There’s a misleading belief in the business world that we need to defeat once and for all: traffic does not equal sales. You can have the most popular website in the world, but if you don’t have any way to convert those visitors into customers, that traffic is meaningless. Mistakes in areas like website performance, keywords, and content strategy might leave you failing to land the sale time and time again.
With recent Google updates and trends, how do you know what actually works today? Search engines are smart and customers today are even smarter. A starling 61% of marketers say growing their search presence is their time inbound marketing priority. This means Search Engine Optimization or SEO is gaining more attention than ever before.
This is good news especially for small businesses who need to increase their brand awareness online. How do you utilize these new trends not only to increase your online search traffic but to convert those clicks into actual sales? Here are the top SEO trends you can use to boost sales in 2021.
1. Increase Your Website Performance
Your website performance matters. It matters so much, in fact, that a single extra second in load time results in a 16% loss in customer satisfaction. You simply can’t afford that extra second, let alone multiple second delays. No matter the size of your business, you need to focus on increasing your website performance.
How does your website performance affect your SEO? Google announced in 2018 that page speed is now a ranking factor for mobile searches. Essentially, search engines reward websites which have a better user experience. This is a user-focused approach and one you should care about.
How do you increase your performance? Reduce your load time with smaller files, delete or combine unnecessary files, and upgrade your hosting package. Use a website load time tracker to see how your website stacks up against the competition with its performance. From there, you’ll know what changes you need to make that are specific to your website.
2. Optimize for Voice Search
Hey Google, what’s the best computer for students in 2021? Alexa, where can I buy coffee nearby? Siri, find me a local real estate agent.
These are the kinds of voice searches people are using every day. Online search is becoming more and more complex. Reviewing these advanced Google search tips is a great way to realize just how complicated searching can be, and just how many options users have today to find what they’re looking for. One particularly powerful trend in 2019 is voice search.
With the rise in popularity of AI devices like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s Siri, more people are searching with their voice. This is changing the way people interact with search engines. Instead of searching for a key phrase or a string of keywords, people are asking conversational, specific questions.
Ultimately, businesses need to change their thought-process for developing keywords. In essence, keywords need to be targeted for these conversational questions. Don’t you want your store or product to be chosen first by Alexa or Google for a user’s answer?
How do you actually do this? Aside form long-tail, specific keywords, also create a featured snippet. This is the box that appears directly under the search bar when you enter a search on Google, but it’s also what voice-enabled devices are likely to read to users. Using a clear summary with long-tail keywords at the beginning of your content is likely to land you in this snippet box.
3. New Forms of Content
Finally, content is still king. Yet, it’s evolving. Written content in the form of blog posts and social media is still relevant and popular, but there are under-utilized forms of content emerging at the forefront. Video, for example, is the most underused form of content that’s incredibly powerful.
A starling 100 million hours of video per day are watched on Facebook alone. Creating videos to go along with your written content not only position you as an expert even further, but it’s another opportunity for your content to be shared. In addition, YouTube is acting as one of the leading search engines behind Google. People are actively searching for solutions, answers, and interests on YouTube every second. Your content could be what those users find.
Video is a powerful sales tool. Believe it or not, including a video on your landing page or sales page can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%. That’s a number you can’t ignore. What types of videos can you create to attract search engine results and sales? Explainer videos, ads, tutorials, vlogs, and even testimonial videos are all shown to be incredibly powerful.
More importantly, you don’t need any video production skills to produce your own video content. An iPhone and some basic editing will get you far. Beyond video, other content forms to keep your eye on include both podcasts and infographics. However, there’s no doubt that video marketing is here to stay.
Final Thoughts
Remember, pageviews don’t always translate to sales. If you want to boost your sales organically, you need to focus on the right SEO trends. These above all make a big impact on how users and search engines interact with your website.
One important takeaway is that your website needs to be built around the user experience. Finding effective ways to reach your customers and interact with them in a positive way, whether that’s through your website performance, voice search, or video content, is essential to building a successful business.
Are you ready to make an impact on your sales in 2021? The same old tired trends won’t cut it anymore. It’s time to improve your strategy with these SEO trends above. The internet moves fast, and it’s impossible to get too comfortable. If you’re ready to see a boost in your sales, take advantage of these changes above. Your users deserve the best. Make sure you’re prepared to deliver if you want to build their trust.
