Advice Straight from Mountain View (Google Headquarters)
All of the foundational SEO strategies we’ve been doing for years are still highly effective and really haven’t changed much. I refer to them as SEO “blocking and tackling”.
The main thing that’s changed in 2016 is that most of them are now officially sanctioned by Google via their Webmaster Guidelines.
Here is a summary of the most important SEO factors in 2016:
- Good site structure including easy to navigate pages
- Website loads quickly and is secure
- Website provides a good mobile responsive experience
- Unique content and meta data for each page
- Structured data (schema markup) to identify the type of website page
- Well written and original that is valuable to readers
- Verify your site with Google’s My Business (also called Google Plus or Google Local)
As if this detailed guidance wasn’t enough, Google has rolled out an army of free tools which website owners can utilize to monitor, test and improve their websites.
The essential Google toolkit includes:
- Google Analytics
- Google Webmaster Tools
- Google My Business
- Google Page Speed Insights
- Google Mobile Friendly Test
- Google Structured Data Testing Tool
- Google Structured Data Markup Tool
Your 3 Step 2016 SEO Action Plan
Step 1 – Review the Important Factors list above
Try out the free tools for yourself. Most of them are designed to produce easy to understand results. And while the chances are you won’t know how to implement structure data on your own, you can check if your site loads quickly and is correctly verified with Google.
Then, take an impartial look at your website. If you were searching your website for the first time, would you find the website easy to navigate and the content of real value?
Step 2 – Tackle the Remaining List
After going through the checklist you should be able to see which items are OK and which items need work. Work with your host and web developer on things like load speeds, security and mobile responsiveness. Maybe enlist the help of a digital marketing consultant to improve your website structure and content as well as help you understand the nuances of structured data and Google My Business listings.
Step 3 – Content, Social Media and Tracking
Once you’ve gone through this list and have good SEO fundamentals you should definitely start to see results in terms of increased traffic and more leads.
Good foundational SEO will take you a long way.
But if you’d still like to do more than the foundational elements, you’ll need to evaluate more advanced SEO strategies which include content creation, social media marketing, tracking and measuring.
If you’d like to learn more about these advanced strategies, speak to our digital marketing consultant about WSI’s proprietary AdaptiveSEO approach. We’ll be happy to show you how content, social media and reporting build on foundational SEO strategies for best results.
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