Posts tagged: SEO

When is the right time to do it?

In-house or outsource?

Freelancer or agency?

What’s the right budget?

Never experienced agency, or had a poor experience? 

QUESTIONS, questions, questions!

Don’t worry, we are here to help.

First, write a brief about your SEO problem statement.

Despite running a digital marketing agency that delivers outstanding SEO results, I won’t say YES. In fact, the right answer is something that you have to figure out for yourself, but I can help you arrive at the results by asking you to answer a couple of questions.

Do you have a website for your business?

If you don’t have a website but are planning to get one made, it is a good idea to engage with an SEO agency to help out with the information architecture, layout, URL names, navigation, etc that are relevant from an SEO point of view. Also, if the content of the static pages of your website are written with keyword research in mind, you can prevent this work from becoming a double activity where you first get a website done and then hire an SEO agency

If you do have a website, but your traffic is stagnant, you need to check what is the possibility of traffic through organic search in your industry. This is possible to calculate through many free tools, it will give you an idea of where you could be if you invest in SEO. This also applies if you’ve built a new website. Many people invest a lot of money into making a beautiful website and they don’t realize that website is heavy and is harmful to get picked up by Google.

Have you tried any kind of marketing before?

SEO should ideally be a part of your overall marketing strategy because the way a typical consumer buying journey works is that multiple touchpoints are needed before the actual purchase happens. What we are trying to do with SEO is create another touchpoint that is not pushy but rather something that people find for themselves. It feeds into the natural curiosity of a person willing to make a purchase either right away or sometime in the future.

If you haven’t invested in other forms of marketing, it is probably a better idea to look at what all channels are available and work within your industry and then make a plan to test them out with limited budgets to see which ones can be good for you. Similarly, you should allocate budgets to different kinds of channels because they each work in their own unique ways.

Also, any quality agency would want to know the performance of your other channels to align the communication strategy and to make sure that they complement each other rather than come across as jarring pieces of individual companies.

According to your cash flow, can you allocate some funds for long term activities?

SEO is a long-term strategy. Anyone who tells you they’ll give (or worse guarantee) quick results is lying. There’s no shortcut to SEO, and if there is they are most probably following some shady techniques which can harm your website in the long run. So, if you are someone looking to build a brand for the long term, stay away from quick rankings and understand that if somebody is claiming that, it’s a scam.

SEO can and will show results over a period of 6-12 months. It is of course possible that sometimes for some websites some quick fixes can show quick wins. But as a rule, SEO is a long game. So, if you cannot set aside some funds to continue to do this over a period of time, better to not engage with an agency and try to do some best practices optimizations at your end or in-house. Or if you’re extremely clear of the work but want someone to simply execute it, you can hire a freelancer on a project basis.

Also, for SEO (in fact for any kind of marketing) how it works is that the more you get data, the better your insights are, and with those insights, you can get really amazing at the game. But this doesn’t happen if your investment and execution in SEO are not continuous. So, hire an SEO agency only if you’re up for the commitment.

Do you have the background (or someone in your team) to manage an SEO person in-house?

Like any other business activity, you need momentum to do a good job. That means constantly working on the problem, coming up with ideas, plans and executing them. Along with this poring over data and finding patterns and opportunities. So, if you have the ability to manage an SEO person in-house, which means you can sit with them to set goals, monitor progress, provide feedback and remove roadblocks, do it.

Do I have access to a developer?

A lot of SEO work (technical SEO) requires the help of developers. Technical SEO is all the stuff that happens behind the scenes but is equally important for ranking your website. Not every business owner is comfortable with technology, that’s why you need a developer on your team. Now if you’re going to partner with a big SEO agency, they’ll most probably help you out with the technology implementations, at a cost. But if you’re looking for something more affordable, they’ll be able to help you only with what needs to be done, so it’s great to have a developer with you (either in-house or a freelancer) who can do these executions for you. Now, these executions might not be constant, but they will be required to be done a few hours every month.

Most websites are built on popular CMS these days like WordPress, Shopify, Wix. Some SEO Agencies (including ours) have experience in working with them and will be able to make most of the changes without the help of a developer. However, any customizations or changes in the code structures of the themes used will require the help of a developer.

Are you also ready to invest in content development?

