on improving the quality of your backlinks to other websites. It’s all about quality for Google, not quantity.

How to Improve Link-building?

Link-building is about convincing another company’s website to backlink to your website. But how can you do this?

By building relationships in the real world. You might do this by reaching out to companies at an industry conference or contacting a company through social media platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Check out our blog on the best practices on social media to find out more about how you can harness the power of social media.

But what’s changed recently with how search engines evaluate your website is the difference between backlinks and simply mentions. That’s where we come to link-less link-building.

But what about link-less link-building?

Link-less link-building has emerged as one of the latest SEO tactics.

This is because Google and other search engines can now evaluate the quality of your website by mentions of your brand elsewhere. And also, whether it’s mentioned in a positive or negative light. Such mentions are called “link-less links.”

Search engine algorithm then uses this information to determine whether your website can be trusted or not. This consequently influences whether your website is boosted on SERPs.

That’s why it’s essential not only to encourage other websites to promote your website’s brand by mentioning you. But also you need to be tracking how your brand is being talked about online.

3. Mobile Friendly Websites

Since 2016, over 60 percent of searches now come from mobile devices. Without a doubt, the percentage has only increased over the past years.

Recently Google introduced its mobile-first index to its algorithm. Other search engines are set to follow the trend towards boosting mobile-friendly websites on SERPs.

This is why it’s imperative that your website is prepared for the increased use of mobile devices to access your site. If you’re not mobile-friendly, you’re going to experience a dramatic fall in your web traffic.

Improve Your Website’s Speed

Did you know that 40 percent of users abandon a website if it requires over 3 seconds to load?

That’s a lot of potential customers that you’re losing simply by not ensuring that you have a super fast website speed.

Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly are often much slower. However, it doesn’t matter which device a user accesses your site from; you have to have a fast loading speed.

Several things could slow down your website. Maybe you need to switch to another web host? Or perhaps, you need to reduce the number of visuals on your site?

Whatever the problem with your website’s speed, you can’t afford to frustrate mobile device users with slow speeds.

People Use Mobile Devices Differently

Businesses are only just waking up to the fact that mobile device users behave differently to desktop users.

Even the peak times when mobile users access the internet is different, according to research by Microsoft and the Financial Times. Mobile device users reach peak use in the early morning and late evening. Whereas, desktop use peaks during the middle of the day during 9-5 work-hours.

Just think that mobile device users can access the internet anywhere on the go. Whereas, desktop users have to be sat down at home or in the office to access your website.

That’s why your website needs to be able to respond to different contexts all the time.

Prepare for the Future of SEO

The world of SEO and search engines are always changing.

It’s challenging to keep adapting and changing your SEO strategy to respond to Google’s latest algorithm update.

However, what if you could weatherproof your SEO strategy to anticipate the changes to the future of SEO?

With our three ways to get your business ready for the future, you can stay ahead of your competition by making preparing today for tomorrow.

Now you know what you need to do to future-proof your SEO tactics, it’s time to take action. It’s not easy coming up with your digital strategy entirely on your own.

But you’re not alone. We’re here to help you.

Our digital marketing gurus can make sure you have the digital strategy that can withstand the coming changes. Get in touch with us today, and we’ll help you!

7 Risks of DIY Websites and How to Avoid Total Disaster

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Are you thinking of making your own website to boost your business?

Making your own website has never been easier these days thanks to the help of online tools such as WordPress, one of the best DIY websites out there. And with enough practice, you can become proficient in making any kind of website that you need.

There are, however, certain risks questions that come along with DIY websites. If you’re a big company relying on your website for your business, how can you be certain that your website is interactive and won’t crash?

And some more questions too, like, with more and more people using accessing the internet through mobile devices, how can you be sure that your website is mobile-compatible?

Here is a list of some risks that come when you’re making your own website.

What are DIY Websites?

First off, let’s get you up to speed on what DIY websites are.

The term refers to making a site on your own, without the help of a professional designer. Many DIY sites utilize templates to get started since these require little to no coding. Most of the brick-and-mortar websites available on the internet are free, utilizing a CMS like WordPress as a launching pad.

