Re-post from the 
blog
While there are many search engines, the one to keep your eye on is Google. Following what Google has done and trying to stay ahead of changes in algorithms is your ace in the hole for staying ahead of your competition. You also need to understand how SEO and content work together.
Struggling Through Google
Since February 2011, Google has, without a doubt, given marketers some major headaches with all of its algorithm updates and move toward the “mobile-first” culture. These actions were necessary to provide Google users with the best experience in lightning fast searches over any device.
Unfortunately, those individuals working with SEO encountered difficulty in keeping up with Google. Simple was the name of the game at one point – a thesis paper explained how to function with Google. Even with rapid changes, marketers still understood how to get high ranks on their sites.
Major Problem Developed
You know, they say it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the bunch – sure enough, some businesses took advantage of a good thing. What else can you expect when someone could make $10 by spending $2 to purchase links to their site – of course, everyone wants in on that deal.
Google realized that this deal would not lead to high-quality searches or show an increase in market share and revenue, which led to decision makers “obscuring the details of their ranking algorithm.”
Learn From Google
SEO professionals need to make the smart move – follow the goals of Google. Resonating content and quality are the cornerstones of keeping prospects engaged, converting them to customers whenever, however, and wherever they find your company.
The year 2017 is steadily moving along, so you need to keep thinking ahead now and quickly! Here are five important steps in which you need proficiency to help you stay on track.
Five Steps In Getting Ahead Of Your Competition
1. You need to realize that while you need SEO content, your words should provide content convergence. Your SEO content should focus on the customer. Plus, writing only for search engines creates extreme boredom when reading. Use search data to know the intentions of your customers. With this information in mind, make use of SEO within the intelligent content. The combination of SEO and content has already seen a significant projected growth: The estimated SEO task budgets between 2016 and 2020 will show a $15 billion increase.
What you need to do:
- Be sure to use data in creating your content. Your writing needs to have a purpose. Have a set idea as to the type of consumer, engagement, and conversion metrics that befit your brand.
- Encourage interaction with organic search, social media, and content. Brands see their goals and objectives achieved through combining these three areas; SEO mixed with high-quality content from the start vastly increases search visibility. Demand for your services or products by search overflows through connecting that content with social media.
- Benefit from your presence on your search engine results page (SERP). You cannot go wrong creating highly effective ROI content, such as videos, infographics, and articles; they answer FAQ’s or offer useful information.
2. Be ready for mobile-first. The mobile-first shift came on the scene in 2015, as people searched increasingly more with mobile devices than with computers. Therefore, it is vitally important that your business is enhanced for mobile capabilities, especially for what Google considers mobile micro-moments.
What you need to do:
- Increase site traffic with mobile optimization. You don’t want your brand having a traffic decrease of 68 percent. You will want a clear understanding of the behaviors and intent of mobile users. The name of the game here is to exceed expectations, or your competition delivers the knockout: they win the market share and revenue.
- Make mobile SEO incredibly fast. You may have an enticing site that is easy to look through, but research shows that when loading times take longer than three seconds, this causes people to move on to another site 53 percent of the time.
- Know your customer: use the appropriate mobile content. Your future consumers need valuable information; sometimes they need guidance in determining what they want to purchase. Your brand should be there to change inspiration to revenue.
3. Forget local: get hyperlocal. You can profit from those who search for places nearby, which can lead to the idea of getting to them. Your brand becomes (hyper relevant and hyper valuable).
What you need to do:
- Make your critical information visible. Future customers need to find you – make sure that your pertinent contact information is readily searchable.
- Be hypervigilant in hyperlocal development. If you have a Google My Business page, improve it. Make sure to have localized content and landing pages, utilize schema markup, and pay attention to the ranking of your local keywords.
- Be ready for where local and mobile converge. The person performing a local search by phone is 50 percent more likely to enter a store within 24 hours. Some phone users need information on the go, so they need and expect something different – your site must accommodate these people as well.
4. While some text, others use their voice. Bringing up information by text may not be close to dying away, but using one’s voice for searches is an important area to keep in mind as it is on the rise – more people select virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa.
What you need to do:
- Realize that voice searches use questions. When consumers want to know something using their voices, the natural inclination is to ask who, what, where, and how types of questions. What makes this kind of search good for you is that you can discover their intent. Locate high-intent keywords to create the best content for getting your brand “SERP”ified.
- Know that search by voice is on the increase. Voice search is more accurate and faster than using the smartphone keypad. Additionally, by 2020, ComScore figures that voice searches will be up by 50 percent. Have your content formatted to assist these searchers.
- Be in line with intelligent agents. Voice searches happen nearly anywhere, especially at home. Intelligent agents help to provide personalized information by getting to know the search history, semantics, and behaviors of the user. Be the right answer at the correct moment for the consumer.
5. Let your data bring you to machine learning. Search engines such as Google depend on learning about huge chunks of data through RankBrain to deliver the best results. So, it only stands to reason that you also rely on machine learning to better understand your audience.
What you need to do:
- Seek the truth from data. With so much data and not enough hours to comprehend it all, you need to know the when and why of analytics.
- Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to have the time for engaging and influential content.
- Use metrics and measurement to define what data is distinctive to your brand quickly. Keep tracking progress, making your content better, and stay visible.
Don’t Let Costs Stop You From Moving Forward
While the forecast shows an annual expense of $80 billion on SEO by 2020, and content marketing amounts to exceed $300 billion by 2019, you might be inclined to see SEO and content marketing as a cost burden. Instead, let them play out as strategies toward a tangible ROI.
Understand and utilize the five steps, continually measuring the data. Create the kind of intelligent content suitable for your audience to convert over to revenue.