Content is an important part of SEO. Google wants to satisfy people using the service to look for answers, and good content ensures that. So, for that reason Google wants people to get updated, accurate and satisfactory answers to what they’re looking for, but this cannot happen if a company doesn’t create/update quality content regularly. A lot of websites do this in the form of blogs, portfolios, and resources that they create for their customers. However, this too can be an additional cost, depending on your industry and the amount of research it takes to create content. Now, keep in mind that content doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of articles, it can be in the form of pictures, infographics, videos, tools, guides. Any SEO agency that is invested in your business growth will recommend that you invest in quality content. Content that satisfies the user who has found you through google and is your target customer.

Can you do SEO inhouse?

Of Course, you can just make sure you have someone dedicated to the job because this can be full-time work or at least needs part-time help. Other than this, depending on the previous experience of the person working on this, you might need to support them with various courses, training materials available (there are tons). You should also have a plan for how you’re going to manage them and enable them to be successful at the job. This would ideally happen if you’re sitting with them to assess and review their ideas, tasks, and plan regularly.

In House is a good option if you have the skills needed and the time to focus on this. If not, you’ll either not do a very good job at it, or waste time that could be spent on other more valuable tasks.

Is a freelancer better for your needs?

Depending on the stage of your business, a freelancer might actually be a good option for you. Their prices will be low, however, they also might not have very clean business processes, which can make it difficult to work with them. They can be helpful when you’re starting out, especially if they are coming through a recommendation because good freelancers will give you the attention and deliver quality. The problem lies in finding the good ones 🙂

Keep in mind that a freelancer would be cheaper than an agency and if you have the capability to manage an SEO person in-house you would probably have a lot more visibility in the process and if you go for an agency, you will work with people with SEO expertise and set business processes. Now it is upto you to decide how you value each of these factors.

What are my SEO requirements?

I am going to assume that with the list of questions I gave you, you have a better understanding of whether you’re going to hire someone for your SEO needs or not.

Now, going forward we will assume that you have decided to hire someone.

The first thing that you need to clarify is your SEO requirements. 
What is it that you need from SEO, it could be any of these things..

1. SEO for traffic: 

This is especially important if your website earns from ads, along with your other marketing channels, what you are looking for is for SEO to generate an increase in traffic, the kind that is relevant to your advertisers.

2. SEO for E-Commerce Sales: 

If your industry has any kind of searches online where people are using the words “buy” AND “online” or any variation of this, you have to work on SEO because you cannot miss out on these people who are highly likely to buy and are actively searching for what you are selling.

3. SEO for Branding: 

You are also going to use SEO for increasing the authority and trust in your brand. For this, you have very helpful resources that impress your buyer miles before they make any purchase from you

4. SEO for Lead Acquisition: 

Especially for all the service based businesses, where the sales cannot be made completely online, there is a high chance of bringing people to you using SEO strategies.

5. SEO for Reputation Management: 

You are trying to rank well for the search brand name + “reviews” or want to increase positive mentions of your company when people are looking for your brand. This can also be used to highlight positive experiences from the company and influence customers to make a purchase

Your goal can be either of these or a combination of these. 

The next thing you need to finalize is your budget.

You should ideally have a range of budget you’re comfortable with given the right partnership. However, not sure if you should stretch your budget because SEO is a long-term investment, you might panic if you don’t get results quickly (which is the norm), also a very low budget might not be enough to engage with quality SEO experts. 

The pricing and packages within the Indian SEO industry vary wildly, while you can get freelancers on Upwork, freelancers, Facebook groups for anything starting from INR 5,000. 

For agencies, a monthly retainer ship from INR 10,000 to INR 50,000 can be the price depending on the size of your business, website, and industry. Whatever is the budget that you decide for yourself, make sure you do a bit of research so that you can allocate the fund accordingly.

How to assess an SEO Agency?

If you’ve read so far, you’ve defined your SEO goals, you’ve set a budget and you’ve decided to hire an SEO agency. 

Congratulations, you are now going to enter a very confusing time 😀

You should probably ask around first if anyone you know has any recommendations, if somebody has already worked with an agency and are happy with them, why not give them a try, right? 

