We make sure our clients understand the importance of leveraging social media and keeping their websites updated with fresh, relevant content. This is even more important now with Google’s new index, Caffeine. With the ability to quickly spider site, blog and social content on the fly, companies that frequently publish high quality content will have a leg up on their competition.
Go Ahead. Drink the Caffeine.
Caffeine has the ability to make connections between resources quicker than ever. That means content you publish today could hit the search engine results pages immediately. Now that “SERPs” include Tweets, videos, images and more, this has an enormous impact on how you prioritize your content publishing and marketing efforts. Add personalized search, local search, timelines, breadcrumbs and everything else to the mix and it seems nearly impossible to stick out in the rankings.
Google screenshot showing this blog post tweeted minutes after being published:
If this teaches us anything, it’s that search engines need to provide the most value for their searchers. Would you use the engine that provides the latest, most relevant content or the one highlighting content from last year? It also comes down to revenue. The more targeted the ad they show, the more likely you are to click. And the more relevant the ad is, the better chance it has in converting. On the surface it seems to be a win-win-win for the engine, the advertiser and the searcher.
Practice Safe SEO
So what steps can you take to improve your exposure? In our opinion, getting back to basics may be the best advice for moving forward. The following tips are simple ways to get in the good graces of visitors as well as search engines.
5 Visitor Optimization Tips
- A good visitor experience is your number one priority. Make it your mantra.
- Make sure your site is easy to navigate and optimized for your audience.
- Write keyword-rich content, but make sure it sounds natural to humans.
- Use “critical paths” to help guide visitors to popular resources.
- Include multiple feedback loops to engage your visitors.
5 On-page SEO Tips
- Update your site regularly with fresh, high quality content that provides value for your visitors.
- Avoid stuffing your page with keywords. If in doubt, take it out.
- Create unique page titles, META descriptions and headings for every page
- Include important keywords in page titles, META descriptions, headings, link text, image attributes and file names.
- Optimize. Optimize. Optimize. The faster your site loads the better.
5 Social Media Tips
- First step – define your goals. They will likely shape your social media strategy. Just because one company is successful with Facebook or Twitter does not mean that you will be.
- Get committed but don’t over commit. Make sure you have the resources to provide value on a regular basis. Search engines love quality, relevancy and frequency.
- Listen and learn. Engage with your audience and learn from their feedback.
- Go for the long haul. Short bursts of traffic are nice, but long-term relationships can drive traffic and sales for years. Happy customers pay in links as well as dollars.
- Monitor and measure. There are plenty of free resources to help measure ROI and keep an eye on your brand and campaigns. And while you’re at it, keep your other eye on your competitors.
Caffeine Side Effects
People tend to panic when they hear a new search engine algorithm is about to be released. Engines are always trying to clear out the clutter and that inevitably means rankings fluctuate. The tips in this article should help keep those fluctuations to a minimum as well as diversify your strategy. Embracing social media means you won’t have all your eggs in one search engine basket, and that should help you sleep better at night. In the end, Caffeine just reinforces what we should be doing anyway – thinking about our visitors first and concentrating on producing solid content.
