SEO Tactics to leave behind in 2021 đŹ
At the time of writing this, the New Year (2022) is approaching quickly. Thereâs no doubt that most people will have some New Yearâs resolutions for 2022 that include doing new things. However, weâre 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 itâs âThe Best SEO Practiceâ
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 theyâre doing it. Creating an abundance of search optimized content does nothing but boost your pageâs 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 doesnât mean stop publishing blog articles consistently, it just means you should actually think on the purpose of the blog articles youâre 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 theyâre both interested in and directly relates to your business. If youâre going to create content, make sure itâs 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 itâll 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 thatâs both concise, contains keywords for your SEO strategy and actually goes with your businessâ name? Itâs almost impossible. Iâm sure weâve all been there but the reality is, this doesnât actually matter anymoreâŠ
So why doesnât this work as a form of SEO anymore?
Well, â.comâ 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) donât matter anymore. What is more valued in SEO is the pageâs 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 wouldnât matter how âspammyâ 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 brandâs 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 â.comâ domains, however, really doesnât 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). Thereâs more but these are a few of the main ones and I donât plan on taking up your day on an SEO lesson đŹ
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 theyâre 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. Itâs pretty much impossible to reverse engineer these signals so thereâs 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 customerâs journeys, not for mere clicks. As expert marketers should, involve your Sales team into your SEO Strategy to drive more sales and youâll 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 âbig pictureâ, hello! Glad to meet someone just like us! Youâll probably have considered working marketing and sales automation into your business but maybe havenât 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 SharpSpringâŠit will vary on your requirements and budget the best option for your business.
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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 donât hesitate to get in touch with our founder, Tom Berry.