If this doesn’t work out, you’re gonna post on your LinkedIn or Facebook and if you do, you’re going to drown in the emails, phone calls, messages that you get for your request for the next many days

There’s no dearth of SEO professionals so getting proposals shouldn’t be a problem. 

What is actually difficult is to decide whom to go for and how to assess all these people reaching out to you. 

And let’s be honest, after a while they all start sounding similar!

As you’ve decided to do this activity, and not do more fun things instead, I want to help you.

I will give you some of the points that you can think about while making your decision. It would be better if you’re reading this before you put up your requirement on social media. 

Because if you’ve already put up your requirement, you won’t have any time to read, as you’ll be drowning in notifications!

Let’s start with the factors you’ll need to consider:

Location: 

A lot of people try to find agencies that are in the same city as them. IMO it doesn’t matter if you’re not hoping to do face-to-face meetings. Especially right now, in COVID19 times and the era of remote work, you shouldn’t limit yourself to working with agencies based in a particular city. Any professional SEO agency would have by now set proper processes to deal with clients throughout the world using many technological tools we have available today.

Features: 

Not all of these factors matter or they matter to different people in varying degrees. The size of the team, the age of the agency, their specialization if any. If you have preferences in any of these, you can either put that condition in your requirements or check out their website if they have put up those details. What I can suggest is that keep an open mind, because there might be agencies that don’t fit into your mold but are more than fit to deliver on your goals.

Team: 

You should try to get a sense of the people you’re going to be working with. Like I have said many times by now that SEO is a long term game, what that means is that the people you choose to work with will also be your long term partners, so you want to be able to trust them, talk to them and understand them. A lot of people don’t think this is important, I do. Besides their experiences, it is also important that they are good at communicating, because being an outside partner, you’ll need them to talk to you, update you and really listen to what you want.

Methodology: 

Agencies have different processes and a lot of them give a sneak peek before you decide to hire them. Some of them provide audits, tell you their reporting frequency and offer free or paid consultations (we do too). Stay away from people claiming “too good to be true” results, as they most often are not true. Or it is possible to get those results with shady practices which will hurt your Google presence in the long term, so stay away from them!

Proof: 

Now you’ll need some proof that you’re working with talented people, they’ll either present you with case studies or give references of previous clients. They might also have done some original research or published some material which can be impressive, look at all the proof you can but keep in mind that SEO will work when it’s customized and there’s no formula here, you need people who are updated about the field, have delivered quality work and are going to work with you closely to make you a success on Google

Prices: 

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most important factors. Before you simply check the pricing and make decisions, it is important to understand how people price these services.

3 kinds of pricing models are most popular in this industry. 

• Monthly Retainership: This is the most popular and cost-effective option, a set monthly fee for resources to be allocated to your SEO needs. Here you get the help of a team who works monthly on the strategy, execution, and analysis of your SEO. You most probably have calls and updates from the weekly/bi-monthly to assess the progress and provide inputs
• Project-based: Here you decide on the tasks you need to get done and get quotes for that project. Works well if you’re very clear on the tasks, deliverables. Can be expensive depending on the experience level of the person who is working on the project.
• Hourly rates: This model is ideal when you exactly know what you need, it can also be quite expensive, but if you’re looking for a consulting type engagement, this can work out well

You might also come across some agencies that price their SEO services on a number of keyword models. We don’t do this at Aarrrmor Digital because the focus of keywords can keep on changing depending on new data that we uncover. 

Lastly, you’ll also find incredibly low prices from freelancers and even agencies, I would suggest that you be extremely careful of these kinds of offers. Having worked with service providers before, you’ll know that cheap and quality don’t often go well together. And this is of course not a simple service you’re looking for.

SEO is a highly technical and creative field, which definitely requires a lot of research, analysis, and ideation. I am frankly not sure anyone who can do it, would be able to do it for extremely cheap to be able to justify what they put into the job.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.

What I have talked about so far:

• Whether you should invest in SEO for your brand
• Should I hire an SEO agency
• What are my SEO requirements?
• How to assess an SEO Agency?

It is time for me to talk a little bit about me and my SEO agency.

Why choose Aarrrmor Digital?

First of all, as you must have understood by now, we believe in giving the right advice.

If something is in your interest, we will tell you. 

Because we are in this for the long haul and I believe in creating good relationships. 

