Like it or not, creating an online presence for your business is a must and it has even become the norm, whatever it is they are looking for, people will always fall back to the internet in order to look for a service, product, or information. So, I hate to break it out to you but basically if you don’t take advantage of this situation and digitalize your business you will be left in the past and will be losing on so much potential clients, which we definitely do not want.
If you feel overwhelmed and do not know where to start, stick to the basics; social media and a website. Social media platforms are great when it comes to digital marketing and are fairly easy to use, and a website is essential for any business since it is highly discoverable especially when they have great SEO, which brings us to the topic of this article, if you already have a website for your business or are thinking of creating a new one, make sure that the SEO is top-notch. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which boosts the reach of your website by making it more visible on search engine results like Google which most people use when asking about things.
Now, let’s take a look at the SEO trends that we need to implement:
Voice Search
Have you ever found yourself too lazy to grab your phone to search for something? Then you realize that you, in fact, don’t have to do so and need only to say “Hey Siri”, “Hi Google”, or “Alexa”. Not only you, me too and thousands of people around the world, according to Google, 27% of the global population use voice search on their phones. But how is this going to affect your SEO? It rounds back to the tone and manner of speaking, when we type manually in the search bar, we tend to be very concise and use as little words as possible, but if we speak the question out loud, we usually form full sentences in a more casual manner, just as if we are speaking to a friend. For this reason, you have to keep this in mind when you create content for your website, blog or otherwise, be mindful on whether you are answering questions that people might ask aloud or not.
Geo Targeting
If you haven’t noticed already, mostly all Google searches nowadays include “near me” in the sentence, so for that, you and your website need to be ready to take advantage of those location specific inquiries. If your business has a physical store, then including geo tagging as one of your SEO strategies is a must. Make sure that your location is available on your website and that if you choose to advertise your business through search engines and social media platforms, they have to be geo-targeted as well so that they attract potential clients who live in the same area as you.
However, if your business is fully online that doesn’t mean you should forsake geo-targeting completely. It’s true that you don’t need to include specific zip codes like for businesses with a physical location but making your location known for the public is still considered beneficial for your SEO since it will help with traction related to searches in your area, thus, more clients and traffic for your website.
Quality & Consistency
I’m sure you’ve heard about this a million times, and it is by no means a new trend, but still it is worth the mention and reminder seen how important it is when it comes to SEO. Especially after the pandemic, the world has seen a huge shift towards online shopping and now people automatically search for what they want to buy online before they even consider going to the store. As a business owner you need to take advantage of this huge growth of e-commerce and the massive online spending power by creating consistent and high-quality content, whether on your website or social media, to attract these potential customers.
If we want to speak figures, according to Digital Commerce 360 “Consumers spent $791.70 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020”, this marks it as the highest peaks of e-commerce in the U.S. in over two decades; that’s how much impact COVID 19 had over our habits and how the world has shifted immensely towards digitalization when it comes to services.
And if you are a business that offers a service or product, you need to create an online existence for yourself ASAP, and the easiest form to do that is by starting a blog. In fact, the majority of SEO traffic is generated from Google searches, so you need to write a blog with the potential questions of your clients in mind, that way when they input their query in the search bar your blog link will be among the first results if it answers their questions accurately.
These were some of our favorites SEO trends and we wanted to share them with you because we know how much difference they can make if they are implemented correctly. SEO was and still is the backbone of any online business, not only since it increases visibility and therefore potential clients, but also it helps you with the process of branding your business and building trust and loyalty; and what is better than loyal clients who choose your brand over anything else? Nothing, I’m sure.
If the world of SEO and digital marketing still feels too overwhelming for you and you don’t know where to start, feel free to check our other blogs for more tips and guides!