The Authority Of Your Website
In 2020, Google evaluates the quality of your website based upon something called E-A-T; this stands for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. E-A-T can be seen as the domain authority of 2020, essentially making it the ‘je ne sais quoi’ of what Google want and need. Simply put, if you cannot consistently prove that you’re an industry expert, one who has a wide depth and breadth of their industry, then Google will not rank you well.
Google has been explicit in letting people know that they only want to rank ‘reliable sources’. If you can’t prove that you are a dependable expert then, no matter what you try, it just isn’t going to work. This is why people turn to an Essex SEO agency like VerriBerri to help their website to succeed.
In addition to the work you carry out on your website, Google are also looking at off-site factors to determine how (or even if) they should rank your site. Google’s evaluation of how much of an expert you are happens off your site. This makes total sense. After all, any one of us can claim to be an expert, but if other people agree with you (if they write about you on their websites, blogs, or in media articles) then Google is more likely to determine that you know what you’re talking about!
Furthermore, the mentions can include social media references. If people are communicating with you, and there are consistent ongoing conversations, then the assumption is made that, realistically, there must be something worth saying about you. In turn, this must mean that you have something of value to offer.
Establish Search Intent
In 2019, ‘search intent’ was almost a buzz phrase. After all, if you’re searching for a keyword and the content Google is pulling up for you isn’t relevant, people wouldn’t use that search engine anymore. As a result, Google will not rank content that doesn’t match the search intent.
As such, your first step is to determine your key phrases then establish the intent behind it. For example, if someone searches ‘tables’ they could be looking for images of tables, something to do with times tables, information on how to build a table… the list is endless. ‘dining table’ is a little more specific and the intent is clearer but it’s still vague. However, if your determined key phrase is ‘oak dining table next day delivery’ the intent is completely clear; someone is in desperate need of an oak dining table!
Some studies show that keyword-rich URL’s get 45% more clicks when compared with posts that don’t match the search query. This becomes even more likely if the key phrase is at the start rather than the end of the URL. Take a look at this blog, for instance, the search phrase ‘Essex SEO Agency’ is right at the start.
Make sure that you write meta descriptions for each of your pages, and make sure that they are completely unique. This is a simple fix that increases your website click through rate by around 6%.
Visual And Video Search
It’s not a gamechanger yet, but we, and other SEO experts, think it will be. There are plenty of visual platforms out there which have millions of users. Pinterest, alone, has 600 million searches every month!
It’s still something that is in its infancy and it’s already very effective. As we’ve put in a previous blog, given how highly Google ranks unique video content, we don’t think it will be too far in the future that they feel the same about using your own imagery and moving away from stock photographs.
When you upload an image on your site, you need to, just like normal SEO, optimise that graphic. As such, it’s vital that you use descriptive file names and write alt text on each one. Additionally, Google now prioritise websites where the image is high and central on a page.
Video search has always been popular, but it’s becoming more true with every passing day. By 2021, it’s estimated that 80% of online traffic will be video-driven. If video isn’t part of your ongoing digital marketing strategy, then it certainly needs to be!
If you are struggling with executing this, our Essex SEO agency would love to help. We have in-house designers, videographers and photographers who can help you. Click here to get in touch.
When you upload a video, it absolutely must be optimised; you can do this through YouTube. We did create brief guidelines on how to do this a few weeks ago, so click here to find out how. Once you’ve done this, you can then embed your video content into a blog or page. We would always want you to link video content to a topic that is related to the content on the page.