Anyone who has built and launched a website has likely encountered an oft-repeated acronym: SEO (search engine optimization). And while you might not have ever done SEO yourself, you've benefited from it in the past: Every day, search engines like Google employ complex algorithms to sift through more than 400 billion web pages and deliver the most relevant results.

Website owners like you use SEO techniques and strategies to get their websites to the top of the search results for relevant user queries. But SEO is not a one-time endeavor — Google and other search engines change often, and ongoing SEO ensures your website stays in front of the people you want to reach. Just as a physical storefront requires regular maintenance and updates to stay competitive, your website needs ongoing SEO to remain visible amidst the ever-changing digital landscape.

The ABCs of SEO: What is Ongoing SEO and Why Does It Matter?

Don't let the techy jargon intimidate you. HubSpot — considered one of the gold standards for SEO and digital marketing advice — defines SEO as simply a collection of strategies and tips that "expand a company’s visibility in organic search results'' and help "drive more visitors to the company’s website, increasing their chances for more conversions which leads to more customers and more revenue."

SEO Connects the Search Engine Algorithms With Your Website's Content

Regardless of your website's goal or industry niche, all SEO techniques have one thing in common: They look at ways to optimize your website's content, keywords, and links to help search engines rank your website higher in the search results when someone searches for something related to your keywords, content, or brand name.

According to HubSpot, SEO needs to address the key factors that all search engines use to determine the value of your website's content — and therefore how high in the search results your website or specific landing page should appear:

The intent or meaning behind why someone is searching for a specific term or question
The relevance between what someone searches for, and the content on your website
The quality of your content (for instance, a website about physical exercise written by certified personal trainers is deemed by Google to be higher quality than a website where the articles are written by non-experts)
The performance of your website, such as how long it takes a page to load and whether it works well on mobile devices

Static SEO Versus Ongoing SEO: Why It Matters to Stay Fresh and Keep Your SEO Updates Current

As users' web behavior changes and technology evolves, search engines proactively adjust their algorithms.

If you aren't conducting ongoing SEO maintenance and upgrades, a well-optimized website today can quickly become obsolete tomorrow, causing your search rankings to drop and attracting fewer organic visitors. Google itself updates its algorithms several thousand times per year, including significant "major" changes every few months that dramatically change how it crawls and ranks content. For example, Google's infamous Panda update changed how it ranked how-to lifestyle content on the Internet, causing one major content publisher to lose a whopping $6.4 million of traffic and advertising nearly overnight.

How Ongoing SEO Influences Your Website Strategy

Staying abreast of changes to SEO techniques and strategies provides important guidance to your content, marketing, and overarching website strategy. For example, it can dictate or influence:

How much content you publish, and the content's format, length, and focus
How you incorporate other forms of media on your website, including images, video, and audio
How you organize content on your site, including landing page layouts and your site's navigation
What keywords and target users your website focuses on

Embrace the Power of Ongoing SEO

Caroline Forsey, an expert in thought leadership and marketing content, looked at the survey results from more than 400 of the world's leading web analysts to predict the biggest SEO trends of 2024. According to her data, some of the top changes in SEO strategies this year include:

A heavier emphasis on expertise, meaning the content on your website should come from experts in your related field (including bylines and author bios that demonstrate the author's credentials and experience on the topic they're writing about)
A renewed emphasis on first-person, credible content, especially as more websites generate high volumes of low-quality AI content (Google itself has announced upcoming changes to tackle low-value articles created by AI)
A priority on websites that are deemed trustworthy, such as e-commerce sites with well-rated customer service, or content sites that do a good job of citing trustworthy research and statistics
Bonus points on content that is creative and original and doesn't simply rehash content found on other sites

Of course, these SEO trends will inevitably change every year, and ongoing SEO will keep you competitive no matter what Google, Bing, and other search engines do. No matter your website's industry or content strategy, ongoing SEO requires that you:

Focus on keeping your content fresh and high quality, including new blog posts or regularly refreshing and updating old product descriptions or articles
Conduct keyword research often, since the terms or phrases that your core audience uses will evolve over time
Maintain your website's overarching performance, such as mobile-friendliness as mobile devices evolve, and page load speed
Build a diverse portfolio of high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites within your niche, which may include outreach campaigns, getting others in your industry to write guest blogs, and participating in online forums or communities
Keep on top of technical and performance metrics, such as scanning your site for broken links (and fixing the links you uncover) and using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rates, and conversion rates
Stay on top of algorithm changes so you can adapt your SEO strategy in real-time