And the way to make good relationships is to build trust, which we do by helping you steer you in the right direction

Over 2 years ago, when I started Aarrrmor Digital alone, I leaned on my corporate experience and my experience as the only digital marketer in an early-stage startup. Now, we have a team that brings a diversity of experiences and is known to grow small and mid-sized businesses. 

Being a growing agency has its advantages, unlike the big wigs we are able to give personal attention to our clients and our speed of execution is crazy!

For giving me the confidence to boast the way I am about Aarrrmor, is all because of my team. I don’t know what I did right to deserve working with them. When clients speak highly of my company, it’s my team they’re talking about, and I can never forget that…

Let me give you a sneak peek into our working style

First, we get a sense of your requirements. Not everybody is very clear about what they want from their SEO agency, especially the ones who’ve never worked on this before. 

And that’s okay

Working with small businesses has taught us that we often need to guide business owners into clarifying their requirements, and we are happy to do that with you.

Next, we give you a tiny glimpse into what your SEO strategy could be before you make a decision. 

If you like us enough till this point, we will make a deal 🙂

And that’s when the magic starts,

Once onboard, we do a Brand Clarification call where we try to understand your industry, business, customers from you, someone who knows this the best. After this, there is an industry and competition analysis, detailed audit benchmarking where you currently stand, collating and analyzing previous data, and identifying patterns and/or opportunities. 

Based on this step, your SEO strategy is customized to your business depending on where you are right now and where you need to be. Not only this, we work closely with you and your team to make sure SEO complements your other marketing efforts.

So, if you’re looking to engage with us for your SEO requirement, you’re in luck!

We have decided to offer 1 free SEO consultation call to 5 businesses every month for a limited time.

Want to get that consultation for your business?
Email Me or my team member Suparna at milimishra@aarrrmor.com or suparnamenon@aarrrmor.com and we’ll make it happen.

If you are considering investing in SEO for your business, it’s good to start with asking yourself a few questions. 

Start with a plan and in this case your plan is going to go something like this

Do some research around SEO

Ofcourse, you start here. You want to check if some of the things I told you in my previous post above are true. If you’re not already familiar with it, you want to get familiar with the concept so that you can work with a professional confidently. You also remember that someone you know was working in the SEO industry or had gotten SEO work done for their business, you call them and ask them about their point of view. Based on this, you make some conclusions.

It’s not a one size fits all solution. Figure out how you want to use it for your business

Now that you’re clear about the benefits of SEO, start thinking about how you can use it for your business goals. Now, you might want your products to come up when people are searching for something specific, you might want to get found for your reputation, to help build a brand for hiring a team, showcase experiences, reviews etc.  You might have a blog for your website and are already investing in creating content, in that case you might want to distribute your content to the target audience in the hopes of increasing your email list.

Do it yourself/Hire someone to help you with it

You’ve made your goals now, it is time to deceive who’s going to own this. You are well aware that unless there’s someone in charge of planning, executing and analyzing, things don’t work out well. So, there are two ways to go about this, either you do it yourself or hire someone to do it. 

You can do it yourself if

• You are from a marketing background yourself and this is simply an extension to your role as CMO, 
• You don’t have funds to hire who’s going to do quality work or you want to learn the basics yourself before going full on mode. Obviously this is not recommended for all business owners, as business owners should be focussed on all aspects of the business, and getting deep within SEO will not be possible with your full time duties. However, I do encourage you to get the grasp of the basics of SEO and what it can do for you.

If you’re not really interested in getting into the nitty-gritty of SEO and want to keep your focus on the big picture, decide on hiring someone for it. It can be someone in the house, a freelancer, or an agency. How to decide which is what I am going to come to a little later in the article.

Make a plan for this exercise

You are clear on who owns the exercise. Now it’s time to make a plan, do a study of where you stand, what’s the opportunity, what resources are available, and how you plan to reach your goals based on the resources.

This is a research and time-intensive exercise but I suggest that you or whomever you hire to get this done, do this diligently. Without a proper plan, you will simply be going in any which direction and won’t be able to measure the results of your investment, most probably not even get to any specific goal.

