The State of 'SEO'. Google Trends Makes it a Whole Lot Easier

Before starting this article, I hopped over to Google Trends to take a quick pulse as to what users have been searching for in the field of digital marketing in the last 90 days.
Sure enough, it is the  perennial fine tuning of 'SEO', also known as Search Engine Optimization.

Keeping up with Google Trends — What is the use of Google Trends

Google Trends is a global online tool by Google that helps you visualize and analyze trends in people's search behaviur within Google Search, Google News, Google Images, Google Shopping and YouTube. It is a powerful tool when it comes to reviewing the success of your brands' SEO strategy.

Subscribe to a Google Trends alert to get email updates on topics and searches in your region.
Become an Expert in Google Trend Lessons

7 WAYS YOU CAN USE GOOGLE TRENDS TO BOLSTER SEO

The World of SEO is dynamic and ever changing.
Here are the must know stats of SEO that will help you fine tune SEO strategy, increase website traffic, and boost conversions.

1. As of June 2019, 94% of internet searches happen on a Google property. (Jumpshot via Sparktoro, 2019)
2. Over a two year period, there was a 900%+ growth in mobile searches for “___ near me today/tonight." (Think with Google, 2018)
3. Over a two-year period, there was a 200%+ growth in mobile searches for “open” + “now” + “near me." (Think with Google, 2018)
4. Text will always be the foundation of search so making sure the text around your website's assets is descriptive will help them rank well in search. (HubSpot, 2020)
5. 62% of those in the U.S. age 12+ use voice-operated assistants. (Edison Research, 2020)
6. 18% of Americans age 18+ own a car with an in-dash information and entertainment system. (Edison Research, 2020)
7. 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results (e.g. "click to call" option). (Think with Google, 2019)

GET THE COMPLETE SEO STARTER PACK

The 8 Must Know SEO Tweaks for Your Content Creation as you Move On to 2021

1. Create Content that Aligns with Your Buyer's Search Intent

Understanding and satisfying search intent is Google's ultimate priority.
Pages that rank on the first page of Google have all passed Google's litmus test on search intent.

According to SEMRush, there are four types of search intent.

1. Informational: This category is related to the search for specific information. It can be a simple search like "what's the weather today?"  that provides instant results or something complex like "the different kinds of events" that requires a more in-depth explanation. 
2. Navigational: In this case, the searcher is looking for a specific website or app. Common examples of navigational searches include "Facebook login," "Skyline," and "Amazon."
3. Commercial: The intent behind a search is commercial when the user is looking for a specific product but hasn't made the final decision yet. For example, searches such as "best booth designs" and "best DSLR cameras" are all commercial searches. 
4. Transactional: Here, the intent is to buy. The searcher has already made a decision to buy a specific product or tool. Examples include searches such as "buy linear booth," "buy Macbook Air," and "buy groceries online."

Your Complete Guide to Search Intent

HOW TO DESIGN ADS FOR YOUR BUYERS' JOURNEY

2. Focus on Creating an Unique Title Tag and Meta Description

The page title and the meta description of the page are critical factors in Google's eyes.

What are Title Tags?
According to Google: 
"Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It's often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it's important to use high-quality titles on your web pages."

Search engines like Google typically display the first 50-60 characters of a title.
Ideas on Creating Title Tags:

• Include your target keywords.
• Write a title that matches search intent.
• Avoid creating duplicate title tags.
• Avoid keyword stuffing.
  
• Keep it descriptive but concise.

Step by Step Guide on Writing Title Tags

What are Meta Descriptions?
According to Google:
"A meta description tag should generally inform and interest users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about. They are like a pitch that convince the user that the page is exactly what they're looking for."
Google typically truncates meta descriptions to 155–160 characters.
Ideas on Writing Your meta descriptions:

• Coin out unique meta descriptions for each page
• Action-oriented copy is conducive to Google search
• Align you target keywords with search intent
• Summarize within 160 characters highlighting the search intent

Step by Step Guide on writing Meta Descriptions

3. Optimize Your Page and Strive for 100% Google Page Speed

Your web site speed is dependent on how well your site is optimized. Your site is composed of text, images and videos.

