Search engine optimisation is a constantly evolving industry. The emergence of mobile, the growing emphasis on content and the maturity of social media as a marketing channel has changed how brands need to look at SEO and how their structures support digital activity. This video looks at five of the key issues raised in our SEO Strategy Guide.

SEO is everyone’s responsibility

Historically, SEO was a discipline in its own right, siloed on its own away from other marketing and business operations. Modern SEO cannot work like that.

Whether you are working in IT, public relations, marketing, branding, content, business development or strategy, SEO now touches so many aspects of a business operation that it is now everybody’s responsibility.

The biggest challenge at boardroom level is to break down the walls and barriers between the various business operations by setting organisational, not departmental, KPIs.

When all of your core functions are aware of the SEO challenges facing your brands, and collectively working towards a solution to them, your brand stands a much better chance of dominating those crucial Google search terms.

Develop a content-led approach to SEO

Content is the lifeblood of any effective and sustainable SEO strategy.

This includes both functional content, which is designed to guide your audiences and customers to the most relevant page for a given keyword and drive a conversion, and creative content that builds your brand, generates social media shares, earns positive media coverage and acquires high-quality backlinks.

To make sure that your content is effective, you need to ensure that it is aligned with the objectives of the business. Understand where the gaps in your current site content lie, and how you can effectively close those gaps. This ensure that you are delivering meaningful content on the keywords that matter to your brand.

You can then use creative content ideas and communication to amplify your brand message, establishing your brand as the authority voice in your field through owned, earned and paid marketing channels. This is what will earn quality backlinks, fuel social discussion and drive traffic.

Put your customer first

There was a time where SEO was about doing what was right for Google, rather than what was right for your customers. Modern SEO has almost turned that notion completely on its head.

Of course, you still have to have a strategy that follows Google’s best practice guidelines, but the focus has to be squarely on the needs of your customer.

You need to understand how your audiences behave online, where they are digitally active, what devices they use and what their motivations are for engaging with your brand. This insight allows you to develop a content and SEO strategy that is relevant, credible, trustworthy, useful and engaging.

Don’t underestimate the importance of mobile

Tablets are now the preferred web browsing device, accounting for 30% of all UK internet traffic. When combined with smartphones, mobile devices account for 52% of all web traffic.

With sales from mobile devices growing, and mobile adoption only set to increase, it is vital that your digital strategy is focused around multiple connected devices.

This means much more than simply deploying a responsive website or a mobile app. It means taking a detailed look at how your customers and target audiences use mobile devices. The keywords used on desktop and mobile may be very different, check-out processes need to be more streamlined on small screen devices and content needs to be presented in a clearer and more digestible format.

In short, don’t simply try and copy a desktop SEO strategy and apply it to mobile. Revisit your SEO strategy from the ground up to make sure that you are serving all of your current and potential devices, whatever device they use.

Technical optimisation is still vitally important

Whilst SEO may have evolved to be much more focused on content and consumers, it is still important to get the basics right.

Google is still looking ‘under the bonnet’ of your website so making sure that your site is technically optimised is critical in helping search engines discover your content and deliver the right landing page for the right keyword.

So basic principles of SEO still very much apply – ensure that your site is structured logically, ensure that the code is clean, that your site loads quickly and that you use h1, h2 and h3 tags correctly.

Thanks for watching. You can download your free copy of our 45-page SEO Best Practice Guide now at https://www.stickyeyes.com/intelligence/seo-strategy-guide/