The right search strategy will bring a site success, but how do you get there? We take a closer look at the present and future of search.
The quest to get to number one on Google is a mission that, if successful, will have seriously good side eff ects. Being on the front page for a specifi c search term is guaranteed to get far more hits than any other page. The further down the rankings, past page one and beyond, the less likely a site is to be seen. Admittedly, Google is not the only choice for getting seen. Bing and Yahoo still boast millions of searches and region-specific search engines such as Baidu and Yandex are hugely popular.
But, with over 80 per cent of the world’s searches being performed via Google it is still the benchmark for competitors to reach. The benefi ts of hitting the front page are obvious; it makes a site really easy to fi nd, which means more visitors. The more people that see a site the more likely that a site’s content will get viewed and read. If it’s good content, the cycle will continue and a wider audience will be engaged. Plus, more visitors and hits make a site a more attractive proposition to advertisers.
Content needs to be good
quality with a focus on the
audience it wants to reach
The right search strategy will bring a site success, but how do you get there? We take a closer look at the present and future of search SEO vs content: who is number 1? The payback for a high-ranking site is not too diffi cult to appreciate. What is more diffi cult is appreciating how to get up to the top rankings. It used to be a bunch of keywords, a few SEO ‘tricks’ and a load of links. But Google and its search engine compatriots are far more sophisticated than they used to be. Search is big business and getting it right is not just about SEO anymore. A successful content strategy needs to be implemented as well. Content per se is simply not good enough, content needs to be good quality with a focus on the audience it wants to reach. The shift to creating good content has to be admired, and there is no doubt it’s a step in the right direction. However, good content alone will not take care of business. SEO and content have become inextricably linked and will not exist without the other. So, to make a site a success, good content needs to work with the technical aspects of SEO
. Users will need to ensure that sites are being crawled regularly (and correctly), and URLs are indexed as expected via sitemaps. Sitemaps need to be updated on a regular basis and should include text, video and images. These are crucial as searches are rarely the exclusive domain of text. Image searches are commonplace and, dependent on subject, can be even more important. The same can be said for video. Analytics need to be checked regularly to ensure content is pushing the site in the right direction. Taking advantage of the key players in social media can also have a serious boost on visits and hits. However, the lifespan of social media can be very short. It provides an instant hit of satisfaction, but the glow soon disappears. However, regular retweets will become part of the fabric of a site leading to search engines indexing, off ering long-term benefi'ts.
Remember to be creative, create a buzz and give value to anything that is written. Google has many tools to help site owners give their ranking a boost. The obvious is Google Analytics, but it needs to be used correctly to achieve real success. Google runs online lessons, leading to the Google Analytics Individual Qualifi cation (IQ). For more information head to www. google.com/analytics/iq.html. A recent addition to the Google lineup is the Knowledge Graph, a tool that collates results to create a focused collection of information (bit.ly/J8piWx). Finally, to get yourself some useful tips and tricks check out Google’s Inside Search