Some website owners think of SEO as the first step of their promotional strategy. But it's less a first step, and more an ongoing journey to ensure you, your brand, and your content stay relevant in such a competitive atmosphere. Whether you choose to go it alone and take a DIY approach to SEO, or you choose to consult with a digital marketing and SEO agency, check in often and make sure your SEO evolves as the world around you evolves.

8/10/21, 10:26 AM

LinkedIn has become a critical tool for companies and brands around the world. With more than 756 million members from 200 countries, this one website has helped countless millions of people find jobs, make connections with colleagues and mentors, and build their careers.

In addition to being beneficial for individuals, LinkedIn has become a critical marketing tool for companies. There are more than 57 million individual companies that use LinkedIn, and that number is growing by the day.

Your LinkedIn page can make an amazing first impression and serve as an online hub for your company. However, like any social networking platform, LinkedIn has certain best practices for its use that will help any company page stand out from its millions of competitors. Anyone can create a LinkedIn page, but it takes concerted effort and dedicated work to make your page a viable marketing resource.

Today, let’s talk about some of the best practices that companies can follow when setting up and maintaining their LinkedIn presence.

1. Create your company page and fill in all relevant details

There’s no point in having a LinkedIn company page that’s light on details. Without being listed in the proper geographic and business categories, it will be very difficult for your customers and stakeholders to find your page.

When you’re first setting up your LinkedIn page, make sure to fill in all the relevant details, including your location, industry, company size, and more. These details will help people learn about your company, but they’ll also help ensure that it can be found using the site’s search function.

As you’re filling out your company’s profile, make sure the language and tone you’re using match your company’s overall brand voice. This is critical to ensure that your LinkedIn page represents your company well. The best brands maintain a consistent brand voice throughout every piece of writing that they publish, regardless of whether it’s a sales letter, social media page, or company website.

2. Consider the visual appearance of your page

In addition to the language you use on your page, it’s important to make sure that the visual appearance of your page matches your company branding. On LinkedIn, the pages are set within a certain framework, but there are a few different opportunities for visual branding.

The logo is one area that most people personalize, but too many people overlook the opportunity to customize the cover photo, which sits right behind the logo.

3. Share your page

It’s too easy to create a page on LinkedIn, then hope that the LinkedIn algorithm will put you in front of potential connections. Unfortunately, LinkedIn will only work as well as you make it work for you.

Sharing your page is the best way to widen your potential audience. Make sure there’s a LinkedIn button on your website, and add links and share buttons to your newsletter, as well as any other outreach you’re doing. You can also ask your employees to share the company page through their personal pages, and link their profiles to the main company page. This helps widen your company’s network of connections.

4. Identify your ideal customer

The more you understand your intended audience, the better you’ll be able to create content and optimize your profile with them in mind. This is often called buyer persona research.

A buyer persona is a fictionalized description of your ideal customer (or customers). It involves creating a fake character and collecting all the various demographic details of your ideal customer, so you can market to them accordingly. For example, the way you write your profile and post will be different if your ideal customer is a 50-year-old IT manager versus a 20-year-old marketing intern.

5. Create and share content

One of the best ways to ensure that you’re getting a steady stream of visitors to your LinkedIn page is to regularly create and post new content. Most businesses that utilize LinkedIn do this through a deliberate marketing strategy.

Whether you create videos, blogs, or even go Live, both the format and the message of your content should be tailor-made to suit your audience. Ultimately, you should be regularly creating content that is both useful and interesting for the demographic you’re trying to attract.

Even if you’re creating and posting white papers or thought leadership pieces, make sure to include some visual component within every post. That, along with catchy titles, will help your posts stand out from a newsfeed full of similar content.

Ultimately, a strong LinkedIn page is just one aspect of a successful marketing strategy. By using it well, you can help grow your company’s reputation and make meaningful connections with new customers and prospects.

Hokuyo

AccruePartners

Best Practices for Your Company to Use on LinkedIn