The future of SEO is brighter, cleverer and more relevant

WordPress SEO.

Ever since Google hammered the final nail into the coffin of the search engine spammers, the production of quality content on the web has exploded. This is good.

The death of (terrible) SEO should not underplayed, it occurred at a critical moment in the development of the web, and more specifically content publication and digital services. Or, the WordPress Generation, as we like to call it.

It makes for an exciting time but we need to be careful in becoming complacent. Google are continuing to refine their fairy dust so you need to stay vigilant! And with no more quick fixes, companies have to realise that getting your site noticed on Google is a good deal harder – you need to establish your site as an authority in your marketspace and that requires an integrated approach.

The role of social media and trust platforms is now more important than ever, connecting your content with real people, who in turn are connected to other real people is the aim. Say goodbye to fake personas, company profiles and made-up posts.

Content is king. Good digital services are about sharing quality information and that translates into lots of content, lots of articles, lots of posts, lots of comments and lots of social interaction with what you are publishing.

As a result, content planning is the new darling of digital marketing departments and this encompasses:

  • Articles, posts, blogs
  • External online PR
  • Guest content
  • Content bibles

In fact, SEO has become an essential skill for all digital marketers.

The challenges of reporting

Most use Google Analytics, it’s free and pretty much the best allround web reporting suite on the market. However, just as we move into a content publishing world Google has decided that folks privacy is more important than companies knowing what we are searching for.

Welcome to (Not Provided). That awful blank hole in your marketing plan when someone asks you “what are people searching for”. It was dying anyway as different folks were getting different results anyway – it really is the death of the keyword.

As a result it’s a good deal trickier to report on progress. We’ll all need to find new KPIs before the year is out.

Rise of mobile

If you don’t have a mobile site, or if your site is not responsive then you are making all of this a good deal harder. Get your mobile plan sorted, and plan is centred around responsive design. This is where WordPress excels, it’s natively responsive and you can’t say that about many other web platforms.

Summary

  • Be authentic
  • Build a content plan
  • Go responsive
  • Build credibility
  • Integrate digital publishing across multiple platforms
  • Encourage interaction from customers, parters and staff
  • Find new KPIs

By Martin Dower

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