SEO Tactics to leave behind in 2021 😬
At the time of writing this, the New Year (2022) is approaching quickly. There’s no doubt that most people will have some New Year’s resolutions for 2022 that include doing new things. However, we’re here to tell you about a few things regarding your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy that you should stop doing come the New Year!
1. Stop Creating Content because it’s “The Best SEO Practice”
This a common misunderstanding of how SEO actually helps your business and unfortunately, people (maybe even yourself included) still do this without full understanding WHY they’re doing it. Creating an abundance of search optimized content does nothing but boost your page’s rank for a specific search query. This common misunderstanding of SEO has led to overloading search queries with poorly written, insufficient and often incorrect information that lures people into clicking a search result.
This doesn’t mean stop publishing blog articles consistently, it just means you should actually think on the purpose of the blog articles you’re posting. Create content that has a purpose, which answers a question a potential customer of yours might have or follows news in an industry that they’re both interested in and directly relates to your business. If you’re going to create content, make sure it’s both relevant and, most of all, correct! This can help establish your business as a hub for knowledge on that specific subject and increase the likelihood that people will look to you for information on subjects relating to that.
PS. Carry out maybe a couple of studies a year into specific areas of your industry. Not only will this present even better information for your audience, but it’ll also show the professionalism and the effort that your business puts into understanding their industry!
2. Stop Stressing over Keywords in your domain name
Ever struggled to get that perfect domain name that’s both concise, contains keywords for your SEO strategy and actually goes with your business’ name? It’s almost impossible. I’m sure we’ve all been there but the reality is, this doesn’t actually matter anymore…
So why doesn’t this work as a form of SEO anymore?
Well, “.com” domains, for a start, no longer have any SEO value due to Google dropping all domain-only signals they ever used. This means that Domain age and Top-level domain (TLD) don’t matter anymore. What is more valued in SEO is the page’s authority and brand trustworthiness.
Keywords in domains have lost power over the years. A few years ago, a domain name with only keywords in it could have seen the site ranking for those keywords within weeks. It wouldn’t matter how “spammy” the domain looked, as long as the right keywords were there. This is no longer the case.
Meaningful domains still matter because of the association they can have with your brand. If the domain includes your brand’s name, then it is likely to be valued as more trustworthy and gather better results than one full of keywords. Investing ludicrous sums of money into “.com” domains, however, really doesn’t make any sense these days.
3. Stop Faking Signals
Okay this one may get a little deep so stay with stay with me here!
This covers a broader number of topics from creating copy with a certain percentage of keywords (keyword density), building links with keyword-driven anchor text to only building links from domains with a certain amount of authority (DA). There’s more but these are a few of the main ones and I don’t plan on taking up your day on an SEO lesson 😬
We usually stress over all these numbers due to our association with the machine that is Google. Machines understand numbers better than anything else since they’re designed that way, so it probably feels pretty natural to stress over them in this case. However, Google is far more advanced than that and now uses more than just mere numbers and matching keywords. It uses thousands of different signals to understand complicated concepts and bring you results that will turn useful. It’s pretty much impossible to reverse engineer these signals so there’s no point trying to fake them anymore.
If you truly want to do some good on your SEO strategy, create content designed for your target user, not a machine. Accept any links coming to your site and build relationships with bloggers and, media publications that choose to link to you, no matter their size. Optimize for your customer’s journeys, not for mere clicks. As expert marketers should, involve your Sales team into your SEO Strategy to drive more sales and you’ll start to see more results.
All this being said, SEO is still about optimizing your site for a machine. Keyword research and competitive intelligence are still valid and important SEO tactics. It can deliver fast results, but the key is to not make that your priority. Quick wins are great for short term motivation but never forget the big picture!
If you run a business with a similar mindset on the “big picture”, hello! Glad to meet someone just like us! You’ll probably have considered working marketing and sales automation into your business but maybe haven’t had someone to speak to about options just yet. Not to worry, you can book a free discovery call with us below on some of our Growth platforms.
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About Autus
Autus provide Revenue Growth Platforms, Marketing & Sales Automation and Digital Marketing services to help sales and marketing personnel and teams build efficient and effective sales and marketing best practices and automate their marketing and sales processes by leveraging personalised content, various digital marketing tactics, segmentation and behaviour of their prospects and customers.
Autus recommend various products for automation, such as Active Campaign, Hubspot, Mailchimp and SharpSpring…it will vary on your requirements and budget the best option for your business.
Find out more here.
Our founder, Tom Berry, also provides selective fractional CMO services and is a member of some client boards.
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If our team at Autus can help advise further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our founder, Tom Berry.
