Saivian: What’s Working in SEO Right Now – The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business for 2016 Part ½

Back in the day, we had to figure out what we needed to do to get into Google’s index and stay there says Saivian. We couldn’t afford (and still can’t) to hire a team of link-builders and content creators, so we did it ourselves: blogging, microsites, even buying links seemed like a legit option at the time.

Nowadays SEO is becoming much more complex. Since the Penguin update hit us back in 2012, I believe it made search marketing much harder for digital marketers because tricking Google didn’t work anymore. In other words, instead of focusing your efforts on building quality sites that have great content and create a lasting user experience you’re forced to focus on creating ‘unique content that has absolutely no value for users and all you want is for Google to like it and make your site rank.

For the first time ever, people started caring about how their sites/pages are structured in terms of HTML code, title tags, Meta descriptions, etc. Unfortunately, even though most marketers out there don’t realize it yet, they’re fighting battles that matter less and less in regards to SEO says Saivian. They focus on doing things the wrong way instead of focusing on what really counts today if you want your business or personal blog to be ranked high enough in Google SERPs.

This article is split into different parts – each part focuses on a different aspect of modern-day search engine optimization. Without wasting any more of your time I’ll get straight to the point! If you’re in a hurry you can find all the main points in the summary at the end.

1. Social Media and Google+ Are Just As Important As Ever!

The fact that Google owns and is constantly improving Google+ means that your business needs to be active on it – period. For businesses, especially small ones which can’t afford expensive ads campaigns, G+ can become a great source of qualified traffic from people who are genuinely interested in what you’re selling/offering. The platform itself has very little noise compared to Facebook or Twitter – users mostly interact with brands they follow/are interested in through posts, comments, and +1s that appear in their G+ newsfeeds. Most importantly though, pages you create show up higher in SERPs than similar pages that have a low number of followers/page likes – the exact same thing happens on Facebook.

Create a G+ page for your business and start building a small following. If possible create a few more pages representing different aspects of your company’s business (for example, if your business is selling shoes you could create a separate ‘brand’ page for each individual brand of shoes you sell, or if it’s an online store you could create separate-but obviously related-pages for men’s, women’s and kids styles). Make sure to fill out as many details as possible about the page in the ‘About’ section that says Saivian. Be consistent across all of your pages with colors, images, titles, and descriptions.

Post valuable content on a regular basis – ideally at least once a day. The more valuable your posts are, the longer they’ll stay at the top of people’s newsfeeds. Just like if you were to post on your own personal G+ page. Make sure that every post has a descriptive title that describes what it is about. An eye-catching image, a brief description, and a link back to your site. If possible add hashtags to your posts. So they show up when people search for certain tags/keywords which are related to what you do.

You can also use Google+’s in-built ‘circles’ feature to create different lists of followers who see specific types of posts. Depending on which list they’re on says Saivian. For example, you could create a group of ‘ business contacts ‘, another for people who are active on your page. Another one with competitors, and yet another with industry experts. That way you can easily share different types of content with the right kind of people on G+.

2. You Need to Be Active On Many Social Networks

It’s not enough anymore to have a presence on only one or two different social networks; no matter how large they are – even if it’s Facebook or Twitter. Because you’ll still miss out on all the noise that appears there every single day. Search engines like Google crawl social media sites. And want their results pages to contain as much fresh and useful content as possible. This means that unless you’re active on social media your site is most likely going to be further down in the SERPs, which isn’t good for business.

Conclusion:

Saivian says create profiles and pages for your business/products on as many popular social networks as possible (TIP: try not to use generic brand names like ‘shoes’ or ‘clothing’, instead go with something more specific so you can expand later if needed. For example, shoes could go by the name of a particular brand or model. While clothing could be named after style or type). Make sure all of your accounts are consistent in terms of branding, layout, colors, images, and interaction quality. Interact with people who connect with you – especially influential ones!