Sites like these are easy to use and provide you with readymade designs for your web pages.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the risks that come along when you use one of these web builders.

1. Amateur Aesthetics

Making your own website with the tools online can be simple, they can also appear simplistic.

The first thing customers will notice when they visit your website is the overall design of the front page. If the page looks boring, dull, and have poor design, your visitors will most likely not bother to explore your web page.

A well-designed website needs to have a good combination of color. It needs the proper design elements to represent what you are selling. Also, having one or more photos or videos that are relevant to your website and products will help out a lot.

With the trends and tastes changing every now and then, changing the designs of your website to keep up will take up a lot of your time.

2. Lack of Functionality

Functionality is on a direct link with aesthetics in the sense that having a good, functioning website will have a lot of displays such as moving visuals for your customers.

Building a website on your own will prove tricky when you plan on having multiple tabs and small intricacies on it. This will require you to have knowledge of programming for them to prove effective.

If you make your own website, things will not go well when you preview it for the first time. Some plugins will not work right, widgets will not appear in the proper order, etc.

Sometimes, your entire website will malfunction, or some links will appear broken. You can spend your time trying to fix them all, but that will use up much of your precious time.

3. Low Security

Having low security in DIY websites strike the unaware hard and fast. Most people do not realize that keeping your website secure means that you have to be up to date in software.

This means that you’re going to be on the constant lookout for the newest updates, else you have to deal with people hacking your website.

With all that time spent on the lookout for updates and fixing your website’s security, you will get to spend less time on your business. This will take away time you could have spent earning money for yourself online.

4. No Professional SEO

While there are a lot of things on the list of the pros and cons of WordPress, one of the biggest cons it has is its lack of built-in SEO.

SEO (search engine optimization) is now an absolute necessity when it comes to having an online business. Having SEO means that your website has better visibility in online search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Most do it yourself websites don’t come with the tools and features to optimize search results.

Without SEO, it will become less likely that people will even see your website on the first few pages of Google. This will mean that your competition will get ahead of you in sales.

Taking into account that Google, the most used search engine in the world, changes its algorithms in a regular basis, keeping up with the changes and trying to fit them onto your website on your own will take up a lot of your time and decrease your store’s productivity.

That said, WordPress does have plugins that boost SEO but most DIY templates don’t come with these. Only professional designers who purchased the licenses to use these tools will provide them to you.

4. Decreased Productivity

As you might have seen above, all the other risks point to having your productivity go down. That’s because this is one if not the biggest risk when you decide to make a website on your own.

Making your own website means that you will have to be the one to do everything on your own. Including, designing your web pages, choosing among the myriad of layouts, adding and removing certain content, and test the functionality of your site.

Having your productive time taken away by things like tweaking your security or updating your designs means that your store will have less uptime online. Thus, you will have fewer customers overall.

Unless you’re a person who’s quick to pick up on mistakes and quicker to learn how to fix them, making your own website carries a lot of risks with it. All that said, there is a simple solution to all that, hiring a professional website designer.

Web designers provide you with a lot of services that can make your life simpler and help you manage your time better. While hiring one can cost you a bit more money, web designers can boost your web page and your website’s aesthetic, online visibility, and security.

Here are some of the things web designers can do for and provide you if you decide to outsource to them.

5. Use of Premium Tools

Professional web designers will often have access to premium tools, such as Divi on WordPress, as their job will depend on their equipment. This means that they have the tools necessary to give out a better functioning website than most free users.

Not only will they have the tools to build a better website, they will often have the tools to make them look better and more informative, too. Tools like Illustrio, or The iSpot will give your web pages more images or graphics to make it more appealing to the eyes.

They also have premium tools like TrackDuck, and Red Pen, that make it easier for you to gain feedback from your clients or to help you collaborate with others who have ideas for your business.

6. Regular Maintenance

Web designers will offer to perform frequent maintenance on any website they’re working on, checking if things are in order, links are working, security is up to date, etc. Allowing you to have more time to spend on your business.

