SEO has become a game for many website owners – adjusting to the whims of Google. Updates wipe out rankings, rankings fall, and in the end, it’s the website owner who sees their profit margins shrink.
But in a game where Google is the main competitor, it’s best to understand your opponent than try to trick them (it never lasts long).
Google Updates are Ever Evolving
Google is ever-changing, explains SEO Auckland. And while many website owners focus on major updates, there were 3,234 improvements to the search engine in 2018. On average, Google’s algorithm was updated nine times per day.
Faster and more efficient “improvements” were made last year.
In comparison, there were 2,453 changes in 2017 and 1,653 in 2016. It’s not unrealistic to think that Google may push out nearly 4,000 improvements in 2019, but some sources claim that improvements may slow.
No one knows for sure, and this leads to our first point: focus on the factors that you can control.
Many of these updates or improvements to the algorithm can be a UI change or a feature update. Google is going to keep changing, and it’s better to focus on your site and the elements that we know make a big difference rather than update counts.
Top 3 SEO Factors, According to a Recent Interview
SEO Myth Busters, a new series offered by Google Webmasters, actually discussed the top SEO factors that website owners should focus on. Martin Splitt, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, was in charge of outlining the top factors that every website owner should focus on.
What are these factors?
- Content. Splitt explains that you need to focus on really good content, and the one key factor is that content must serve a purpose. But what about those pesky product pages that we cannot seem to outrank? Well, the purpose of this is to meet the needs of the consumer. In this case, if someone searches for a “Ryzen 3 processor,” there’s a good chance that they’re looking to purchase. In this case, “purpose” may be a product page.
- Meta Data. Meta data is technical, and while many SEO experts claim that this data is less important than in the past, it’s ranked the second factor to focus on in your SEO strategy. Page titles that change based on the content is recommended along with a basic meta description. What’s very interesting is that a meta description has not been a ranking factor. Perhaps something is going to change in the future, and it will become a factor.
- Speed. Google is still focusing on speed and performance, and it’s a ranking factor that a lot of experts have known about for years. But performance also means making your site visible to readers, and this may mean being mobile-friendly, too.
What’s nice about Myth Busters is that we see that there is some control in the hand of the website owner. But we also noticed that Google did not mention links.
Links are always going to be a factor in rankings, and even if Google steps away from links, it seems to be the best way to gain rankings. If you want premium SEO in Auckland, you’re going to need a robust strategy that:
- Analyzes current site structure and rankings
- Analyzes competitor pages
- Personalizes a campaign based on current site structure and SEO
- Provides monthly reports and analysis
There are multiple ways to acquire and earn links to help boost your site’s rankings. Holistic link building is the go-to option for many specialists, and this can be done through several avenues:
- Email outreach to promote content and gain links
- Guest blogging on relevant blogs and websites
- Link reclamation to regain lost link value
- Be a guest on podcasts and ask for a link – it works great
- Pitch topic ideas to top publications and become an author on these sites
- Collaborate with others on projects
You want to research your competitors and determine who is linking to them. Contact these sites and offer some great content that they may also link to as a resource. You just need to make sure that your content serves a purpose and can add something new or exciting to the mix.
High quality links are always preferred, and if links are built naturally, your site’s rankings will continue to rise.
