Good Morning! This is Your SEO Wake Up Call

When I started creating copy for websites 10 (gah!) years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) was relatively simple. Find your keywords and then try to get them into the text a certain number of times without sounding like a total robot.

Thankfully, times have changed – because trying to write that way really sucked. As Google shifts their algorithm and other search engines follow suit, getting traffic from search engines is all about making it easy for searchers to find what they need, when they need it.

According to Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz, here are the some of the most significant changes we’ve seen in search behavior and optimization:

If you’re still focusing on your keyword and rankings reports, this is your wake up call. Broad keywords with huge search volume, hundreds of pages targeting specific terms and chasing after backlinks by submitting to huge directories are out. Here’s what’s in and, most importantly, effective.

Make your site mobile friendly.

Over 50% of the time people spend online is through tablets and smartphones. These users are even more impatient than your desktop searchers. Your site has to load, and quickly, or they’ll just click away. Take a hard look at your website through your own device. Is it up to par?

Earn quality links by building relationships.

Backlinks still matter in SEO, but the way they are earned has significantly changed. Rather than submitting your site to directories or blindly commenting on blogs with a link, you need to build relationships with your audience and other industry authorities. Inbound links signal trust in your website and your brand, which translates to better rankings. Get active on social media, create great content and engage with your audience to strengthen those relationships.

Stop being a social wallflower.

Social media used to be a side channel for sharing content or cyberstalking your high school classmates (oh? Is that just me?). Now it’s a fully-fledged marketing tool that you need to use to connect with your audience and build rankings. Social signals count significantly in your website’s rankings. Get active on two or three platforms that make sense for your audience to show search engines that you’re involved – and maximize your opportunities to build links.

Publish great content.

Relevant, helpful, unique and one-of-a-kind content is the very best way to accomplish most of your marketing goals – including getting better rankings in search engines. Quick Sprout’s study showed that content rich sites generated 97% more links than sites that kept content to a minimum. This means that you need to develop an SEO strategy that emphasizes valuable content creation in the form of web pages, blog posts, visual content and more.

If your marketing budget doesn’t include an SEO overhaul this year, you might want to consider making a shift in allocation.