They will also make an effort to provide you with the best service there is, as their reputation depends on it. So, you can be sure that when you hire a professional programmer, you can rest easy knowing that your web pages are in safe hands.

Professionals also have a hand in dealing with hackers. So, rest assured, even if your website gets hacked, help from a professional web builder will solve the problem and return your site to normal.

7. Experience and Skill

While regular maintenance and having access to premium tools are great benefits when you hire a professional web designer. The biggest contribution they can provide you is their experience and skill.

You don’t have to spend resources to train yourself or other people; a web designing company already has experienced and trained employees to focus on this task while you and your business can focus on what you should be doing: selling products.

Professional web designers will know what your website needs with one look. Whether it’s a simple brochure site, an e-commerce site for financial and/or business transactions, or a business site.

A professional web designer has experience that can prove useful to you, like knowing the differences between a web page vs website, how to use plugins and widgets and the best ones to use for your web pages.

Professionals also have more skill when it comes to the technical aspects of web designing. They can help you with your SEO, even find ways for you to set up a local one for even more visibility online. And they can make sure that your device can be mobile- compatible, too.

Know and Understand the Risks of DIY Websites

While making your own web page is easier with the help of DIY websites, there is no 100% sure way to eliminate the risks involved in making one on your own.

And with the global internet usage expected to rise even further in coming years, it’s time for you to make sure that your site stays relevant by hiring a professional web designer. After all, no online web tool can substitute experience and skill.

If you’re looking for more help with online technicalities, don’t hesitate to contact us now.

How do SEO and PPC Work Together?

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Organic traffic or paid traffic, SEO vs PPC, the never-ending debate between which is better than the other. Ok, it’s possible there is no great debate and instead, people just don’t realize the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive of one another.

The truth is many people regard SEO and PPC as being separate marketing strategies and should be treated as such. But, what is there was a way for SEO and PPC to work together so your business could get both organic and paid traffic. Leads would increase and so would conversion rates.

Keep reading to find out how you can benefit from these two powerhouse marketing strategies working together to increase your leads, conversion rates, inbound traffic, and revenue.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Through the strategic placement of keywords naturally into website content (web pages, blog articles, landing pages) the website will become optimized for ranking on search engine results pages (SERP). Essentially the more Google’s algorithm likes a webpage or blog article, the higher it will rank when a user searches using the associated keywords.

Keywords are really important to SEO. They help to determine how best to rank web content. Think of it this way, it doesn’t make sense for a plumber’s blog articles to be ranked against an electrician’s landing page. Neither have anything to do with each other. Also, a customer who searches for a plumber would be confused on why they were being shown a landing page for an electrician as the number one result.

Instead, keywords help to determine how the web content is ranked, what content it will be ranked against, and to entirely ignore those websites that appear to be spammy.

The better the keywords used and the better they flow throughout the content, the better the chance of ranking high on a SERP. And ranking high on a SERP will help to increase traffic, customer leads, and conversion rates.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay-per-click. Meaning a business sets up a Google Adwords account and runs an ad campaign. The ad will run until the budget you placed is gone. However, you will only be charged for each click of the link. Hence, pay-per-click.

PPC does not rely on keywords the same way SEO does. PPC is trying to increase the amount of organic traffic to the website. Instead, PPC uses keywords to ensure visibility by users looking for similar products or services. However, the link on the SERP will not be listed among the organic results.

PPC is the ads you see at the top of the results page that aren’t numbered and usually say “ad” or “advertisement.” Those are the PPC ad campaigns businesses have created. PPC allows businesses the opportunity to buy traffic, essentially.

However, the more the increase in traffic and link clicks through the ad the more money the business will have to pay. Either until they end the campaign, or they hit their established budget which is met and the ad is taken down. However, that may require launching a new ad to capitalize on the increases.

SEO and PPC Working Together?

Since both deal with internet traffic in an effort to increase leads, conversions, and market exposure, it’s not too far of a stretch to believe they could work well together. But would it be worth investing in both? What’s the benefit?

