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What’s the magic bullet for great search engine optimization? It’s this: There isn’t one. Given that search engines today use thousands of data points to determine ranking, there’s no “one weird trick” to getting a better ranking. There are some more important areas on which to focus, however.
Don’t Over Rely on the Mathematical Approach
This is the conventional wisdom around gaming SEO: let’s examine 50,000 highly ranked pages and find out what they have in common. Eh, voila! We’ll have identified the secret hacks to getting a great ranking. This vastly oversimplifies a complex issue, according to Rand Fishkin blogging for Moz.
“There’s danger in believing every correlation you read, and wisdom in looking at it with a critical eye,” he wrote, noting that correlation doesn’t tell us which way the connection runs. “So it does not say whether factor X influences the rankings or whether higher rankings influences factor X.”
Example: Facebook searches (seem to) positively boost Google search ranking, but it could be the other way around: high Google search ranking from some other factor is actually driving up Facebook searches.
Pay Attention to Page Load Speed
Now, more than ever before, Web sites with the fastest load speeds win. Responsive designs and “mobile optimized” pages are climbing the search ranks. If you’re not sure about your performance, look for tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which can help you understand how to improve your page load speed. The tool analyzes and reports on the performance of web pages for mobile and desktop devices and provides suggestions on how to improve speed.
Accommodate for Voice Search
Increasingly, searchers are being initiated through virtual assistants like Siri via voice commands. People search differently when they speak than when they type.
“Consider the context in which someone might use voice search: driving to the mall to get a present for the holidays or asking Google Home if a store down the street is still open,” wrote Bryson Meunier for Search Engine Land. “Does the searcher still say, ‘Holiday Hut store hours?’ Or do they say something like, ‘OK Google, give me the store hours for the Holiday hut at the local mall?’ Or even, ‘How late is Holiday Hut open?’”
Think About Link Earning Instead of Link Building
We’ve written before about how it’s getting harder to fake better SEO using links. So think more about how you can earn the links, blogged Natasa Djukanovic for SmartBrief.
“Link earning is about focusing on producing engaging content that actually answers the questions users are interested in, which inspires people to organically link to you,” she wrote. “So, you are rewarded with a link naturally. If you want to hold a great ranking position, you should focus on building and earning links from reputable domains with high authority.”
So while there’s no “one weird trick” for better SEO, there are strategies that done right, can help your site to grow organically. That includes producing better content and providing it quickly and conveniently, among other tactics. Let Keyword Performance help you get to the top of SERP’s and achieve long term goals. Contact us today!
