Search engine optimization evolves over time. However, sometimes ideas are repeated with some modification to work better with how Google and/or Bing are responding to them now. Small tweaks can improve results rather overcorrect and risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Here is some of the latest thinking with SEO (search engine optimization) that’s currently working well.
Aiming at Medium Tail, Not Long Tail
Trying to rank for the longest search terms – 7+ words per phrase – is usually possible but for clients, it yields low results.
Experienced SEO agencies like Gustin Quon often focus on local search terms such as SEO Winnipeg. However, whether looking for local or national results, aiming at medium tail search terms is a better option. It’s more likely that they’ll rank successfully compared to going for shorter, highly competitive Winnipeg SEO terms that their peers are trying for.
Also, if they rank for the medium tail term, there’ll likely be scores of related terms that the search engines will rank the site/page for as well. The total search volume will be significantly higher than when aiming at long-tail terms alone.
Striking a Balance with Content Length
The story with content length has been changing lately, too.
Whilst good Winnipeg SEO advice previously indicated that extremely length blog posts up to 5,000 words achieved the best ranking, this has been dropping dramatically lately. According to BacklinkO.com, the average content length on sites ranking highly is around 1,900 words now.
This Search Engine Journal article discusses content length in more depth. They make some useful points about content length and SEO – especially that the type of content matters as much as the word count. Visitors need to be engrossed in the content or engaged by it to stay longer; word count alone is missing the point.
Focusing on Mobile-First
Google announced a while ago that they were switching to a Mobile-First indexing strategy. This means that they’ll look at how the mobile version of the website looks and functions first, basing their opinion primarily on that outcome. Desktop is to be a secondary consideration.
They officially go live with the switchover on July 1st. You can expect considerable shuffling of search results with some anomalies when the change happens. Any sites that aren’t already optimized to look good and work well on mobile devices need to be rushed by your SEO company.
Speed Matters More
Following on from Mobile-First, the loading speed for websites matters more now.
Whereas previously a site’s ranking was usually unaffected by a slow loading home page, that’s no longer the case. Sites that fail to load in under three seconds risk getting penalized in their ranking position with Google. Two seconds is far better. Business owners are now trying to get their sites to load in under a second as a new goal, which is a tough ask but it can be done.
While inbound links, interlinking, and other traditional Winnipeg SEO factors are still highly relevant, there’s a greater focus in other areas that directly or indirectly impact search results and eventual traffic.