As 2016 is in full swing, this means tons of content related to what you should be doing in the New Year and obligatory top 5 lists. In this blog I am going to break down the 5 SEO practices I feel will not be phased out in 2016 and need be continually utilized and built upon.

 

Every SEO Strategy is Not Built the Same

The most important thing to keep in mind is that every SEO strategy should be customized to fit the client’s conversion points and individual needs and expectations. Now, do not think that the basics of SEO can be glossed over if they are not crucial for a client’s overall strategy. Best SEO practices are universal. The world of SEO is ever changing and the plans we as SEO specialists come up with need to be that way also. When we develop plans, we take into the following factors:

What is the client trying to promote and sell?  

Once we figure this out we will be able to set up conversion points to work towards.

Who is the target market?

Knowing this will help us tailor our blogs and content towards the people who are most likely to seek it out.

What is the client’s brand tone?

This is important since copy can get generic, but using a brand’s messaging can put a unique spin on it.

Current site content/media and ease of editing these assets.

This factor has become more of an issue this year compared to the past since site content and blogs need to be updated monthly (Google loves fresh content).

All of the above factors are crucial in developing a strategy for a client’s SEO endeavors. Skipping anything above and below will seriously hurt a client’s growth.

 

Understanding Your Visitors and Search Engine Traffic

Knowing what terms bring visitors to your website is just as important as knowing who is coming to your site. When someone does a search on Google, they are generally under three categories.

Navigational

This type of search is driven with the main goal to arrive at a specific website. The end user has one goal and that is to get to a domain name.

Informational

These searches are just as the name implies, to gather more information on a broad or direct question.

Transactional

Obviously transaction queries have to do with the user’s typing in words like “where to buy a camera” or “lowest camera price”.

 

Developing an SEO Plan Prior to Building a Site

This practice is the most overlooked I feel since getting a website designed is such a time consuming process depending on the client. But getting an SEO plan in place as early as possible is crucial for the overall success of the website. Developing a site that has a strong SEO foundation and plan will ensure organic visibility is sustained at the beginning and grown upon as the site lives on Google. This stage is also where a content timeline should be put together for when the site is live. Speaking of content…

Content is Still in Fact King

It has not been dethroned in 2015 and I do not see that being the case in 2016. But it is not only king it is the main driving factor of engagement on the web. However, this is not only written content. Videos, Slideshares, Infographics, and photo galleries are all invaluable pieces of media that are searched for even more so than web pages. Making sure they are highly relevant is the goal of the content creators and the SEO’s when developing plans. Once content is in place, it is the next step to have other sites link back to the source. This step takes looking at what the site already has and what the client is willing to provide and then making discussions on what content is highly searched and missing on the site.

 

Segmenting Your Site’s Audience

The last practice I feel is crucial for newly developed sites is segmenting your audience. This will drive what type of content is created and how it is created for. One example from TB’s experience is Blaine Plastic Surgery. “Plastic Surgeon NY” and “Plastic Surgeon Huntington” are difficult terms to rank for especially with a brand new site. Instead of going after those queries, we decided to segment her audience to “Female Plastic Surgeon in NY” and “Female Plastic Surgeon in Huntington”. Making a choice to go after these segments will also aid in content development in terms of what pages should be created. When segmenting search terms, keyword research is also required in order to get a greater idea of what kind of volume certain keywords have.

Are there any other trends you think will stick around throughout 2016 and beyond? Comment below with your thoughts!