Search engine optimization can really help your business grow and meet objectives. SEO helps search engines better understand your website and the pages on it. Although search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated, they still need a little help. SEO optimization simply provides engines with clues to better understand your content so it can be presented in a helpful manner to users.

It is important to understand the abilities and limitations of search engines. It allows you to build and format your website and its content. It doesn’t matter how relevant your content is if it doesn’t get in front of the right people.

Limitations

While you want to create content for humans, you also need to create content in a way that search engines can understand so that that wonderful content makes it to the humans who can appreciate it. Search engines like Google and Bing send out crawlers to follow links, scour the web, and index content in large databases. The index information is presented to users according to rank based on popularity and relevance.

Here are some things search engines struggle with:

  • Duplicate pages
  • Poor link structure
  • Unusual terms
  • Location targeting problems
  • Online forms
  • Blocked pages
  • Non-HTML content
  • Language idiosyncrasies
  • Mixed content signals

These are simply pitfalls or obstacles you need to be aware of.

Optimization

Although some limitations do exist, search engine optimization has evolved a lot. You no longer need or can get away with keyword stuffing, poorly worded content aimed at optimization or spammy links. SEO is becoming better at optimizing for user experience. Here are some tips to help you optimize your content for today’s engines and keep you on the cutting edge of new developments.

  • Mobile devices cannot be ignored. Big search engines are stressing the importance of mobile-friendly websites. If your content cannot be easily viewed on a phone or tablet, your content will be docked points. Responsive design optimizes websites for both mobile devices and desktops. It allows sites to fluidly change depending on the size of the user’s screen. If your site is fairly old, you may need an upgrade.
  • Natural language helps your ranking. Voice assistants are making the natural language in your content more important than ever. As many as 20 percent of mobile searches use voice search. Implementing structure data can help.
  • Keep your content new and relevant. Search engines love new and relevant content. Google recently increased search engine optimization rankings for newly published pages on blogging platforms. They are standing behind the phrase “content is king.” Fresh content is likely to bring both bots and visitors to your site. Content management systems make staying on top of regularly scheduled content a breeze.
  • Don’t forget about your social media content. Social media is an important tool in your sales funnel. It is a place many customers spend their time. These platforms offer a way to interact with users in a way you cannot via your website. It is a place you want to engage with your customers with fun and insightful posts, videos, hashtags. Avoid using it as merely another selling platform.
  • Don’t forget the basics. Just because SEO is becoming more sophisticated doesn’t mean classic techniques don’t still work. Meta descriptions, H1, H2, content, and keyword rich titles still work. They even help guide users through your content. Google and Bing use tags to discover page subjects which helps them rank them appropriately. Just avoid seemingly quick and dirty tricks like keyword stuffing. Humans and search engines alike will rebel.
  • Quality links make a difference. Search engines like to see a healthy link profile. It cares about the quality of the content the links are coming from and the importance of the sites linking to your domain. It also wants to see a healthy diversity.
  • SEO takes time. Keep in mind that there are no fast tricks to good SEO. It takes a while for search engines to gain trust in your website. SEO bots like to see consistency over time. When it comes to SEO, age comes before beauty.

Search engine optimization can be a tricky business. Businesses like Mimvi can help. It is important to help search engines like Google and Bing recognize your content as relevant, but you should sacrifice the quality of your content. AS these engines become better over time, the user experience will matter more and more.