Search Everywhere Optimization Archives

Developing SEO Strategy For Your Website

You are one of many who may need clarification about developing your website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. In addition, thousands of companies worldwide need help getting organic traffic (non-paid) to their websites.

For some time now, I have been watching with pleasure as Google SERP has risen to the challenge of “factscimilles” – sites that pretend to be factual but are not. I have seen the SERP put the kibosh on the “top 11.1225 best things since apple pie” lists, emphasizing the science behind the semantic (relevant) search.

I think it may take work to know where to begin your efforts. However, following a few crucial measures will improve your organic traffic significantly. Proper use of schema, researching long tail keywords, producing high-quality content and backlinks, technical SEO, and appropriate user information design will be your ticket to stardom.

As you can see, stardom is a long and winding road (I almost hear Paul signing).

Part One: Proper Use of Schema

The search engine is explicitly seeking to gain detailed information on your content via schema markup. Schema markup is a set of codes that informs a bot what the content on your website is attempting to communicate. By transforming unstructured data (text-based) to structured data, you have aided search engines in crawling (data gathering) and indexing, thereby improving the website’s rating.

It is worth the time and effort to use structured data. Rich snippets, which can increase the prominence of your pages in SERPs, are enhanced with more content and fed to search engines with extensive information about your websites thanks to your schema markup.

Step 1. Find the best schema type that describes your business and aligns with your business plan. For example, it may be schema.org/music or schema.org/theater.

Step 2. Add as much schema markup to your business entities and services as is necessary to explain them in detail. A schema markup expert will use more ontologies to add more comprehensible data.

Step 3. Choose your coding strategy and decide how to use the markup on your website. Many CMS tools can utilize specific schema-generating plugins and APIs because they are generally straightforward.

Step 4. As much as feasible, write your SEO schema utilizing natural language processing. The terms you employ matter and should align with your audience’s demands and search intent.

Step 5. Schema markup, like SEO, is a continuous effort. Set up a regular auditing program to discover problems to aid strategic site mapping. Some schema will depreciate with time, while others may add new necessary elements, and sometimes a new schema will develop.

Part Two: Longtail Keyword Research

Investigating the subjects for which your target audience searches is a big step in creating an SEO plan. Google is a great place to start since you can look up keyword ideas and associated search terms. Start with a keyword recommendation linked to your niche if you need clarification about what to include in your SEO approach. Make a list of keywords once you have one, then develop an SEO plan. Then, use these keywords in your content to increase the relevance of your website to consumers’ interests.

Please be aware that getting high search engine rankings is the purpose of keyword research while developing your SEO plan. Knowing how competitive a term is can help you prepare for how challenging it will be to rank for that keyword. Of course, the ideal keyword is one with high search volume and low competition in your target market, but if you’re going after a competitive phrase, the ranking could prove to be an uphill struggle. As a result, if you’re in a highly competitive area, you should concentrate on longtail keywords.

Use BuzzSumo’s “Questions” tool or “answer the public” to find pertinent questions from millions of forum posts if you’re unsure what to put in your article. You may also use Quora’s question features to find relevant questions on your subject. These tools are just a few that can help you focus your search approach and provide the most compelling content. There is no better strategy to increase the customer relevance of your website.

Keyword Research, by its very nature, involves snooping into your competitors’ websites and seeing what they are doing. You will get a good idea about their keyword usage, the type of content that has traction, the backlinks that have helped them rise in the SERP … In general, an excellent road map of the areas where you need to fill your gaps.

Part Three: Producing high-quality content and Authoritative Backlinks

If you write your articles, always try to answer a “Why” or a “What” and, even better, do a video version. Answer your audience’s most common questions, then explain more to become the ultimate guide!

The finest content informs readers, addresses genuine issues, and provides solutions. In an ideal world, content is also seen as helpful and shared, which increases traffic and aids in a high ranking in Google’s search results. But what exactly constitutes high-quality content? The objective of producing high-quality material is arbitrary.

A solid longtail keyword base is the first step in an SEO content strategy. Excellent content is only worthwhile with a reliable technical foundation. Consider dividing it into smaller chunks to influence search results more. You may boost your content’s relevance, impact, and effectiveness by introducing a technical framework into the creation process.

Not all backlinks are created equal, and their place in the hierarchy changes over time. There are a series of strategies for building solid backlinks, but as always, Google demotes the frivolous ones.

For example, take skyscraper content, where you find an article in your field that is gaining real traction – the page has generated many backlinks, and then you go and try to do them one better.
Instead of the top 10 ways to quit smoking, you will come up with the top 12 ways. Upmanship used to be an effective tool, but as of the September 9th update, it seems Google is trying to put this space under some form of control.

Another step to help yourself is to locate sites that are pointing to outdated links regarding the subject you write about and suggest they could replace it with yours.

