SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is vital for any publisher. In today’s crowded environment and ever-changing algorithms, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest standards and best practices.
With recent updates from Google, publishers relying solely on historical rankings may find it challenging, so it’s important to have a strong SEO strategy in 2021.
1. Website architecture for SEO
The structure of a website directly affects how search engines crawl, interpret, and rank pages in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). But it’s not only that. In 2021, user experience signals will become the main drivers of organic rankings. Hence, a neat and consistent website with a great user interface is needed.
Clean up your site navigation
Navigation on your website should always be clear and consistent. Clear navigation increases your click-through rate (CTR), website visit duration and decreases bounce rate. These are all user experience tips that Google focuses on.
The Home button should always be clearly visible from anywhere. It is also useful to have convenient access to your personal account.
Our Medium example has a clear navigation bar, a search button, bookmarks for featured articles, and a notification center. Understandably, consistently and in one place!
Use categories and tags
Categories are important for grouping your content, and tags help you understand what is at stake. Both are important for both search engines and visitors.
The structure and design of a website is just as important as the quality of the content.
Clearly structure your navigation in the header and footer so that first-time visitors to your page understand who you are.
Create a sitemap for your site
Traditionally, sitemaps have been a must for publishers with a wide variety of content. However, everyone can benefit from having it.
In other words, a sitemap is a list of the different pages on a website. There are two types of sitemaps: XML (used by search engines) and HTML (provided to visitors).
XML sitemaps help search engines crawl and index your pages. An HTML sitemap helps users find important content with just a few clicks. It can also increase the chances of finding old content. You can also add your images to the sitemap to help you keep track of them.
Websites built by Squarespace and Shopify automatically generate sitemaps. If you are a WordPress user, you can create a sitemap using the Yoast plugin.
2. Internal links for SEO
We talked earlier about the importance of internal links in our article here. By the way, we just used one!
Internal links help you link different pages of your site using relevant keywords. This can be a great SEO opportunity because traffic is usually not evenly distributed across all pages, leaving many pages orphans.
But internal links are also useful for general usability as they help move content around on pages. They also reduce page depth (a metric that shows how many clicks it takes to get to a page from the home page), since most pages can be accessed in just a few clicks.
They also help search engines crawl and discover other pages on your site using anchor text. Internally linked pages get the best SERP rankings because search engines think they are of great value to readers.
INCLINE! It might also be a good idea to use “Related Article” to display one of your articles.
example of a featured article internal link
External links are just as important to SEO efforts as internal links.
3. Best practices for on-page optimization.
Internal SEO is critical to promoting users from the moment they discover your page in the SERPs. Therefore, it needs to be optimized in the most intuitive and logical way. If you don’t follow on-page SEO best practices, all other SEO efforts may be useless.
For example, best practices include the use of HTTP for safe browsing and fast loading of web pages for the convenience of users.
- Use a short url
URLs must be human readable and contain the target keyword (user request). According to research, short URLs rank better. They also give an idea of what the page is about, to both users and search engines.
Make it a rule – in most cases, the user will be able to guess your URL.
- use keywords effectively
The keyword you want to rank for should always appear in:
- title (be sure to use the H1 tag for the title),
- first paragraph,
- at least one subheading,
- ideally the first sentence of each paragraph.
This is because when search engines analyze your content, they focus on the first words and sentences in order to understand the topic.
- Write an SEO meta description
You should be creative and create compelling text to make users want to click on your page. You only get one chance! Also, try not to exceed 160 characters. Be sure to include the relevant CTA (call to action), such as Book Today or Learn More.
- Use subheadings to boost your SEO
Subheadings help to group topics in the text and avoid clutter in the text. Subheadings don’t have much of an impact on rankings, but they do help in terms of usability from a user’s point of view.
In fact, most users only digest 20% of the information they see and focus on the highlighted phrases. Write fast, compelling subheadings to keep users staying on your page and reading.
- Increase organic traffic
Selected snippets show a piece of information that usually contains the answer to a search query. There are also extended snippets, which can be reviews, products, images, and prices. Appearing in snippets can increase website traffic and increase your click-through rate (CTR).
It’s all about semantic search, which means that search engines now understand the context of a query even more intelligently and optimize results in accordance with its intentions. Hence, search engines provide users with the most relevant information.
Focus your content on queries, not keywords, and organize it by topic clusters. Use Google’s Markup Helper to render in fragments.
4. Image optimization for SEO
Not only has visual search evolved over the years, but images are now used for everything from selling products to serving ads. Thus, it is only natural that 2021 will be the time for the display of images.
- Compress your images
Always compress images before posting. With Core Web Vitals, Google wants your page to load in less than 2.5 seconds. Optimizing image sizes can potentially save 20% to 40% of page load time.
- Name your image files wisely
Make sure you change the filename to something more descriptive. This is a great chance to put your keyword in there too. The filenames signal the search engine crawlers what this is about.
Note: Bigger is not always better. Avoid keyword stuffing (inserting keywords all over the place) as this can lead to your site being viewed as spam.
