SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It is a set of multifaceted rules and practices that are key to ranking your website on various search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.). A good SEO strategy would help your business website organically rank higher on the search engine result pages (SERP). The aim of every business is to rank on the first page of the SERP organically.
In 2022, it is pertinent that you take the SEO of your business seriously to improve the quality and the quantity of traffic and customers that you attract.
SEO Builds Trust
Customers these days trust brands that rank high in the search engine. Since SEO is free and not paid, users realize that your SEO position has been earned by your company’s reputation.
High quality original content paired with a slick, easy to navigate UX (User Interface) can create a positive impression with your target user base. Users would spend more time on your website, thereby building trust in your brand and improving their Dwell Time. Dwell Time is the time that users spend on the web page. The higher this number, the better.
To improve trust, your company needs to identify the “user intent” of your target audience. User Intent is mainly classified into 3 categories:
- Information Intent
- Navigational intent
- Transactional intent
Create Awareness via Local SEO
Are you a business that operates at a local level rather than a national level? If so, then Local SEO is pertinent to the success of your business in 2022. Brands that are locally based should create a Google My Business account. Once this account is set up, your brand is ready to be displayed on Google Maps, Google Search Local Results and Google Search Knowledge Panel. Updating your My Business account page with information regarding your address, operational hours and answering queries can improve the awareness of your brand.
Brands can request customers to rate and review their services. Frequent positive reviews can improve the trust potential customers have in the brand and help rank the website higher in the search results. A study has shown that 85% of customers believe online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Thus, positive reviews can go a long way in generating revenue and creating a customer base for your firm.
Improve Performance of PPC
A strong SEO rank can help drive up the performance of your PPC campaigns. PPC ranks your website using paid methods on the top of the search page. These are basically the ads that you see on the search page. Firms that have PPC ads and SEO results on top of the search page, boost the confidence of their target customers and conversion and click through rates improved dramatically.
Mobile friendly websites
A mobile friendly website is key for businesses to succeed in 2022. A study shows that there are some people who spend more than 70% of their time on mobile devices. Companies stand to profit massively if they are optimized for both mobile and desktop versions of the website. Reports state 76% of people shop on mobile devices. As the adoption of mobile increases each year, the sales figures are bound to improve as well.
Local businesses stand to profit by being mobile friendly as well since, most local business searches made on mobile devices are done with an actual intent to purchase and the conversion rates are very high.
Quantifiable Results
Using platforms such as Semrush, Google Analytics, Spyfu, Moz firms can track real time data pertaining to every aspect of SEO. We can track the most popular pages visited by the users, the keywords they used to reach our website, the bounce rate, the time spent on each page etc.
Quantifiable results make it easy for firms to understand the user journey when they purchase a product or service on the website. This information is valuable since it can be optimized to get better sales figures.
Optimize website for Voice Search
Voice search has been growing in popularity in the past few years. A study shows that more than 40% of searches are voice searches in the USA and these numbers are bound to grow each year.
Voice search has been proven to really help local SEO. Customers who perform Voice Search are typically highly motivated and tend to make a purchase when performing a Local SEO search. Voice searches are also more conversational in nature than typing a query. To rank well for voice search, businesses need to ensure that the website content is written in a natural manner as well. This means adapting content for long tail keywords. Further, websites can provide content with Schema Markup to rank better in Voice SEO. Schema Markup gives additional information to the SERP about your website. This would help business websites rank better in Voice Search.
A good practice for Voice SEO would be to build webpages that answer questions such as, “Who,” “What,” “How,” “Where.” A FAQ page would help in noting down these questions and answering them.
Conclusion
SEO was, is and will always remain the main priority of businesses who have a long-term vision and are willing to work towards the same. The techniques and innovation might have changed over the years, but the importance and relevance of good SEO practices has always remained intact.
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