Updates to rich snippets<\/strong>: You work to get results on a targeted SERP. Getting your result to standout and get a click-through is the real win. Rich snippets are the additional information on a result like ratings, author photos and event listings. Structured data is your friend and Google’s Data Highlighter has made it easier than ever to get rich snippets in your results. In the report we help you hop to it.<\/p>\nThis era of SEO has been characterized by rapid change and advancing complexity. No two searchers’ results for the same query are the same. Search history and personalization impact results and influence the queries that follow. Needed is a deep understanding of your searchers in the form of well defined personas and an intimate knowledge of your audience’s needs, mapped to your site’s conversion funnel.<\/p>\n
Another characteristic of the new SEO era is that content has never been so important. Bruce told me as we researched this report that half of the prospective clients he speaks to have a penalty problem. Another half come on board with content services in their contracts. Content demands and penalty problems are linked. With quick SEO wins wiped out, informative, engaging, shareable and useful content is what’s left. Of course, those are what worked all along.<\/p>\n
In our 2011 report, the introduction said:<\/p>\n
“To improve or maintain search engine rankings requires a constant focus on the search engines and changes to their algorithms, and then adjusting your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to take these changes into account.”<\/p>\n
This statement could be printed again today without much scrutiny, but it does read a little off from the priorities we think SEOs should be setting. The objectionable issue is the allusion to algorithm chasing. Algorithm chasing in the past year and half has led to high penalties for tactics like linking schemes and content farming. This has led to a collective mind shift in the industry, and appropriately so. How many years has Matt Cutts offered the same advice? “Don’t do what’s right for search engines; do what’s right for your users.” <\/p>\n<\/td>\n
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