Transforming Your SEO Strategy for Success

Search Engine Optimization is one of the activities in the digital space used for the optimization of websites to get ranked high on search results. It enables a website to get additional traffic from search engines by enhancing its rankings on Search Engine Result Pages. It ensures that search engines such as Google, and Firefox can optimize the search results and provide the best helpful result depending on their query. This shows that SEO is beneficial and how the use of two different SEO techniques i.e. Black Hat SEO & White Hat SEO can benefit the business in the long run.

SEO is going through a thorough facelift thanks to tons of AI tools flooding the online marketplace and even relentless algorithms update that Google is hell-bent on undertaking to refine its searches. Currently, the entire spotlight is on ChatGPT and even Bard, as we all know, as these two tools could turn around the search and the whole content creation process.

However, as well all know, ChatGPT generates stunted and stale content, and the same goes for its search process. ChatGPT's potential in terms of search could be better as it gives only pointed answers to search queries, while Google goes over and beyond and offers pages and pages worth of search results.

So all said and done, ChatGPT is still a work in progress and has much catching up to do if it wants to compete with Google. Lets understand SEO more in detail before getting to the updates you need to make in your SEO stratgey.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Simply put it is optimizing your website in a way that it gets ranked on top of search results on targeted keywords. When a user feeds in keywords looking for a particular kind of service, the search engine shows them results and you would want to be seen as top as possible in this listing. The whole process of getting this done is called SEO.

The search engine showcases two types of results whenever a user searches such as

• Organic Results: It basically consists of websites that the engine thinks to answer the query placed by the user.
• Inorganic Results: They are basically websites that have paid to be placed on top to be shown for these queries.

How SEO helps websites & businesses?

The websites listed at the top of the SERP are useful as their primary focus is to attract more and more visitors. The visitors tend to click on the first 2-3 like that are displayed on the result page rather than scrolling down to the bottom. This puts pressure on webmasters to get ranked high as getting lower on the list will mean a sharp reduction in clicks. You can expect almost zero traffic if you rank on the second page.

There are many features and aspects involved in SEO to achieve higher rankings.

• On-Page SEO: all the activities that you do on your own website as part of your SEO strategy
• Off-Page SEO: All activities that you do on someone else’s site to earn links and traffic.

On-Page SEO can include writing compelling meta titles and descriptions, optimizing page load speed, and image optimization among others.

The off-page SEO includes social media, marketing, branding, local SEO, backlinking, and more. These factors maximize the engagement rate by reaching a targeted audience. The optimum use of SEO Techniques helps the website to achieve a higher position on the SERP.

What are Title Pages?

The Title Pages are the name of the web page while the domain name represents the website name and the title tag tends to identify the specific page, post, and article on the website. It should be relevant to the website content and doesn’t need to be clickbait or entirely should not be different.

What is Internal or External Linking?

Links placed on your own website that direct a user to some other page are called internal links as the user stays on the same website in the end.

Links that direct the user to an external website are called external links as the user gets directed to another website and you tend to lose traffic. External links help in making the website more active and allow the user to engage with a larger audience.

What is Backlinking?

In backlinking, external links are placed on someone else’s website that directs the user to your page. Search engines consider the backlinks as a kind of testimony that your webpage is essential to a user for the keywords they have been linked on. The more quality links you have, the higher your SEO goes in return.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO optimizes the website in the local geographic region and allows the user to connect with local people. Connect with the audience in the local vicinity and increase reach and engagement.

What is Black Hat & White Hat SEO?

Search engines have a set of rules and guidelines for webmasters to optimize their sites for SEO. Following these rules and not violating them are considered white hat SEO. White hat SEO involves providing high-quality content that adds value to the users with an easily navigable structure.

Using a good UI UX design along with ensuring mobile optimization are considered essential components of white hat SEO. The implementation of white hat SEO is considered a significant practice that focuses on boosting the SEO and preserving the website's credibility. Implementing them on the website gradually increases the SEO ranking.

Black Hat SEO is the way of implementing optimization which doesn’t adhere to laws and restrictions by search engines. They might look to give quick SEO results but in the long run, they are serving more harm than good. Content cloaking, keyword stuffing, and auto-generated pages are some of the bad ideas you should avoid altogether irrespective of how lucrative they might look.

The use of black hat techniques may generate immediate results in connecting with the targeted audience but is not recommended. If the user isn’t satisfied with the website appearing first on the search engine ne which is unrelated to the query can report it to Google. The search engine tends to detect unusual behavior and warns by sending several reports from various users which increases the chances of the website getting banned.

Use of White Hat SEO Techniques

White Hat SEO optimizes the website effectively according to the search engine guidelines without paying any sort of penalties. When SEO is done properly it can easily boost the organic ranking and increases the visibility of the website.

