SEO remains the widely accepted online marketing strategy. This fact is not surprising as a good SEO brings:
- Increased traffic to your website
- Gives you ROI with the SEO’s ability to track and quantify engagements of individuals using your website
- Savings, and is therefore cost-effective
- Easy navigation, thereby increasing your site’s usability
- Top ranking position, which in turn, results to significant impressions for your site and your brand
Given these SEO benefits, how do you maximize these for your on-site blog?
Strategies to maximize SEO benefits
There are several strategies website owners can use to improve their SEO ranking. You can, however, start with the strategies below and move from there as you gain more experience in search marketing.
Optimize mobile search and browsing
Mobile use for search and browsing is on the rise and this phenomenon is not going to stop in the coming years.
In 2016, mobile search gained recognition when it overtook desktop search and accounted for 51% of web browsing. Along this time, Google launched its mobile-first indexing and made this as Google’s primary index for the search engine. From this move, you gain an insight into the growing significance of mobile search and browsing. Start optimizing your mobile search and content to stay relevant and compet
Engage in intentional link building
Links are the driving force behind SEO ranking. But, links will only make the difference for you, depending on the volume and quality of links that you get. Therefore, links with quality content from relevant website will:
- Get a strong SEO ranking for your website
- Attract a user to your website and pass referral traffic
- Gives you a vote of confidence, establish a positive connection with the user, and allows you to develop a relationship with your customer.
Optimize voice search
If you search the web for internet trend, the figures you see might surprise you. The internet Trends Report shows an increase in the voice search market share. In 2015, the figure was at 1.7 million voice-first devices, which increased to 6.5 million devices in 2016. A prediction made by VoiceLabs places the figure at 24.5 voice-first devices by 2017.
Voice search, therefore, is a good SEO strategy to increase your website’s traffic. You can start by optimizing your digital content in preparation for voice search.
Optimize rich answers
The rich answer is a means to provide users with direct information for all types of queries. In 2016, the frequency of rich answer usage was at 9% and will continue to grow in the coming years.
You can optimize your rich answer capability for SEO by providing a relevant, detailed, appropriate, and a concise answer to a given query. Having a strong domain and an authoritative individual page also helps in search ranking.
Go for longer content
Longer content does not mean a collection of words. It is not content length alone that matters in search rankings but content quality. Content quality means well-written and focused content.
Studies show a connection between longer content and higher search ranking. The suggested content length varies from 1,200 to 1,500 words. The suggested content length for standard blog posts is 1,200 and 2,000 words and above for evergreen content.
The strategies mentioned are not new but evolved from early versions. These strategies, however, are increasing and offering possibilities that will give you the best chance of a strong search ranking in 2017.