SEO Is A Long Term Investment in 2021

SEO Is A Long Term Investment in 2021

March 11, 2021
SEO Lead, Natasha Nelson

SEO Lead, Natasha Nelson

It may be tempting to hire a marketing agency who promises quick SEO results, but often times this strategy ends up doing more harm than good. There are no shortcuts to SEO, and while they might be tempting to try, they typically don’t work to your advantage long term. SEO Lead, Natasha Nelson, explains why shortcuts just don’t work and provides five helpful tips on providing the best user experience (because that is what Google is judging your site on) so you will achieve higher rankings through SEO efforts in 2021.

For those who aren’t SEO experts, here is a basic overview of how it works. Google decides the order your website is ranked in “search” on multiple factors. As Google acquires data metrics to judge where your site lands, they are wanting to know how much value your site is delivering. The data metrics Google weighs is always changing. This is why the best practices of 2020 may not be the best practices this year. It was widely accepted you needed numerous backlinks to your site to gain traction with Google. A backlink is a link created when one website links to another. Backlinks are also called “inbound links” or “incoming links.” While backlinks can be a major factor, you still need to think long term and ask what is Google looking for in the future? You can use the stock market as an analogy. If you think of Organic SEO on your site as an investment, it should compound over time, just like money.

The bottom line is, while tempting, shortcuts do not work. Google’s algorithms become smarter every day, Google will catch them and punish your site for them by lowering your ranking. It can take years to simply get back to where your rankings were previously.

We put together our top 5 suggestions for 2021 on ranking higher:

  1. Site speed: One of the top areas negatively affecting optimization is site speed.  If your speed is slow, users will bounce off. This is critical and often overlooked.
    Tip: A simple way to check your speed site is to utilize the free service by Google’s PageSpeed Insights. The potential issues could be large page elements or poorly written code. It’s important to get a diagnosis and fix the problems.
  2. Invest in new content: There are now over one billion blogs in the world, that is one for every seven people. If your content is not up to date, your rankings will slip.
    Tip: Consistently add new content to your site or establish a blog. If you are selling a product add a space where customers can review your product.
  3. Update old content: If you are an established brand, updating old content is beneficial. Your old content may be great at first glance, but it is diminishing in rankings.
    Tip: You don’t need to start from scratch, you can repurpose old content and make it a success!
  4. Keep learning and invest in your SEO: You need to continually level up when it comes to optimizing your site. Are you still focusing on keyword density when Google doesn’t weigh this as important as they once did? Take advantage of video and audio content as well.
    Tip: Do you have a YouTube channel you can make available on your site or a recorded interview or podcast you can make available on your blog?
  5. Content word count: Google used to require a certain number of words to deem your blog content “optimal for search”. Old rules said you needed 2,000 words on a blog article.
    Tip: Depending on your subject, 2,000 words may be too many. Google realized this and word count is not as important in 2021. If your subject doesn’t require 2000 words, don’t force yourself to lengthen your articles.

While many of the old SEO rules apply, Google gets smarter every day and is constantly crawling your site. This is why it’s so important to stay current on the latest algorithm updates and best practices. In the end, the most important thing to remember is the value you’re providing for the user visiting your site. Google only wants to highly rank the sites users genuinely love. If you need help optimizing your website for the long term, our team of experts are here for you. Send us an email at [email protected].