There are many articles about backlinks, but I recommend hiring a professional unless you have extended time to create top-notch content and then take time to promote it.

Part Four: Technical SEO and proper user interface design

Last but by no means least is the technical SEO. Technical SEO is ensuring a website complies with the technical standards of current search engines to get higher organic ranks. Information architecture, crawling, indexing, and rendering are crucial aspects of technical SEO.

Your site must be mobile friendly at the very least, mobile optimized in the best scenario, and more than anything else free of duplicate content. You must use 301 redirects, canonical tags, Nice URLs, Meta tags, H1 and H2 Tags, and accessible and WCAG compatible code.

In addition to all o the information provided above, you must have a respectable site speed. Many site owners handle their site speed first without addressing significant optimization work, then wonder why their site is not ranking. Without SEO optimization, your site will not rank, no matter how fast.

I hope this answers some of the questions I have been answering lately. Please note that the changes Google has made to the search algorithm (which others usually follow) since August of 2021 have been very significant, and anyone using older guidelines needs to be updated and will have varying effectiveness.

In one of my following articles, I will address ROI. I cannot entirely agree when folks say it is impossible to calculate the ROI of digital marketing. So, I sat down and coded an ROI calculator, but that is for the next blog.

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles SEO Company, provides the needed solutions for your online marketing needs. Our expertise includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing & Google PPC campaigns. Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.

Keeping up with SEO updates

Your finest SEO efforts might fail at any time. The search engine rankings you anticipated may not occur. Your top rankings abruptly decline or vanish. You must be cautious, so you turn to the most recent information regarding what Google demands. You examine the SEO updates and search engine’s helpful content upgrade that launched.

Even though many algorithm changes are minor and sometimes go unnoticed, the well-publicized upgrade to useful content earlier this fall will prove significant.

On the Google Search Central Blog, it was suggested that content marketers that are SEO-focused consider the following questions:

Do you use a lot of automation to create content across various topics?
Are you primarily summarizing other people’s arguments without really contributing anything?
Do people who read your material feel like they need to recheck their sources for more accurate information?

If you answered yes to any of these, Google would not be happy with you.

Quality is at the core of the latest seo updates.

Google has always highlighted the need for websites to provide a pleasant user experience with timely, pertinent content that loads quickly. The search giant, has consistently emphasized content quality since the Panda update, which was launched more than 10 years ago and targeted pages with little to no substance.

Google Search AI is a complex code created for a very complex content environment. Because of the sophistication of the technology, websites now frequently rank for terms that aren’t even in their content. All of these developments have been gradual. With little fanfare, Google quietly updates its search engine algorithms, making over 4,000 changes in 2021 alone.

Code Complexity

One of the aspects of the complexity of the code, looks at the authority of a site in its space. When last year I was telling everyone to avoid duplicating their show names from one season to the next, I was repeating the Google’s mantra. But, as I quickly found out, the rules didn’t apply to the customers that were leading authority in their space, and for example, an Aladdin show for 2022 was indexed even though it had Aladdin indexed twice before showing under the identical name, with near identical content.

Summary

For us mere mortals, the rules will apply. However, if you are building your site authority then there is flexibility to this September’s announcement. So, what should you do if you are not one of the sites of authority?

Ensure quality, relevant content is on all pages
FAQ about your programming, your stage, your product, or service should be added wherever possible
Make sure you have your program book, press release or e-book, or product manual attached in PDF and HTML versions if possible.
Use a lot of videos but be sure to include transcripts and captions
Pay attention to WCAG for accessibility

ARTdynamix® is keeping up with the changes

The impact of this is not yet clear but applying these will help SEO and it never hurts to prepare. By the way, if you are an ARTdynamix® customer, you already have the tools needed to make the above points reality. In fact, the tools have been available for your use since 2013. The latest version of ARTdynamix® has built in Voice search and “Near Me” search optimization capability.

Often when we inform folks that ARTdynamix® has a Press Release module, an FAQ builder, a program-book uploader, etc. that can be attached to their shows or content on demand, that is met with excitement because of the efficiency changes but it also substantial for SEO and authority. Here’s the impact: Google has been hinting at this change for a decade (especially if you can read between the lines), and now Google has made it a standard.

As a reminder, in February 2022, Google has already made the schema a mandatory of their SERP (search engine results page) rules, and now followed by the above noted content update

How do I select keywords

So many factors go into keyword selection – the first being: Do I need keywords? Many folks will tell you keywords are no longer relevant, but that only tells part of the story. Indeed, it would help if you considered keyword strings or key phrases (approximately 3 – 5 words). And while it is correct, keywords don’t have the same impact on search bots. They are essential in these ways:

It establishes your goal and needs for a particular page – page content should match the meta tags CONTEXT
They keep your team on the same goal
Structured data, if implemented, can use the keywords to enhance search engine placement
Every search engine gathers different information – if you want them all: give them what they want

How do you pick the right keywords? First, remember that this, like all marketing, is some trial and error — that’s OK as long as you learn from it.