Your free tools of compression and 3 ways to optimize your pages for enhanced speed.

1. Compress Your Images and Videos - Reduce the load time for your web pages.

• TinyPNG: TinyPNG uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of your PNG and JPEG files.
• ImageOptim: If you're a Mac user, you can download and use this free tool for all your image compression needs. Recommended by Google, is the best tool for compressing JPEGs, but not for PNGs. If you are using Photoshop, get the WebPShop plug in here, as instructed by Google developers.
• 8 Video Optimization Tips for faster loading.

2. Provide Alt Text for Images — Doing this will help browsers better understand the images on your site.

Here is what Google says about writing alt text:
"When choosing alt text, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and is in context of the content of the page.
Avoid filling alt attributes with keywords (keyword stuffing) as it results in a negative user experience and may cause your site to be seen as spam."
Focus on Object-Action-Context. You cannot go wrong.

3. Lazy-Load Your Images - This technique defers the loading of non-critical resources (images, videos, etc.) at page load time.
Images and videos are loaded only when users need them.
Google explains the link between lazy loading and site performance:
"When we lazy load images and video, we reduce initial page load time, initial page weight, and system resource usage, all of which have positive impacts on performance."
Google's resource guide for lazy-loading images and videos.

HOW TO ACHIEVE FOR 100% GOOGLE SPEED

4. Instigate Internal Linking

Internal links  establish an information hierarchy for your website and provides Google with an in-depth understanding with the content and context of your page.

If there’s a page on your website that you care about a lot and that has a lot of value to you, you should be thinking about how you can explain that value to a search engine. One quick way to do this is by creating an internal linking strategy around it.

Start by considering how a search engine understands the value of an internal link; it’s looking at how many pages on your website link to that page, and how they link to it. If every page of your website links to something, it must be important to you — like your homepage, or your blog’s homepage.

HOW TO USE INTERNAL LINKS TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE SEO

5. Be Mindful of Your Web Visitors. Find Ways to Elevate User Experience.

Google wants your users to have a good time with your content.
As such, user experience is one of the key factors in improving your search rankings. 

Other than page speed, here are few tips for good user experience.

• Proper use of headings and sub-headings: Proper use of subheadings (H1, H2, H3) helps Google understand your content better and makes your text more accessible to readers.

 

• Make your content visually appealing: Studies indicate that visuals help people understand your content better. “Visual discovery allows the consumer to generate a more emotional connection, which translates into less price sensitivity.” Visual search falls under the umbrella of what is known as “sensory search”, which includes searching via text, voice, and vision. Use relevant images, videos, and screenshots to illustrate your points.

 

• Ditch intrusive popups: Since 2017, Google has been penalizing sites that use intrusive popups. To grow your email list, use exit-intent popups, or display them to users who have spent at least 5 minutes on your site. Here is a useful stat from Omnisend: Landing pages, the least popular type of signup form, have the highest conversion rate (23%). On the other hand, popups, the most popular signup form, have the second-lowest conversion rate (3%). (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

 

• White space give relief to the user. It is a fundamental aspect of good design. According to Crazy Egg, white space between paragraphs and in the left and right margins increases comprehension by 20%. So consider using white space to make your content more legible and grab user attention.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO DESIGNING FOR USER EXPERIENCE

6. Include Human Friendly Keywords in Your URL

A good URL structure provides both users and search engines an idea of what the destination page is all about. 
According to Google: 
"A site's URL structure should be as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans (when possible, readable words rather than long ID numbers)."

Here are some bullet points for you to create well-structured URL:

• Keep it simple and shortUse short: A study conducted by Backlinko found that short URLs tend to outperform long URLs in SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
• Include relevant keywords: Targeted keywords in the URL increase your chances of ranking better in search results. 
• Make the URL human friedly.
• Separate words with hyphens.
• If your title/headline includes stop words (and, or, but, of, the, a, etc.), it's not critical to put them in the URL.
• Don't use slugs that already belong to other pages.
• Standardize your URL naming conventions.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR URL FOR SEARCH ENGINES

7. Lay out a Strategy in Building Backlinks

Backlinks are links from third party sources that point to your website, in comparison to internal links that exist between two pages within your website.

