For the past 20 years, I have written about search engine marketing.
I was not surprised when the editors asked me to refresh an article I wrote in October 2020.
In this era of constant change, my actionable insights need to be updated.
A code red has been triggered by the advent of Openai's ChatGPT, which led to the creation of Bard, a new experimental service for artificial intelligence.
It took 2 months after its launch to reach 100 million active users. It would be the fastest growing online application in history according to the Swiss bank.
Is there anything I can share with you that will be relevant a year from now?
What data would encourage you to put a motivational poster on your wall that tells everyone to keep calm and carry on?
The last piece of advice isn't bad.
AltaVista was the leading search engine until the second half of 2002 when it was overtaken byGoogle.
Only 12% of queries were impacted by the Panda Update, which ended the "content farm" business model, according to the history of the search engine.
3.0% of English queries were impacted by the Penguin Update.
The first iteration of the Panda Update began in February of 2011. The penguin update started on April 24, 2012 and ended on September 23, 2016
It could take more than four years to know the full impact of the new search engines.
It would be a good idea to keep calm and carry on for the sake of the business.
I can confidently share 10 strategic insights, bits of critical data, pieces of tactical advice, or search trends that will impact search in the future without losing sleep over the fact that 30% of them may not be relevant a year from now.
I will explain why a 70% success rate is the right benchmark after telling you why.
An essential part of any digital marketing strategy is the use of the word "seo".
Even though the search industry is changing, Google is still the leader.
The most visited website in the world in January was Google.com. In the month of January, the search giant received 88.3 billion visits.
Screenshot from Similarweb, February 2023
It is not likely that the farm on Google will go away soon.
If you need to keep other people within your company, or at one of your clients, from rushing off to panic stations, then show them the chart below from Google Trends, which shows worldwide web search interest over the past 90 days.
You can calmly explain that there is a dip in interest on Saturdays and Sundays.
Screenshot from Google Trends, February 2023
If there is no change in the dominance of the search engine, there is no need to train or replace the pros.
What's the reason? They are familiar with the Webmaster Guidelines of the internet search engine.
They were able to navigate through the 22 updates of the search engine.
This is why I am confident that more than 70% of the people who work in the industry will be able to navigate the areas of the map with the phrase: "Here be dragons" in it.
1. Focus On User Intent
Understanding user intent is an important aspect of search.
The intent behind a query is now better comprehended by the search engine company.
The purpose of the content should be to satisfy the intent of the user. Content that is relevant to the user's search query can be created, as well as helpful information or a satisfying experience.
This strategic insight isn't breaking news.
You can benefit from re-reading my article about the future of search.
The "messy middle" is where people decide what to buy according to research by the Market Insights team in the U.K.
This research found a lot of things.
“People look for information about a category’s products and brands, and then weigh all the options. This equates to two different mental modes in the messy middle: exploration, an expansive activity, and evaluation, a reductive activity. Whatever a person is doing, across a huge array of online sources, such as search engines, social media, aggregators, and review websites, can be classified into one of these two mental modes.”
In order to address the user's different intents in the "messy middle" of the purchase journey, at least two pieces of content need to be created.
If your company or client wants to target half a dozen different segments, then you need to create at least 12 pieces of content.
One page for each segment is required in 2019.
2. Create High-Quality Content
If you want to become a prime minister or president one day, you need to create more original, helpful content written by people.
How can you make sure you create high quality content? By following the advice and guidance given to create content for people by the internet giant.
Re-read my article, What is a Content Marketing Matrix and do we need one?
It shows you how to use a planning tool to create enchanting content that will change hearts, minds, and actions. That is how you get to be the VP of search.
3. Prioritize E-E-A-T
An extra E for Experience was added to the concept of E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
The guidelines give us an idea of where the search engines want to go, so they are useful for anyone who works in the industry.
A person with first-hand life experience should produce your content.
If you can't convince someone with experience to produce this content in-house, you need to find someone who has used your product or service, visited a place, or influenced a brand purchase.
Even though the concept of E-A-T was added to the search quality guidelines, many people still don't think this is their job.
Even the internet search engine said that.
“These are not fundamentally new ideas. And we’re by no means abandoning the fundamental principle that Search seeks to surface reliable information, especially on topics where information quality is critically important.”
How To Find Talented Writers To Fuel Top Quality Content Creation is a good place to start for practical advice.
4. Optimize YouTube Content
70% of marketers said that videos have become more important to their business in the last year, while 27% said they are about the same in importance.
Why should we lose sleep over this?
This trend is being jumped on by the content marketing department.
Many of the videos that will be released in the years to come won't be compatible with a search strategy.
Sam Hollingsworth has a guide on how to improve the ranking of videos on the internet.
