If you have created content for your business for any length of time, you realize search engine optimization, SEO best practices, Google’s ranking algorithms, and even the devices we use for our searching have changed rapidly and significantly. These 3 elements will have a major impact on your future search results.
AI
AI—also known as artificial intelligence, machine intelligence, smart home technology, and wearable technology, to name a few—was once relegated to science fiction or medical and scientific laboratories. Now it is making rapid inroads into our everyday lives. With personal/virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Apple’s Siri, factual content that can be indexed and found quickly is quite valuable. Try content that concisely answers specific questions like “when does daylight saving time begin this year?” for best results.
Google’s mobile-first index
As the name implies, content that promotes a strong, positive user experience for those on mobile devices—as opposed to traditional desktop PCs—will be what Google indexes first. If you haven’t followed our prior advice and created a mobile-friendly web site (for example “Mobile Trends And Tactics To Get Your Business Noticed”), there is no better time to take action. Although the mobile-first index is still in development for release later this year, you will probably get the best search results and ranking if
• Content is identical on both the mobile and desktop versions of your website—including SEO like meta descriptions and titles
• Information is accessible in as few clicks as possible
• Navigation is simple
• Page loading is quick
• Your design is mobile-friendly and responsive
• Your website is easy to use
Image indexing
You may already add alt-tags and captions—both with key words—to the images you use on your blog, in your newsletter, and/or on your website. These allow for text-based or description-based indexing and searching and will continue to play a part in future search results. However, SEO as we now know it is being challenged by pixel-by-pixel visual searches. Bing’s visual search tool and Lens (Google and Pinterest both have one) all try to identify what you are seeing and provide you with matching options. This could be a shop owner’s dream. Best results would require a large quantity of high-resolution, high-quality photos published on your site with descriptive text to create proper context.
Tate Design copy development service and website optimization for search engines and mobile devices both provide content that can improve how your website appears in searches. Call Tate Design at 610.725.0702 or e-mail [email protected] to get started.
