Building a thriving digital presence for your brand is a fundamental pillar of growth and success nowadays, no matter if you operate strictly online, offline, or you’re combining the two. If you’re running a brick-and-mortar store, your customers will first research you online before daring to visit. If you’re operating online, the only way to grow is to build brand awareness and visibility, which will generate quality leads. And if you’re both online and offline, then you can imagine how important it is to have a powerful digital presence.
Luckily, you can achieve all of that and more simply by investing in search engine optimization. We say simply, but in reality SEO is a nuanced process with several key variables that will determine your success in the online world. Now that we are more than halfway through 2021, the time is right to start building an SEO strategy for 2022, so let’s talk about the key pillar of that strategy and how you can boost your ranking on Google next year.
Rank high in Google’s featured snippets
Let’s go ahead and assume that you have already conducted thorough industry research, you have defined your target demographic and the primary movers within, and you have created an extensive list of relevant keywords. If you haven’t done that, go ahead, we’re not going anywhere. Now, keep in mind that Google’s priority is to deliver factual and relevant information to its users, and to do that, it is showing the most relevant information snippets in the search results.
The featured snippets are those boxes of text at the top of the search results that give you an answer to your question without having to click on any link. Your goal should be to rank in those snippets. This will massively improve your ranking and CTR, and you can do it by answering specific questions and problems in your articles, and you should include phrases like “what is”, “why is/are”, “how to”, and other question-based phrases that people are nowadays using.
Pay special attention to core web vitals
Google doesn’t just want to showcase the most relevant search results based on quality information, it also wants to provide the best possible browsing experience to its users. In other words, you can have the most information content in the world, but if your website is underperforming, you can’t hope to rank very high. Why? Because not Google nor the modern user wants to wait around for your website to load properly.
This is why you need to focus heavily on improving the loading times of your pages, but also make navigation a breeze and ensure that all content loads fully and consistently. This is a great way to improve your offsite and onsite SEO to boost your position in the search results and stay ahead of the competition.
Prioritize visibility in your local market
While ranking high for general search terms and in the general search results is important, you’re leaving a lot of growth potential on the table if you don’t invest in local SEO. Localizing your SEO strategy will allow you to build a powerful brand presence in specific markets and capitalize on the opportunities within, which in competitive markets like Australia is already a big trend.
When you have a country like Australia where every region is more competitive than the last, it’s important to localize and segment your SEO strategy. That’s how a Sydney SEO strategy is able to boost a brand’s presence in that specific region to allow a business to capitalize on local growth opportunities, without wasting resources on low-priority markets. The next step is to develop a strategy for other competitive markets across the country, and gradually expand your area of influence and start ranking on the first page of Google in every region.
Invest in more content diversification
While written content is and will remain the king of SEO, it’s important to remember that other content types are gaining in popularity across the world. Video content, for example, is extremely popular nowadays, but beyond mere popularity, video allows you to gain a presence on video platforms like TikTok, Instagram, FB, and others.
In other words, you should continue to publish long-form, high-quality articles regularly, but in 2022 and beyond, you should start diversifying your content offering as well. Some of the best types of content to try right now include videos, infographics, podcasts, product guides, customer success stories, and the like.
Make sure to optimize for voice search
Last but not least, understand that people are no longer typing the search terms so much as they are speaking them into their smartphones, smart speakers, and personal computers. Voice search is on the rise around the world, and it’s important that you start optimizing your website content and articles for this rising demographic.
When people use voice search, they are not just saying keywords and phrases, they are asking questions. This means that you need to start using query-based keywords in your content to boost it in the search results, and you need to answer these questions in a concise yet informative way. Remember, answer the question first to rank in featured snippets, but elaborate on the subject in the rest of the article to improve your overall SEO score.
Over to you
SEO remains one of the most important elements of any digital marketing strategy, so now’s the time to optimize your approach for the following year. Invest in these areas of SEO to boost your brand’s presence online and gain a competitive edge in 2022 and beyond.
Guest Author, Raul Harman, s a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com.