Get started with the execution

Armed with the SEO plan, you allot the tasks and you get started. There are as many streams you will be going deep into depending on your type of business and your goals

• E-commerce SEO
• Local SEO
• International SEO
• Multilingual SEO
• Insert more types of SEO

READY TO TALK ABOUT WHAT SEO CAN DO FOR YOU? Request for a free customized SEO strategy today. 

You did not see this coming! 

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated crisis have brought a lot of businesses to a grinding halt. 

You didn’t expect this to happen. How could you?

This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. No business in the last 100 years was built keeping a pandemic in mind.

So, first of all, stop blaming yourself for not having anticipated this. 

Secondly, the businesses that are either surviving or thriving right now, aren’t doing so because they had better vision. They just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

STOP thinking that you should have done something else. 

The list of businesses (or rather industries) that are out of work right now is endless and if you are in it, you have company; a lot of it. 

Stop thinking about what it is that you could have done to prevent this from happening and start thinking about what it is that you can do today. 

And this is exactly the kind of spirit that made you want to become a business owner, right?

Take a moment to relax and think of your personal life. While business is personal to the owner, there are things that everyone holds more dearly like family, health, and affording a comfortable life with all the basic necessities, a savings fund for a rainy day like this.

So, take a deep breath and clear your mind of some negative thoughts.

Now, let’s talk about what you can do today.

Through this article, I can only speak to 2 types of people:

Business owners who are selling something through their website.
Business owners who rely on getting leads through their website.

If you’re among the majority of business owners, your business is either completely or significantly down. While you’re restlessly waiting for your business to get back to normal and then slowly make up for the lost sales, you’re also wondering, how can I utilize this time to empower my business for the future? 

If you’re honest, you know that running the day-to-day operations, you have ignored quite a few aspects of your business; whether it is cleaning up your accounts, investing in website improvements, or finally creating that dreaded social media presence everyone’s always talking about. You’re also going to try to look for alternative sources of revenue to make the future of your business corona-proof, take more parts of your business online (if it’s not already so), and prepare to go in top performance mode when you’re allowed to, etc.

This time is precious. Use it to do things you have put on the back burner. 

• Get a website built
• Revamp your branding
• Set up social media
• Competitor research
• Optimization of website

So, let’s dig into some of the reasons why you’ve not been selling as much as you could.

Your market doesn’t know about you, and they can’t discover you. You are not a major household name and because of that, they can’t find you or shop with you. This is a huge hurdle, even if your products are better and different from your competitors.

Whenever someone wants to buy what you’re selling, they’re going to the competition. Either because the competition is a well-known name or they are better at marketing themselves. This could be the case if they have deep pockets or have strong connections which help with the word of mouth.

Now that you know why it’s time to introspect where you stand with respect to competition and create a proper plan.

If you’ve bought anything recently, you must know how it goes. You realize you need something and then you Google. It. You talk to your friends and family for recommendations on whom to go for, and then you Google some more. You start getting ads for the product you’ve searched for, and if you’re remotely impressed with either of the brands, you Google it again.

You google to find solutions to your problems, you google to define your problems, you google questions, you google symptoms, you google to find help around you, you google to understand about stuff, you google google google, ….

You get my point. 

While people are googling all around the world, every second of every day about everything under the sun, Google has made a rich collection of searches related to almost every industry. 

You know it’s true. Getting on the 1st page of Google will really help with visibility and that way you won’t have to pay for ads every time you want sales. You’ve probably heard the case for ranking on Google (SEO) before but let me tell you why it matters so much more right now.

You’ve paused your Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, right? Because what’s the point? There are either issues with delivery or your supply chain is affected. So, in order to not spoil the customer experience, you have paused your sales temporarily. Or even if not, it’s slowed down. 

But being the busy bee you are, you cannot sit idle while things around you are falling apart. So, you get to work.

This is a GREAT time to work on your visibility on Google

• It is not going to help you convert right away but will help with 6-12 months down the line with ROIs as high as 400%
• It’s a time-intensive investment, and time is what you have right now. USE IT
• Most of the websites don’t invest in SEO, so it is another thing you can get ahead of your competitors
• Your website is never going to work alone, how much you’ve invested in getting it made. In fact, some of the swanky websites might be doing you more harm than good.  it’s a good idea to get that checked, right?
• Since you’re not a big brand and are not going to become one overnight, another way to gain trust is to come up in Google searches. People trust Google.

