If you want to do SEO effectively, it’s not enough to focus solely on a single channel that happens to be trending. You need to select several channels that appeal to your customers and communicate comprehensively across those channels.
The creators of the Marketing Miner analytics tool asked 16 Czech e-commerce experts which areas of SEO will grow in 2017 and where Czech companies have the biggest gaps. The results will come as no surprise to anyone.
Every year, search engine bots improve and new technologies emerge that need to be taken into account. Bots strive to mimic user behaviour as closely as possible. It has long been the case that what is good for users is good for SEO.
The survey results only confirm this. Four areas stand out above the rest:
- Page load speed
- Content depth
- Mobile usability
- UX (user experience)
In 2017, it will be essential for your customers to be able to open your website quickly on any device, to find the browsing experience pleasant, and to find information on everything that interests them. That sounds logical, doesn’t it? This makes the answers to the question of where companies are falling short all the more interesting:
Primarily in content quality! When it comes to on-page SEO (i.e. optimisation directly on the page), everything is interconnected. Data analysis answers questions such as what information users need and are looking for, or on which pages they get bored. Poor technical performance can lead to slower loading times and poorer display on mobile devices.
Interesting fact:
According to data from analysts at Kissmetrics, almost half of users expect a website to load within 2 seconds at the latest. Test your website. Is it fast enough? Is it optimised for mobile phones?
How to get your SEO off to a good start in 2017?
Firstly, it is important to realise that all the areas of SEO mentioned in the research are closely interlinked. You must first view SEO as a whole within its context, which is impossible without analysis and data tracking.
1. Technical aspects
Start this year by checking and fixing the technical aspects. Check whether your site is responsive and loads quickly enough. If not, get in touch. We’ll help you speed up your site and optimise it for mobile devices.
2. User optimisation
In the second step, focus on your users and customers. You know your website inside out, but your new customers may feel lost on it or miss out on essential information.
The only solution is to test the website. There are several options. You can use the HotJar service to create a questionnaire that will pop up according to specified criteria and ask your users questions. This may annoy some users, but you can gather a large amount of data.
To obtain high-quality and detailed data, organise user testing. Invite a few customers to your office and ask them to go through a scenario with you and answer your questions. You can read about how to prepare such testing in our manual User Testing Step by Step.
3. Content
In addition to the test results, take a look at Google Analytics. Find out which articles are the most read, where users are leaving from, and which channels they are coming from most frequently. Use this information to evaluate the success of your current content.
Forget about optimising content for SEO; don’t focus on keywords or phrases. Start optimising content for users. Through testing and analysis of your target audience, you’ll know what concerns them and how they think about your products or services. This will help you know what content to create.