Google doesn't care how interesting your content is – it cares about how interesting other people think your content is. And Google measures that primarily through links to your website, or backlinks. Backlinks are one of the most important factors in how search engines figure out how high they should rank your content.

According to SEMRush, you shouldn’t be buying links, but earning them.
Here is a look at some popular (but relatively simple) ways to earn links to your website:

• 
  
• Use HARO to Respond to Requests From Journalists. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is an established platform where journalists seek sources and quotes for upcoming stories. Sign up and receive three source request emails every day (Monday to Friday), which are relevant to you or your client's industry.

 

• Guest blogging is great tactic for earning links and sharing your insights and experience from topically relevant industry publications. Let’s say you are a cybersecurity professional and looking to write guest posts. Head over to Google and run a search for: cybersecurity intitle:"write for us"

 

• Use Niche-specific Directories: Most industries and niches have active directories that recommend and showcase companies operating in that sector. You will also find that local variants of these exist for many towns and cities.  Run a Google search for: ( your industry) intitle:"directory". You are presented with a number of industry-specific directories which you could submit your site to.
  

 

• Turn Brand Mentions into Links: If your brand has been mentioned in the press, it is worth following up with the journalist or editor when you have been mentioned in the press without a link and asking them to add it in. Here are 10

Here are 10 brand monitoring tools other than SEMRush.

1. Brand24
2. Google Alerts
3. Brandwatch
4. Hootsuite
5. BuzzSumo

6. Social Mention
7. Native social networks and analytics
8. Ahrefs
9. TweetDeck
10. Keyhole

• Become Cited as a Resource: If you have spent time creating great content or a great product, you should look to build links by being cited as a resource. For example, Hubspot has created the The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2020

• Publish Your Reasearch and Push it to the Press: Launching a data-driven digital PR campaign using either your own or third-party data is worth the time and hassle.  Because, publishers love sharing research studies and surveys, and is a great way to earn fantastic links if you are prepared to put in the time and effort. 

11 creative ways TO EARN BACKLINKS

USE INFLUENCER MARKETING TO CREATE BACK LINKS

8. Publish Long Form Content

When a search query is typed into Google, the search engine crawls websites for content that will help solve that user's query. Web pages that have a longer time spent on site than others suggest to Google that browsers found that information important enough to stay on that page.

As a result, Google is more likely to suggest that page above others. Research dictates that long-form articles (posts with 3000+ words) get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than articles of average length (901-1200 words).
An example of long form content.

According to Hubspot, here are 8 ways of writing long form contact

1. Form your paragraphs in comprehensible sections.
2. Section off your main ideas.
3. Make sure your thoughts are organized.
4. Describe the 'so what?' of each section.
5. Keep a conversational tone throughout your piece.
6. Hook the reader with an engaging introduction.
7. Add visuals to break up long sections of text.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING LONG FORM CONTENT

On-page SEO is all about using keywords and content to explain a topic that searchers enjoy reading. However, it's also a way to let search engines know the purpose of the page and what it's about. 

This technique includes optimization of content by adding keywords to a few places that create a good user experience for the reader, which also happens to make it an easy-to-crawl page for a search engine. For this very reason, on-page SEO still holds a lot of klout in the eyes of inbound marketers. Heck, even Matt Cutts, the face of Google’s search algorithm, said that content is how they are able to rank sites without any extra contextual information. 

Take a deep dive with these articles:

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide: Official documentation from Google that helps new marketers and webmasters alike.
Google-friendly sites: More official documentation on building Google-friendly websites.
Page Speed Insights
On-page ranking factors from Moz
Google’s ranking factors
The Short Cutts: Brief summaries of Matt Cutts' Webmaster Videos for Google

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