After our last blog post we outlined the fact that if you want to be shown by Google, you have to follow their guidelines and use their tools to ensure your site is fine-tuned and be the best it can be. We also intimidated everyone with details on Organic Search Engine Optimization. Don’t be intimidated! Don’t get left behind! We will guide you to understand strategies you need to stay competitive?
What is Organic Search Engine Optimization?
To come up first on Google, means one of two things, either through organic efforts, content strategies and SEO strategies, OR through paid ads. Paying to be on the first page is the only sure way to get there fast. Organic strategies and content strategies work over time to build upon insights on how your clients are searching and the questions they seek answers to.
We talked about the influence of content in our previous blog. SEO strategies combine various other aspects of your digital presence. Presenting your website over an SSL (HTTPS) secure connection is a must in today’s world. Being in business today means we all, as business owners, need to understand technology. We need a grasp of the guidelines that the search engines put into place. Without understanding these basic guidelines, you can be lost and losing ranking simply by not hiring the right person, or by not being familiar enough with the rules.
Google supports security
It used to be that only sites that exchanged money required an HTTPS secure connection. Not anymore. Now Google has raised the bar to ensure that sites are secure and more importantly, that visitors are secure from malware attacks. That means we all must have an HTTPS secure connection or an SSL certificate installed – and working properly- on our websites.
Go mobile, go Google
Google analyzes your website from the lens of mobile first. How your site looks on a mobile phone determines whether your pages are ranked and visible on the search engine results page. What this means is that If your site isn’t mobile friendly, then you are immediately losing out in organic search. How does your site show up on a cell phone? Google developed the tool to analyze this through Google Search Console, providing analysis on how your pages show up on mobile and provides you tips to improve mobile viewing.
They want to help!
Google strives to provide the best answers as visitors are searching. So number one for the business owner to understand are the rules so they can observe the guidelines. Secondly is to become familiar with the tools and utilize the insights, provide quality content and the on-page strategies to improve your site ranking. All of these tactics will provide on-going strategies to being found easily and show up where it counts, to remain in the game when someone searches for what you offer. The first page of Google is the goal, but the organic strategies to get you there are multi-faceted.
Changes benefit the user
Technology is continually changing in ways to benefit society. I’m sure as this is being written, new guidelines and tips are in the works ready to be rolled out and improved. The point being, is that everything changes rapidly. The way to stay competitive is not to do something once and be done but by staying on top of what your customers want. Remember they are looking for precisely what you can do to help move them towards success.
Stay abreast of what they are searching for, what they need, how they are searching and how they want the information delivered. Your ability to stay connected to your clients, to stay ahead of what they are looking for, and to fully engage the changing technology and guidelines is the way to remain competitive. It’s not by gaming the system, but by knowing the system and playing by all the rules. It’s knowing and understanding the guidelines and putting unique strategies in place to implement those guidelines.
Don’t get left behind! What strategies do you need to stay competitive?