There are a few ways that combining SEO and PPC could benefit your overall marketing strategy.

Shared Keyword Data

One of the many benefits worth mentioning at the top of the list is the shared keyword data between both SEO and PPC marketing campaigns. With both campaigns running simultaneously you’ll get double the data to analyze, ultimately determining which keywords have higher conversion rates and where and incorporate this information into your overall strategy.

When it comes to determining which campaigns or keywords are successful and which are not monitoring the data is key, and there is no such thing as too much data. With the shared keyword data benefit, you’ll be able to paint a better picture of how successful your campaigns are and how best to modify your overall marketing strategy if needed.

PPC Can Be Used to Inform SEO Strategy

Using your PPC campaign to test keywords, titles, and meta-data is a great way to gain insight into your SEO strategy. Unlike SEO, which can take quite a lengthy amount of time to see results, PPC will yield results almost immediately.

The information gathered from the PPC campaign can be used to guide and enhance your SEO strategy. Typically when you want to try out a keyword it could be months before you’ll see enough organic data to determine if it is successful or not. However, with PPC the results are immediate.

You’ll be able to test a new keyword, title, or meta-description, -title, or -data in your PPC campaign determine which one is a success and use that in your SEO campaign to help increase your organic ranking results and organic traffic.

Control Negative Reviews and Publicity

With their powers combines SEO and PPC can even polish up your image should a customer leave a bad review or bad press begins to circle around your business and its name.

In this case, you’re not so much using keywords and ad campaigns to drive more customers to buy a product or service. Instead, you’re using keywords and ad campaigns to drive customers to where they can hear your side of the story. SEO and PCC together can be used to tell your story.

As an example, a business that sells frozen meats has been mentioned in the media lately as being connected to a salmonella epidemic. The company could run ad campaigns and SEO campaigns to drive people who search for ‘salmonella epidemic” to a page on the company’s website that explains what the company is doing to prevent this from happening again and to help those already affected.

The company was able to tell their side of the story because they controlled where people would be directed to first by combining SEO and PCC together.

SERP Rankings

This benefit should be obvious but just in case, SEO and PPC working together can help to increase exposure on SERPs. Typically when one campaign becomes successful people will tend to lessen efforts on the other. However, by combining the two you double your exposure and chances at increasing traffic.

When both SEO and PPC campaigns rank high on SERPS, PPC is able to pick up the clicks that SEO missed. However, this does not occur in the reverse. In fact, when PPC ads are paused, a staggering 89% of the missed traffic from the paused ad will not be picked up by organic rankings. Even if you’re site ranks #1 organically.

Creating the Perfect SEO and PPC Combination

Today SERP rankings and having an online image a presence is crucial if a business wishes to succeed, grow, expand, and last a long time. This is why understanding digital marketing and more importantly how to use SEO to increase organic traffic and PPC to increase paid traffic.

However, the current line of thought being the two are mutually exclusive of one another and therefore can and should only act independently is holding back your business. And many more like it.

As shown above, combining SEO and PPC into one overall marketing strategy is a great way to increase traffic and conversion rates. With PPC picking up what SEO missed in terms of link clicks, and PPC providing instant results as to which keywords, titles, meta-titles, and content works, the chances of a more successful SEO campaign increase.

This in turn, of course, lends itself to ranking higher on SERPs and therefore increasing your exposure to the online community. Which SEO and PPC can also help with in terms of your online image.

Separately there is not much that either can do to change or remove tarnish or a blemish on your online image. However, together SEO and PPC create the perfect combination to control the narrative in your favor and allow you to tell your story or side of it.

Grow Your Business to the Next Level

When it comes to deciding between either or, definitely choose both and combine your SEO and PPC efforts to maximize your digital marketing strategy and get the most out of your online presence. Contact us today for more information on how you can take your digital marketing campaign to the next level. Get ready to open those floodgates!

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Want to learn even more?

Whether you have a simple SEO question or want to have a deep conversation about your digital strategy, we’re all ears. Contact us today for a chat or to learn how we can put our digital marketing expertise to good use for your business.