Nigel Wilkinson
Managing Director of Daneswood. Nigel has been in sales and marketing since the 1980's and run digital marketing agencies since 2000.
The best way to get your website ranked on Google has changed beyond all recognition since I started in the industry back in 1999. Indeed, getting ranked on Google wasn’t even a thing back then, Yahoo was the dominant search engine, along with Ask Jeeves, Lycos and 1000 other wannabe contenders.
By 2002/3, Google started to take the lead, but it was still about stuffing as many keywords into the metatag and meta title areas, then spamming the hell out of your page text. Over the years, things have evolved, Doorway pages came and went, and Link Farming was a thing – please don’t even go there! Then in 2007, the advent of iPhones introduced the need for mobile searching.
Search is constantly changing, and the SEOer has the task of trying to keep up, or better still, stay ahead of developments. So where are we now, and what are the trends you need to be aware of?
In all honesty, there isn’t much new in 2023 so far, with the obvious exception of AI, which, if you read these blogs regularly, you will know is a blessing and a curse for SEO. The trends, if you can call them trends, are for more of the same.
Voice search optimisation is still on the rise, but it’s not exactly new. Voice assistants and smart speakers have become commonplace, so optimising your website for voice search queries continues to be increasingly important. Ideally, you should focus on long-tail conversational keywords and provide concise, conversational answers.
iPhones arrived in 2007, and Google has been prioritising mobile-friendly websites for a while, but in 2023, mobile-first indexing is becoming the default. Ensure your website is fully responsive, loads quickly, and provides a seamless user experience on mobile devices.
What Google calls E-A-T, that is Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, is still one of the most important ways to get your website great Google rankings. Demonstrate your expertise through high-quality content, authoritative backlinks, and positive online reviews.
Video SEO is still gaining popularity, having explainer videos to answer FAQs is a great SEO Tip. Make sure your videos use descriptive titles, transcriptions, relevant keywords, and schema markup to help them get found. Remember Google owns YouTube, so they favour videos posted there.
Rich Snippets is not in fact a Country and Western singer, it’s where the answers to search questions appear above the main links. Providing information in your content that increases the chances of appearing in featured snippets and zero-click searches will boost your visibility.
And of course, the perennial favourites of User Experience (UX) and site speed. Quick site speed, easy navigation, good mobile experience, and ensuring your website is HTTPS secured with an SSL certificate to protect user data are all standards for good search engine listings.
A whistle-stop tour of what is current, if not cutting edge, in search engine optimisation. And of course, one other thing that remains a constant in SEO, if you want to stay ahead of the competition give us a call today!