White SEO isn’t easy to master as it requires the users to stay updated with the guidelines of the search engines such as Google & Bing. This requires the user to understand how search engine algorithms work and how one can leverage the same with optimization techniques. The improper use of these white hat SEO techniques can result in lost time and resources. Small business owners tend to use these research proper techniques before launching any new campaigns or adopting these tactics on a larger scale.

When used correctly, these white hat SEO techniques can bring a series of benefits such as sustained rankings.

Penalties for Black Hat SEO

Google handles rulebreakers to punish the offending site. If you ever notice a sudden drop in traffic or fewer web pages appearing in search results, this shows a sign of a possible penalty. Google informs the user there’s a manual action against the site. They notify if there’s an issue and provide the user the time to rectify it.

The search rank may drop temporarily but fixing it on time will usually help the website rank on Google. You might try submitting a request to get your rankings restored, but in most cases, the effort does not give any result.

Google changes algorithms and sees the questionable SEO behavior where websites that were ranking earlier are now dropped out of sight. It tends to impact website authority, visibility, and traffic.

It could get the website banned or excluded from the search results. This could impact the year's worth of effort in building a business online, killing organic traffic, and generating zero leads and sales.

Common Tactics to Avoid in Black Hat SEO

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is used to get your content to rank higher in search engines. This makes the content unreadable and Google tends to catch the same. Google algorithm works on finding relevance when you are using unrelated keywords or too many of them it tends to downgrade the content.

Cloaking

In cloaking, it shows one thing to visitors and another to search engines. The website tends to cloak the images by adding hyperlinks or text in the HTML. Black hat SEO, it’s a common technique to insert keywords without any visitor’s knowledge.

Use Affiliate Content

Some people run affiliate programs and make promotional content available to affiliates. However, when you publish identical content on the website. It doesn’t have any sort of substance for the reader. To avoid duplicate content, it’s important to make the affiliate product site by putting original content inclusive of reviews, ratings, and comparisons.

Google Updates and its impact on SEO

Google has been releasing updates repeatedly, which will keep the SEO guys on their toes. What are the main updates?

Here's a brief overview of the main updates by Google that SEO experts want you to know to get you started.

Comply with "Google's Helpful Content" Algo Update

In this age of ChatGPT and Bard, whereby using a simple prompt, you can easily auto-generate 5000-word pieces in a matter of seconds, Google's Helpful Content Update is a timely reminder for content marketers that writing content is a serious business. Spinning AI tools will only generate below-average, low-quality duplicate content that would find no takers, and even Google could penalize you for the same.

The order of the day is: tailoring content per the reader's requirements. Simply put, the reader should find the content helpful and actionable.

Here's a detailed take on what Google means by Helpful content: 

• People-friendly content: not Google Friendly 
• Rightly resonates with the target audience
• Aligns with the website services
• Experienced writers with real-world experiences.

Creating helpful content is no more a walk in the park. It would help if you were doubly sure of your writers and their forte. Gone are the days when you could hire any Tom, Dick, and Harry to churn out a 500-word copy for you. Pumping out thin content in high volumes is a big no-no, as such content, no matter what, wouldn't rank in search results. And more importantly, this could mean a waste of time and resources on the company's end.  

Furthermore, besides running Ahrefs for keyword research, use it for the following purposes: content length, subtopics covered, author's background, and links included, among other things.  If you need further guidance on Google’s Helpful content update, consult SEO agencies to take your SEO a notch further.

Embrace the First ‘E’ in E-E-A-T Update

Google's 'EAT' guideline got further boosted when an extra "E" was added to the equation. While EAT stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust, the additional "E" stands for Experience. Putting the 'experience part' in perspective, Google will strictly consider the author's expertise and Experience while evaluating the content quality. 

Simply put, via the EAT guideline, Google verifies whether the writer has real-world Experience with the topic at hand and whether she goes above and beyond to give an insider account. Or is she simply trying to play the SEO card by scratching the surface and stuffing the copy with many keywords? Google will up its ante against random written content without considering the website's target audience.    

For instance, if you are running a software company, but your blogs are on Fashion, general news, and more, then be assured your website will soon be hit by a Google penalty. Your Google rankings could go down, resulting in low traffic and leads.

The bottom line is websites need to examine their content creators' qualifications and the types of topics they are choosing to write about in the first place before they go ahead and start with their full-fledged writing process.

Rise to the AI Bait 

With Google getting stricter with its online content policies, marketers have no way out but to tread the AI road cautiously. Needless to say, generating automated articles is highly frowned upon because it’s pretty generalized and lacks human emotions. However, the fact remains AI tools cut down the research time drastically. 