I am going to assume that you are like me when it comes to business, and don’t want to waste a single opportunity to succeed. So, why will you lose out on such an important one?

READY TO TALK ABOUT WHAT SEO CAN DO FOR YOU? Request for a free customized SEO strategy today.

Search engine optimization is one of the most effective ways to attract potential customers to your website. But it’s not as simple as just putting a list of keywords on your page and then forgetting about it. Make sure you’re using it in an effective way!

According to the stats, there are around 3.5B Google searches every day. Nearly 0.78% of users click on the search results from the second page on Google and 31.7% of users click on the first result on the Google search. So, it’s always the first result of the Google search that gets more clicks.

Therefore from the stats, we know that: 
To rank higher on the first page of Google, SEO is the main key. But SEO is constantly evolving and it can be difficult to keep up. In this post, we’re going to cover some important trends that will help you stay on top of your game.

SEO trends to leverage in 2021:

As we said above, to rank higher or basically keep up your rankings, you need to continue to alter your SEO strategies as per Google as its algorithm advances. Here is a breakdown of the main SEO and Google trends to advise which strategies you focus on for 2021.

1. Core Web Vitals:

Google announced three new metrics for measuring user experience:  Loading, Interactivity, and Visual Stability. These three metrics are all basically related to page speed: how quickly it loads, how interactive it is and how stable the images are. Along with these, mobile-friendly, safe browsing and HTTPS also play an important role.

 Core Web Vitals will be among Google’s main ranking factors in 2021, which means you should give more importance to show up on the first page. So, for example, if there are two pages with the same content, then search engine bots will prioritize user experience metrics to determine which one should be ranked higher.

2.Google’s BERT:

Google’s BERT algorithm (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) uses machine learning and natural language processing to understand people’s searches on what they are looking for in a better way.

With Google’s BERT update, the Google bots have been considerably more “conversational”. Google algorithm can now find out the searchers intent matches and it works like a human brain. Articles with the best intent for user queries will be the ones that rank over time. Even if your content is detailed and high-quality, if you’re not paying attention to user intent then BERT will ignore yours and prefer another content piece instead.

The key to higher rankings is publishing content that satisfies user intent.

3.Keyword Research:

Given the updates in the SERP and so much competition out there, keyword research is a crucial part of your marketing strategy. It’s important to take some time to find keywords that can actually drive traffic and sales for you.

How do we do
Find long-tail and targeted keywords with the skills and creativity you need. When it comes to keywords, you need to think outside the box and get creative. The best keywords are the ones that your competition doesn’t know about.
For example, a long-tail keyword such as “digital marketing agency in Bangalore” is more target-based and niche to the business than a short keyword “digital marketing” which is too broad.

Without analyzing the search engine results page (SERP), you aren’t going to get a good understanding of the intent of the keyword research. When you’re in search of the best SEO tools, it’s important to look at the SERPs for that keyword before making a decision. Even a low-volume keyword with only 20-50 searches per month can generate traffic to your website.

4.Original Content:

Authentic content is important for more than just your brand’s reputation. It can also be integral to your business’s SEO and ranking. The best way to achieve this is by writing authentic content that has not already been published elsewhere.

There are a lot of similar topics with similar content written which are crawled and indexed by Google. If you make a piece of content that’s very similar to existing content, Google can easily weed it out and push it down below the original content. Content needs to be unique to have a chance at ranking in Google’s search engine.
The topics or materials everyone can work with to produce authentic content included case studies, testimonials, company milestones, and more.

5.Video Marketing:

Youtube is the second most used search engine after Google by users.
To optimize video content for search engines start with optimizing your youtube channel name and description. The description should not be overcrowded with keywords but provide a user-friendly description.

If you’re struggling to come up with a topic for your next video, just type in a keyword and search for related topics. The suggestions that pop up are the most appropriate keywords to help find the right audience.

6.Featured Snippets:

Featured Snippets appear at the top of SERP in a rectangular box. Google’s algorithm bots are the ones that decide which content will be featured in the Featured Snippet for any given search.

The exact way you would get your web page in the Featured Snippet isn’t clear. Marketers and SEO experts have a few theories as to why the Featured Snippet appears on search results pages.