The first thing I do is think. Who and why do I want folks to land on this page? So, for example, if my desired audience is tourists, I might use the term “Jazz Event Calendar for New York” or “Jazz in Los Angeles .”If trying to capture a local market, I might use “Live Jazz performances near me” or “Jazz concert schedule for New York City.”
Map out the pages on your site and select the strings that match the content — context is essential and strategic.

Recently Google published information about Key Word and search trends:

Top 2021 Trends per Google

(be sure to read #2 about evolving entertainment)

-near me with outdoor seating +150%

-stadium seating +600%

-in a theater near me, +500%

-live music near me +40%

Search Trends

‘Cheap’ searches

Sorting and selecting your keywords is as simple as knowing your clients and what is trending.

Mobile First…and Primary

DWG has been building and spreading the word on mobile first for a long time…remember “.mobi?” Times have changed since then and at some point the emphasis flipped from a mobile site as an accessory to your desktop version to mobile primary. This concept is so important that we thought a refresher may be helpful. The idea is simple – the site needs to respond to the visitor and visitors are on their devices.

A few reasons:

It is now often your first impression. Where do you open your emails and click links? So do your visitors
Google – This isn’t a surprise or a secret especially if you keep up on Google various email channels. If your site does not have mobile friendly interface, you will be downgraded. Google considers mobile primary — they are not wrong.
Why not? At the end of the day, all of your versions should be well-designed and fully functional.

Your visitors use your mobile first, so it should be primary to your design.

What Is Semantic Search and What is the Context in Today’s SEO?

Search engine technology has progressed substantially and will continue to do so. Semantic (context-based) search has become increasingly important for SEO. It is important and can work for you.

SEO is transitioning from multitudes of backlinks and keywords to high quality backlinks and from long tail keyword and search queries to fast websites with semantic search.

The Search Algorithms have added, replaced or modified many of the variables that are used for placement/ranking. Previously, the focus has been on speed, cohesive content and congruity, The focus since early summer 2021 has been on understanding intent and action, as well as the context (semantics) that surrounds them.

Optimization has changed. The days of reverse-engineering content to improve rankings are gone and just discovering keywords is no longer sufficient.

You must provide rich information that provides context surrounding the long-tail keywords and have a strong grasp on the user’s purpose. This combination is essential for SEO, since AI and NLP (natural language processing) are being embedded in to search engines in order to better understand the context and users of search. So, in short, semantic search is a search engine’s attempt to produce the most accurate results possible based on the end users’ intent, query context, and word relationships. In another word, semantic search, tries to process and understand natural language in the same manner as a human would.

Semantic search on the web extends nearly two decades. Whether it was Powerset or SHOE in the 2000’s or the google knowledge graph in 2010 which eventually led to Hummingbird, RankBrain and BERT. All these engines are attempting to create the Semantic Web where intent and query is matched as closely as possible with the provided content.

How do you succeed with semantic search?

Most of you who know me (Nami), know that I have been a strong advocate of structured data. Going back to 2013, DWG first advised our clients that they need to create structured data to inform search engines of their shows, events, products, content, and location.

Well, don’t be surprised then if I tell you the structured data is more important than ever. But structured data by itself, especially if not used properly can prove to be detrimental.

First as always, is your content. The age of keywords alone has long passed, so look through your pages and give your audience, a comprehensive answer and include long-tail (4 – 5 words). Before digging into more technical information, provide content that answers a typical inquiry simply and concisely at the top of the page.

Consider providing “comprehensive guidance” and more complete resources that your readers will find useful instead of dozens of small, disjointed pages, each with its own topic. Think of big themes in your field that you can go into detail about. By focusing on people’s intentions, you can build a comprehensive, creative, and high-quality content strategy.

This strategy will focus on a list of subjects for content generation that focuses on the searches that bring users to your or your competitor’s website. Focus on the real question that is being answered and not the individual keywords.

Now that you have these pages, circle back and recheck the basics:

Long Tail keywords, Nice URLs, Meta tags, H1, and H2 Tags
Authoritative Backlinks
Use Schema.org (structured data) to help the search engines present your information in more ways
Accessibility and WCAG audit – Even though it is intended for accessibility testing, this will help you find many of possible short falls of your SEO and even help your SEO in places.
Site Speed – getting your site speed up is essential – Minify resources, compress images, use caching, and if possible, use a CDN.
Information Design – Create a logical Information structure for your site and make sure there is a logical relationship between your content for a better user experience.

–Nami