Since 2014, I’ve been writing marketing content for a business and technology consultancy firm in London. The aim has been to raise brand visibility within new markets and generate sales leads.
There’s been little focus on SEO and keywords and it’s an area of digital marketing I’ve not really thought about for some time. Given the opportunity to take some time out from my day-to-day role, I’ve started to pay more attention again to what’s going on in the world of SEO, especially as we’re at the start of a new year.
Over at the Content Marketing Institute, they’ve got some tips for 2018.
SEO Marketing Strategy: Tips for Success in 2018
Some things don’t change and one of those is that keywords still matter. This doesn’t surprise me but from a content and editorial position I would still emphasis the importance of creating valuable and relevant content which naturally incorporates the right keywords in the appropriate places.
I think I like to emphasise this point because I come from a journalism/copywriting background. As writers we like to think we’re engaging in a creative process but identifying certain keywords to use can sometimes feel a bit formulaic and technical. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t identify these keywords or search terms but the skill is to included them in a natural and organic way.
I’ve always believed that if you’re only concern is keywords, you run the risk of forgetting the importance of creating content that your readers actually want to consume.
Secondly, identifying the right themes and topics that people are searching for is just as important as keywords. Certain topics like how to start buying altcoin, will at times attract more search enquiries. It’s about identifying the search volume for these topics and deciding whether it is worth creating content that you’ll be able to rank for.
I found this to be the case in my day-to-day work. Some topics I wrote about would always see an increase in readers. In finance and technology, hot topics such as Blockchain were very popular, and the average number of readers attracted to the content would increase.
Third key point is that SEO shouldn’t be seen as one off, stand alone activity. Keep updating and re-evaluating your content on a regular basis. This can be each month, quarterly, and annually. Make sure it still meets your SEO goals. If you have old content that can be reused, whether by updating or including back links to such content, make sure you do so.
And finally, content creators need to remember the importance of establishing greater engagement from users. Google rewards websites with a higher ranking if they can see that visitors are spending a significant amount of time on that site. It assumes that the content must be of high value.
Apart from that, many of the key areas for SEO remain the same:
- Implementing an effective linking strategy
- Usability and website design
- Reporting and analytics: You need to track and understand your users and how they’re behaving and interacting with your web content
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly – Many people access web content through their mobile phones so your content must take this factor into account.
With SEO, I feel many of the fundamentals continue to remain the same but ongoing success is about keeping up to date with the latest SEO developments. Making those small but necessary changes and adjustments that ensure your SEO strategy remains effective and relevant.
* After writing this blog I came across this post below on Copyblogger that I thought was worth reading.