Check out these links to know about Featured Snippets & Its importance:
https://bit.ly/2QKyISU
https://bit.ly/3efL7ac
https://bit.ly/2SpkUO1

7.Voice Search: 

According to current stats, 41% of adults use voice search at least once a day. Reports show that more than half of smartphone users engage with voice technology on their devices.

In some cases, a single word is not enough to identify what a person needs. Voice search is an amazing tool because it allows people to be very specific in what they need. New research shows that voice search queries are usually very specific, which means that people have a problem they need to be solved. Since voice search optimization is growing it is expected to continue trending in 2021 too. This can be a necessity from an SEO point of view.

SEO becomes more important to businesses during the COVID19 pandemic!

As businesses work to remain relevant for their target audiences throughout this pandemic, maintaining a strong digital presence through SEO and content marketing will be very important. Customers are increasingly shifting their buying activity towards digital platforms, and brands need to be present for these audiences. As you build your SEO strategy, remember that the rapidly changing social situation can result in the sudden rise and fall of many trends. 

SEO matters during COVID19: 

• COVID19 is trending and will have a long-term impact on customer behavior.
• Evergreen content written within your niche remains relevant and accumulates traffic over time.
• SEO helps in increasing qualified traffic to your website and gets you highly qualified leads to your business.
• SEO gains the trust of search engines but achieves slowly over time through consistent output.
• Local search is crucial during the pandemic, hence businesses can focus on local SEO tactics.

Summary:

Leverage these above trends to drive traffic in 2021. Keep these above trends noted and continue driving relevant traffic to your website this year and for years to come.

1. Core Web Vitals
2. Google’s BERT
3. Keyword Research
4. Original Content
5. Video Marketing
6. Featured Snippet
7. Voice Search

Measuring the right KPIs is the success of your Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) tactics. You should be aware of the right KPIs to track in your SEO journey. KPIs will help you to identify which tactics work and which don’t. Below are some important metrics that you shouldn’t miss out.

Organic Traffic

This KPI will tell you how many visitors have come to your website through the organic search traffic. It is one of the most important metrics as it helps you in measuring the traffic growth to your website as a result of your SEO strategy. If you work with Google Analytics, you can easily track this metric.

 Bounce Rate

Bounce rate shows you how compelling your website is to users. In general, a bounce rate is the percentage of visitors landing on your website and immediately clicking the back button and leaving your website. If your bounce rate is high, it indicates that your website needs fixes. This important SEO KPI gives you valuable data on the journey of your visitors and gives you an insight into what exactly is pushing potential clients away from your webpage. 

Average time spent on a page

This is the total time a user spends on your particular webpage. The longer a user spends on a page, the more engaged they are with your contents. The more the user interacting with your page, there is a better chance for a conversion.

Organic CTR

CTR (Click-Through Rate) is a simple metric that shows the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. The better your organic CTR, then more people are clicking on your listing on the search engine result page. Google Search Console (GSC) also allows you to see overall impressions and clicks your website gets and the related search terms. You can even filter the result based on the web search and image search. 

 Keyword Ranking

Keyword rankings refer to your webpage position for a specific search query in major search engines like Google or Bing.  It is a major metric useful to show the progression of your website ranking in SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

Page Speed 

Page speed is an important factor as it delivers a better on-page experience to the user. It has a major impact on your search rankings as well as conversions. If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, most of the user will click away. So keeping an eye on your website page speed is the one thing you shouldn’t miss out on. 

If your business needs help with any of the Digital Marketing services such as SEO, Social media Management, Content creation, strategy and more, we are here to help you. Reach out at suparnamenon@aarrrmor.com

Have you been striving to convince your client on your SEO services? Many clients are not sure exactly how the SEO works for their business. Simplifying the SEO process for your client is often important from a point of client management. When a client understands SEO, they can value your work. It requires time, effort and patience to simplify the process to the client.