- Write SEO friendly alternative text
The point of adding alt text is to let users who can’t see the image understand what they’re talking about. In addition, Google prioritizes pages that are accessible to the widest possible audience.
When choosing alternative text, focus on creating useful, information-rich content. Scanners use this information as well.
- Mobile SEO
Mobile devices have long supplanted computer search. For this reason, mobile SEO should be an important part of your SEO strategy. Choose a responsive template or theme that supports your website on all types of devices.
Use a mobile testing tool to see how well your pages perform on mobile devices and fix bugs as needed.
- Optimize for additional traffic
Consider optimizing images for additional discoveries. For example, these days, users are more likely to view Google images from mobile devices than from computers.
Adding structured data can drive targeted traffic to your website. This can be a prominent icon or fragment displayed for your images. Make sure you follow the general guidelines for structuring your data.
5. Google Discover
Google Discover is a personalized mobile news feed powered by artificial intelligence. It already has 800 million active users and is expected to grow in 2021.
This allows users to find topics that match their interests and previous search behavior. Discover feed measures visitor engagement with content. Therefore, if they like your content, the chances of you appearing in their feed again are pretty high.
Make sure you regularly create quality and engaging content. Google focuses on credible content, so try to get backlinks from reputable sources.
Google Discover supports most languages and plans to expand it, so the more languages you support, the wider your reach.
6. Fresh content
It is important that the content is as relevant as possible. This is because search engines prioritize fresh content. If you blog about the latest news, try mixing it with timeless, regularly updated content that will add value over a longer period.
Regularly review previously created content and update statistics, infographics and dates. This will force Google to view your content as “fresh”.
SEO Specialist Neil Patel suggests revisiting the pages that have stopped receiving traffic and adding relevant information to them. This way, when you link to them, you are still providing relevant information to your readers.
7. Optimize your content for voice search.
Voice search is just around the corner to replace traditional search. Today’s speech recognition accuracy is between 95% and 99%, and we expect rapid growth in voice search in 2021.
Today, there are 4.2 billion active voice assistant users. This number is expected to double by 2024. This opens up a lot of possibilities for publishers.
Try to identify the questions your audience is asking in a conversational manner. This means that people are more likely to ask natural-sounding questions that contain long-tail keywords rather than targeted keywords.
Google autocomplete, related searches, and human searches are great places to start collecting data.
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8. SEO and digital marketing
- Take up social media
Social networking sites usually outperform other domains. This is because social networking sites have higher domain rankings and higher authority. As such, having your company’s Twitter and LinkedIn pages can boost your brand’s presence and drive more organic traffic.
Create a social media schedule that captures social media activity on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Then, do A / B testing to see which campaigns generate the most engagement. You can also use social planning tools like Hootsuite or Buffer.
Create a public Twitter list that people can follow. Not only will you improve your visibility, but you will also do justice to the people who create valuable content.
- Create a Youtube channel
Video is one of the most effective SEO tools. Did you know that videos increase organic traffic from SERPs by 157%?
Video content is very interesting and engaging, so having a Youtube channel can attract a lot of additional traffic and improve visibility.
Focus your videos on popular searches that you can get in the auto-complete YouTube search bar. Be sure to include targeted keywords in your video description and title. Finally, take the time to professional, accurate transcripts to satisfy a wider audience and improve your SEO.
- Start a podcast
Podcasts are on the rise and will definitely become one of the central trends of 2021. They are mobile, convenient and fun – almost anything the user wants!
But did you know that podcasts can be a huge SEO boost? Google now indexes podcasts and gives them the top spot in search results. To display Google search results, be sure to include your primary keyword in your title, write an effective description, and post an SEO-optimized transcript.
9. Local Search Marketing
Local search is evolving. This is partly due to voice search, GPS and mobile phone. Today 46% of all Google searches intend to find local information. In 2021, it will become even more visible as algorithms are improved to provide users with more relevant information.
Start by creating a business account with Google. Make sure your contact details and opening hours are visible. For publishers, this may be a chance to reach local audiences by creating local content.
Finally, focus on getting strong backlinks and using social media geotagging features.
10. Content administration
Obviously, in order to compete in this environment, you need to publish regularly. But quality content always outweighs frequency.
Make sure your content is of unique value to your readers. Duplicate content can seriously damage your rankings and lead to serious fines.
Raise your E-A-T rating (experience, credibility and reliability). Be transparent with your audience and back up your content with facts and statistics from high quality sources. Google has made it clear that E-A-T is a ranking factor.
This may also include showing biographies and images of authors, having a dedicated About Us page, and posting content from trusted experts. Outside SEO, such as advertising on relevant trusted platforms and customer interactions outside of your domain, can also be beneficial.
Pick up
In 2021, an online publisher must be smart about search engine optimization. Google will continue to update and improve its algorithms, which will definitely affect your rankings.
Moreover, there is a high likelihood of getting fined for any questionable methods such as manual link building and black hat SEO. To avoid penalties, follow best SEO practices both on and off page, and diversify your strategy using various social channels and tools.