Not surprisingly, marketing applications come integrated with SEO and AI tools. For that matter, even content marketers have been successfully experimenting with different kinds of AI versions in the past year, as it helps accelerate the content creation process and generate

original, quality content. Developing content ideas, outlines, and briefs is a piece of cake with AI.  If you still need to learn about the use of AI in your marketing and SEO, check in with the top SEO companies listed on GoodFirms. The companies listed here are experienced and have been thoroughly vetted for their expertise and skillsets.  

Make the Most of Data Lakes And Business Intelligence

It goes without saying: Data quality and intelligence are the cornerstones of excellent marketing performance.  

Search data mirrors changing consumer tastes and behavior, besides digital and content trends. Not surprisingly, search data has increasingly been considered ideal for business intelligence.   

And, now, with loads of information available online and Google tweaking its algorithms time and again, SEO professionals have to be on their toes analyzing more data to learn the intricacies of indexing and ranking.    

Further, marketers need to monitor data in the form of website traffic, keyword performance, and user behavior to improve their website and its search rankings.

Data lakes help SEO in this cause. How? Data Lakes are large repositories of raw data that can be processed and analyzed to derive quality insights that play a critical role in SEO.   

For instance, it gives in-depth insights into user behavior and search engine rankings, helping them make informed decisions about SEO strategies. 

Search Business Intelligence helps organizations zero down on their focus areas, and it also helps them identify trends both at the macro and micro levels. 

Some significant benefits of Data Lakes include brand awareness, marketing feedback for future launches, and informing the content and digital teams on intent and SERP.

Leverage Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google Analytics 4 uses AI to offer more customer-centric data to know whether the user engages with the content or not and, in the process, predicts customer action and value. The GA4 analytics provides engagement, retention, monetization data, and more.  

The reason cited by Google to release this update in October 2020 was because of the changes in consumer behavior and privacy policies.

The new analytics uses an event-driven data model that ensures intelligent web and app metrics integrations. In layman’s language, you could check Amazon on a mobile device, revisit the site on a Desktop; and finally make the purchase via an Amazon app. Google Analytics 4 tracks and stitches all these data together to offer more accurate information on the customer journey.  

In fact, the stitching of data from different devices ensures more robust data, which in turn provides a targeted audience for ad campaigns resulting in better ROI on ad spend.  

Multisearch is the New Google Search

Google’s AI-powered multi-search, first introduced in April last year, allows users to search via text and images simultaneously. The idea is to make the most of smartphone capabilities. Currently, the search is available to Global users on mobile devices where Google Lens is already available. 

Powered by Multitask Unified Model (MUM) AI technology, this AI search model enables you to put two and two together regarding topics, concepts, and ideas. Users must add text and visual search queries to Google Lens to use this feature.   

The multi-search feature enables a faster shopping experience. Now, the customer needs to upload an image along with keywords of the product they are looking for, and Google Lens gives you instant and more often precise results.

Form a Tunnel Vision Around Quality Backlinks

Google values one good, relevant, high-quality link over a million low-quality links pointing to your website.  

Google’s Search Advocate, John Muller, has been very clear about link quality from day one as he says you could have millions of links pointing to your website, but Google could ignore all. On the other hand, if you have one quality link from a good website, that is a strong indicator that your website should be treated as relevant and essential.        

Bottomline: Quality trumps quantity when building backlinks for your website.

Same Content in Different Formats is not Considered Duplicate

If you are worried that repurposing of content would be considered as duplicate content by Google, then worry out. You can easily convert your blog post into a video without losing sleep, as Google cannot decipher video text and then compare it with a blog post.

This means both your blog post and video on the same can be published at the same time, as Google won’t dismiss either of them as duplicate content.

Click-through Rates Across Multiple Pages

Yes, you read that right! Gone are the days when users clicked only on the first three websites appearing in the search results. With users becoming increasingly familiar with endless scrolling on mobile and websites, it's become easier to check multiple pages while looking for the content they seek. And, if zero-click searches are a nightmare, here's some good news. According to a study, 25.8% of searches resulted in zero clicks, and this percentage will go down in the future as Google keeps refining searches with featured snippets and People Also Ask.  

SEO is evolving with evolving technology. This means there are many things that SEO experts want you to know. The above tips will give your website a firm footing so your business can start implementing them without much ado. We know it’s not easy, but then we also know big shots are the little shots that keep shooting. So stick to your SEO goals, and start taking measured steps in the above direction.

Author: Amit Kumar Khare

Amit is a tech enthusiast and loves coding. He likes to know about things in detail which gets reflected in his writing. His penchant for the finer details makes him the perfect match when it comes to development or technical SEO.