The content marketing department should be invited to a brown bag lunch to discuss ways to make great content together.
5. Earn High-Quality Links
One of the main ranking factors is links. 70% of the pro's have already read an article.
The majority of chief communications officers and public relations officers haven't read these.
Only a few organizations use one of the most effective techniques to get links to their website.
The biggest obstacle is not journalists. The man once observed, "We have met the enemy and we are them."
If you want to discuss link building instead of having a brown bag lunch, you might want to invite your CCO or PRO to a fancy restaurant.
This is a better use of your time and money than trying to figure out a clever way around the linkspam update, which can now detect both sites buying links and those used to passOutgoing links.
6. Optimize For Local Search
Local search is important to brick and mortar businesses.
It is possible for people to find information about their business if localseo is done right.
A consistent Name, Address, and Phone number, as well as local links, local reviews, and star ratings, are important parts of local search and local pack.
Search Engine Journal has a guide to help you understand what you need to know aboutOptimizing for Local Search.
7. Keep An Eye On Multisearch
A new way to search using text and images was introduced by the search engine.
Users can ask questions about an object or refine their search by color, brand, or visual attribute using multisearch in lens.
Matt G. Southern wrote an article about the new way to search with text and images.
Roger Montti wrote an article about how multisearch affects search engine rankings.
Keep an eye on multi search in the years to come.
8. Keep Your Ear To The Ground For Voice Search
According to Roger Montti, Martin Splitt believes that voice search is not the future and that there will be no need to make it better.
I have written about Amazon's Big Game Commercial: Mind Reader twice in the past year, but I haven't paid much attention to voice search until recently.
Kristopher Jones wrote How Can Voice Search Benefit Yourseo. The man wrote.
- 40.2% of Americans use voice search.
- 71% of people prefer using voice search to physically typing out a search online.
- 27% of the online population worldwide uses voice search on mobile.
- 58% of people have used voice search to find information about local businesses.
Four out of five people with a lot of E-E-A-T think that voice search is a great way to get more traffic to your website.
Keep your ears open for new voice search developments in the years to come.
9. Migrate To Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
I bet you received an email with the subject line: "We'll soon set up GOOGLE ANALYSIS 4 for you."
It said something.
“For any customer who does not set up a GA4 property with basic settings, starting in March, we will configure one with a few basic settings consistent with the existing Universal Analytics property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags.”
The chaos of July 1, 2023, when standard Universal Analytics properties will stop working, has arrived early.
In the midst of chaos, there is opportunity.
The advent of GA4 would cause the marketing department to freak out if the web analytics team doesn't respond, according to my article.
This is a great time for you to make a case for moving the analytics team out of the IT department and into theSEO department.
The majority of website traffic comes from organic search, according to Bright Edge Research.
10. Build A War Room
If you are a chief marketing officer or vice president of marketing, your team may ask to build a dashboard if you move the analytics team into theSEO department. A war room would be better.
What's the reason? Most dashboards tend to stink when it comes to helping the executive make any decisions.
Most dashboards leave the interpretation of the easy-to- understand visuals to the executive.
Most war rooms feature maps of the global market and charts of the company's key performance indicators, as well as an analytic and insights manager with the experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to interpret the trends and add context.
The analysis ninja can explain to executives why certain trends are up or down.
Over time, executives will begin to ask their insights manager to recommend which actions to take.
An Analysis Ninja can give an answer to the question, "What was the impact on the company and its customers?"
Why Should SEO Pros Adopt The 70% Solution?
I will explain why a 70% success rate is the right benchmark after sharing 10 strategicseo insights and some counter-intuitivetactical advice.
Ty Kiisel's article, 70% Solution: The Marine Corps Framework for Making Battlefield Decisions, should be required reading for every webmaster who wants to become the VP of search.
The 70% solution is taught by the Marines.
It could be a good way to make decisions when you don't have all the information you need.
You would have all the data you need to make good decisions. We don't live in a perfect world
You can still make good decisions if you have 70% of the information you want to have.
Like battlefield commanders, mostseo managers don't have all the resources they need.
It can sometimes be enough if you have good people. Finding solutions to challenges is a hallmark of successfulseo professionals
Are you sure that your plan will work?
Do you think your plan's success is due to the information and resources you have?
The Marines think taking the initiative is more likely to succeed than not doing it.
I can confidently share 10 strategic insights, bits of critical data, pieces of tactical advice, or search trends that will impact search in the future without losing sleep over the fact that 30% of them are not relevant a year from now.
The Marines have given us a way to make decisions that are not ideal.
You should keep calm and carry on.
There are more resources.
The image is called Monster Ztudio.
