Virtually all companies are hoping for a better search performance than the previous years’, and 2022 is no exemption. We all want to dominate the search engine SEO, especially Google, which holds 92.47% of the worldwide search market share as of June 2021.
Premier SEO companies analyze the year’s performance to determine what went wrong and which needs improvement overall. Whatever insights are derived from the assessment will inform the following year’s SEO strategy. For 2022, here are the pillars that drive a conversion-oriented SEO strategy.
Four pillars of a strong SEO strategy
1) Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that your website is crawlable and indexable. You want to make sure that search engines display the right pages when a particular keyword is searched. Your website must have a clear content structure so that the pages are three clicks away from the homepage.
A Google-friendly CMS (content management system) must back the website. Finally, it must not be code-heavy, so it loads faster一a website must load 3 seconds or faster. Otherwise, the user will close the window and look for another website to explore and perhaps, buy a product from.
Aside from fast page load times, you need to make the website mobile-friendly. Users are increasingly mobile-first and mobile-only users. Therefore, it should adapt to different devices and browsers as well.
2) On-page SEO
On-site SEO puts good user experience (UX) at the center. The entire website and each page should be easy to navigate. With this said, the anatomy of a well-optimized page includes:
- A descriptive URL
- Keyword-integrated page title
- Click-driven meta description
- A well-placed call to action (CTA)
The CTA must be compelling enough to drive action, making it easy for the users to know what they should do next.
Before writing the website content and evergreen blog posts, you should clearly understand your target audience. Then, keyword research must be completed, although it should be updated regularly to reflect the changes in your industry or niche. Speaking of which, keywords should be integrated into the copy as naturally as possible.
Another critical on-page SEO factor is structured data markup. SEO professionals need to understand how the search engine results pages (SERPs) change and the triggers that result in the changes. For example, appearing in the top three or page one results generally improves click-through rates. However, other SERP features such as knowledge graphs and sitelinks can further drive the CTRs.
3) Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO aims to build authority, more so in the eyes of Google. To do this, a website should have a portfolio of creative assets, including infographics, images, charts, tips, techniques, reasons, and many more. In addition, original research such as industry studies, surveys, and in-depth guides tend to have the highest engagement.
There should be a healthy mix of visual and textual content shareable online. If you can do original research, the better because these types of content contribute immensely to authority building.
4) Content optimization
To continue with the above, content optimization ensures that you have authoritative and shareable content. Website content tells your target users what your business is about and its products and services or, generally, how you can bring value to them.
Aside from marketing content that helps position your company as the authority in that particular niche, you should also publish credibility content. This content type aims to build E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
You might say that these are the basics. Well, it is. Unfortunately, some brands and companies still fail at devising an effective SEO strategy. So there is a need to reinforce the message on how vital a well-optimized website is, formulating an SEO strategy that captures all the relevant ranking factors.
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