Say ‘NO’ to technical terms

Explaining SEO to non SEO people should be done in a simplified and informative way. Of course, they are not going to understand the technical term that marketers are using. For example, the term SERP, CTR, Page Ranking, meta tags may seem weird for your client. Just make sure the below things when you explain it to your client

• Understand the level of knowledge your client has and explain SEO in a language they will understand. Give examples while explaining, share a live screen for example from Google for certain terms like SERP.
• Avoid using short forms and technical words
• Relate the examples with their industry
• Explain why it is necessary for his/her business
• Showcase their competitor site and point out what they are missing out

Breakdown the process and set the expectation clearly

Everyone needs a quick result and often your clients believe as soon as you start your work, they will rank on the first page. While everyone wants that to happen in reality but it’s not the truth. Yes, the truth is SEO results take time. Simplify the process and set page ranking goals for specific keywords, to achieve the result. Don’t forget to share the goals with them. Breakdown the process starting from finding where your client is at to what you can do for them. Accordingly, you can explain to your client in a step by step manner. Tell them why it is important to have meta titles, descriptions, alt text etc in their website and what happens if it’s not there. Tell them the need for providing the keywords within their content. Make clear communication and give them enough information so that they understand the task at hand.

Prepare the report of your work and Update the client weekly 

However, SEO takes time and your client doesn’t want to wait for that super surprising result at the end. Documenting your work and sharing the reports with your clients makes them not feel down or not feel confusing about your work. It also gives transparency and honesty to your work. Try to present it in a neat and clear way that your clients understand and show them each time you are trying to improve their online presence. The more often you communicate, the more your clients have trust in you and it helps to maintain a long term relationship between both. 

How often do you think of optimizing your content for image search? While it’s common to hear people talk about optimization to rank on SERP, it’s also important for photo centric brands to focus on image optimization, Image SEO.

What if a single image in your blog post can bring a lot more visitors to your website? Sounds good right! But why is it necessary to show the images in your blog/website in Google Search? What is the advantage that you will get out of that?

Basically, if a user searches for a certain search term or as we call it, Keyword, the right optimization of your website images can lead up to the relevant image matching the search term showing up on Google’s top search results. Often, the enquirer will switch to clicking on ‘Images’ for a refined result. Users tend to click lesser on images and use image search option for mainly browsing. This is an opportunity for an image heavy site or an image related business to capitalize on other platforms that allow image uploads. Like Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram.

Our client is from a Photography industry and is based out in Delhi. This picture above shows you a comparison of web search and image search over the last 3 months for their website and as you can clearly see the monumental difference in impressions between both.

Don’t get stuck up with thoughts like only web search will end up in clicks and that only clicks matters, impressions don’t. These are grandma’s tales.

We have shared with you tips on Image Optimisation that you can apply to your website straight away.

First and foremost, use the relevant, good traffic keywords that you have shortlisted or chosen for your brand in every of the below optimization steps.

Image File Names: Use a descriptive file name which represents your images. Avoid the image file name with random numbers and letters. The file names can give Google clues about the subject matter of images.

Alt Text: Give an Alt text that describes your image clearly. And if you own a product website, it is a good idea to add the product or model number in the alt text. Google knows what product you’re looking for based on a search for the product number alone.

–   Use a short text

–   Use the Main keyword but never do keyword stuffing

–   Don’t Use ‘image of’ or ‘picture of’ in your alt text

Description: Give a brief description for your image which serves the relevance of your content. If your images are descriptive enough with proper keyword, it will lead to a click

Title: Give accurate title for the image with your main keyword.

Image Caption: A caption is a small text that is used to define the image attached and is often placed at the bottom of the picture. Don’t miss out to give a caption.

Image Type: JPEG images are more SEO friendly than PNG images

Image Size and Optimization: Image optimization is the way toward making and conveying top-notch pictures in the perfect size and resolution to improve the user experience. It additionally includes Boosting of SEO Rankings. Resize the images and optimize with Maximum width you need. The size depends on your site dimensions. There are some online tools like Imageoptim, Short pixel, TinyPNG which are best for image compression.

Create Image Sitemap: Is there any way search engine discover your images easily? Yes, creating your image sitemap and submitting it to search engines which increase the likelihood of images appearing in search results.

Utilize Schema Markup: Did you know that schema markup is also relevant for Image SEO? Google says ‘If you have images on your site, you can help users with recognizing the sort of content related to the picture by utilizing properly structured data on your pages. This helps users with finding significant content quickly, and sends better-focused traffic to your site.’

Here is the link of what google says about Schema Markup: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/08/badges-on-image-search-help-users-find.html