Search engine optimization, or SEO, has influenced marketing strategy since the dawn of the internet. SEO is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of inbound website traffic via organic search engine results. Today, 51% of online traffic arrives at websites via organic search. However, if you’re not staying on top of SEO trends and updates, your website likely isn’t optimized for today’s search algorithms. Just like with any technology, search engines evolve constantly. To make sure you’re still on top of your SEO game, consider these developments, trends and strategies.

How Search Engines Works Today

The days of stuffing website pages and metatags with keywords is over. To understand how to optimize your rank among search engines, you must first understand how search engines look at content. A search engine like Google consists of a bot (referred to as a crawler), an index and an algorithm. The crawler follows links. When Google’s crawler finds your website, it reviews and analyzes the site’s content. This content is then indexed and processed through the search engine’s algorithm, which determines its ranking. Crawlers imitate the way a reader may consume information. They consider the length of time spent on the website as well as user engagement.

New Tech Matters

Many factors can determine the evolution of SEO. Laws, such as the recent GDPR initiative, or social changes are influencers. However, the biggest sway on SEO today is technology. New devices, programs, algorithms and software all have an impact. For example, nearly 60% of searches are made via mobile devices, up 10% in the last four years. In 2016, Google responded to this trend by introducing its mobile-first algorithm, which ranked sites based on their mobile rather than desktop version. While mobile use still exceeds desktop, the introduction of new devices continues to change SEO implications. The “Internet of Things” encompasses the growing variety of devices that connect to the internet. With more than 5,000 devices integrated with Google Assistant and voice search on the rise, the focal points of search have become decentralized and span a much wider spectrum.

Strategies and Crawlability

SEO should be an important consideration for multiple departments within an organization, including marketing, public relations, IT or website management. Therefore, it should be a part of any strategic plan.

When considering SEO strategies, an important factor is crawlability, or the ability of the search engine bot (and therefore the potential user) to continue crawling your website. The more time a search engine’s crawler spends on your website, the more it indexes. This enables more content to show up in searches. To enhance a site’s crawlability, be sure to include the following: 

1. Expandable content. Also known as accordions, expandable content allows a page to remain succinct and easy to navigate on all devices, while still enabling access to other information and locations. These expandable and collapsible blocks of content display a small sample, encouraging the visitor to explore more. This keeps information and links located on every page, without sacrificing website performance. The easier it is to navigate a website, the more time users (and crawlers) will spend consuming content.
2. Topic Clusters. Topic clusters are a concept coined by Hubspot.com that helps structure content. The idea is to build a pillar page for each type of content and build a network of related “cluster content.” This allows prospects and search engines to locate your main pillar page and discover relevant information from there. A pillar page may rank well due to this chain of action. For example, if this blog were a part of a topic cluster, it could act as cluster content for a pillar about the broad topic of SEO.
3. Textual link-building. This is a strategy of crawlability that integrates links directly into content. Any blog, article, white paper, page or other form of content that already exists on your website is an opportunity for a link. Not only will search-engine crawlers use these links, when readers want or need to know more, they’ll be led to more of your organization’s relevant thought leadership.
4. Suggested material. Similar to topic clusters, sidebars or end tags suggest related material to readers and can greatly improve SEO. If visitors didn’t find the answer they needed, keywords in related topics on your site can lead them there. Or, after consuming a piece of content, another important or applicable headline captures their attention.
5. Refresh old content. While this is necessary for more than just SEO, refreshing old content greatly improves opportunities to be revealed to prospects via organic search. Crawlers ignore old web pages, articles and blogs lacking links or not included in site structure. To ensure these pages show up in search, renew and optimize content to be easily discovered and navigated.
6. Guest content and outside links. It’s not only important that crawlers and readers browse your site effectively. They need to find it in the first place. This is where social media platforms and other marketing channels make a difference. Post content in multiple places. Promote it via social media, always linking back to your website. One excellent way for discovery is to contribute content to valued publications within your industry. Like a pillar page, these publications support your work within a diverse network of other related topics. Also, they help new readers and potential customers find you.

SEO = User Optimization

Search engines have evolved immensely since their inception. With the inclusion of new devices, emerging technologies and the ever-changing consumption preferences of audiences, many believe the term SEO already is archaic. As search engines and their bots evolve to act more and more like the people who use them, SEO has grown more into “user optimization.” Take advantage of the preciseness of search engine algorithms to not only optimize your website for search, but also to optimize it for your target audiences.