Seven Things Most People Just Don’t Know About SEO

Spoiler: the art of perfecting your SEO strategy will always remain a work in progress. There are many components to SEO, and those components change. As Google (frequently) updates their algorithms, shifts in results and rank can cause a real headache for digital marketers.

Search Engine Optimizers also have to stay on top of new Google technologies that offer different ways to alter your ranking. Knowledge is power when it comes to SEO, and to make things even more difficult, the web is littered with misinformation (or dated information) about what it takes to effectively rank higher in organic search results.

Let’s clear some of the air now. AVX has a list of seven things you may not understand about SEO.

1. Content is King

Though important to consider, Google judges more than just headlines and keywords. It’s important to be on the ball with extensive and fresh content geared toward your market. Go beyond keyword research – employ writers that generate high-quality, attention-grabbing content and update that content consistently. More is more in the eyes of Google. More content and more pages are to your advantage.

There are services that allow you to analyze a site’s content and it’s performance. Among those services are BuzzSumo and Moz Content (the Moz Blog is an excellent resource for SEOs as well.)

For starters, jump in to the sites of competitors and make it a point to outdo their content.

2. How do you want to rank?

There are numerous ways to achieve rank in Google results. You may believe that the only way is by installing backlinks and using on-site SEO so your page achieves a more desirable position in the SERPs. That is not always the case.

For example, if you have a brick-and-mortar business, you can rank within Google’s local 2-pack. If you Google terms that match parameters of local businesses near you, you’ll see a map below the paid ads at the top of the results page. Below that, you’ll see three listings in your area – one paid and two organic results. To achieve 2-pack result status is a highly desirable position.

There is also the Google Knowledge Graph. Though it takes some real effort, your site can achieve a prominent spot at the top of the SERP to the right of the organic listings. If your site is found to host content that provides effective answers to common search terms, Google may merit your website with that prominent placement.

Structured data markup also provides s way to stand out by displaying rich snippets – visual enhancements to a SERP listing. Structured data markup is added to your website code to provide Google with more information about the content on your site.

Here’s a quick look at types of results displayed on Google’s results pages:

• Organic listings
• The local 2-pack
• Featured Snippets
• Knowledge Graph Cards
• Google Images
• Google News
• Google Videos
• AMP Carousel

… and ranking tools will give you reports on your ranking for each of these types of results. There’s no one way to go about it, but a healthy mix is always desirable.

3. Bigger is Better

If you’re launching a site that aims to serve a market that is already well-established, with long-standing, big-name players existing in that same space, it’s highly unlikely that you will develop the SEO power to outrank their sites any time soon, if ever. Because it wants to provide the most relevant results for the most users, Google favors brands that are household names over new startups.

When launching a new site, you are better off working to optimize your brand name, so when you come within an earshot of people, searching for you by name will result in, well, results.

Developing an emphasis on alternative keywords can help promote your brand through terms that may have been overlooked by larger competitors. For example, ‘v-neck’ is a popular item, but optimizing for a more involved term like ‘deep cut v-neck’ may be to your advantage on SERPs.

Though it can be costly, it is also worth considering paid ads, which can put you at the top of SERPs.

4. The Secret Lies Within

Unless you’ve got a site that consists of a single page, each page of your site provides its own opportunity for ranking.

Your site likely contains various segments, like a home page, a blog, a ‘contact us’ page, an e-commerce section, a product listing portion – you name it. The trick here is to hone in on the pages with content that you feel are particularly strong / relevant to your audience. You’ll want to optimize your product and industry-centric pages such as your blog to rank high on SERPs and get those potential customers to click.

5. For Search Terms, Quality over Quantity Might be Best

To achieve successful SEO, you don’t necessarily have to try and rank for across a wide array of search terms, especially if your target market is very narrow.

For example, if you’re selling “toddler pantsuits” you’re likely to drive most of your traffic through just a few terms. For some sites, ranking for an array of terms is to your advantage. For more niche markets, focus on a few essentials.

6. Stay Informed, Adopt Early

Though changes to Google’s algorithm and ranking schemes can seem like a real pain for search engine marketers, changes provide a unique opportunity to leapfrog your competitors on SERPs by staying ahead of the curve and embracing the changes swiftly.

For instance, we all know that the percentage of searches made from a mobile devices is ever-increasing. Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) is an open-source project backed by Google that enables webpages to load extremely fast on mobile platforms. Because Google uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor for mobile search results, sites optimized with AMP and are fully mobile-responsive receive much more favorable standings on SERPs.

Also, Google gives secure sites a ranking boost. Take advantage by using HTTPS instead of the dated but still often-used HTTP format for your web addresses.

The gist is that it pays to be the first vendor of your kind to jump on new technologies. Keep an ear open to news of emerging changes and technology and remain proactive.

7. Think Global

If you are in a position to sell / appeal to markets outside the United States, it pays to optimize your site for an international audience. Google considers local domains to be more relevant to a user searching from within a particular country. If you are to have a presence in Canada, for example, registering a site with country doman .ca will rank you higher on SERPs associated with searches from within Canada.

When jumping in to new countries and markets, make sure that the content you host is translated and optimized for the region that you will be serving. There is little value in registering a domain that will serve a Portugese audience but not translating the content so that they will be able to read it.

It is also to your advantage to register your business in the foreign countries where you intend to have a presence, list your business in web directories specific to those countries, and host versions of your site in those regions as well.

And then, focusing your efforts on Google results is just the best starting point. When you’re optimizing your content, make sure that you take in to account the entire spectrum of search engines – Bing, Yahoo, YouTube and Amazon are the starting point for many searchers out there.

There is a lot to know and unfortunately, it’s what search engine optimizers don’t know that can riddle their efforts with shortcomings. Above all the advice we can give regarding the current landscape of SEO, it’s most important that you keep up with the latest changes.