The dawn of every New Year sees a shift in the SEO realm. The strategies, tactics and developments that were once considered effective in previous times sometimes tend to become obsolete. Updates in SEO metrics as spelt out by Serpbook keyword rank tracker tool are now more inclined towards expertise, content value, as well as industry expertise.

Source: Google search

These features are now becoming driving forces as Google rolls out changes in the ranking algorithm, which means that website owners will need to go back to the drawing board, if they want to maximize results.

As a beginner in the world of SEO, the pressure is on. The gap between big and small brands is becoming smaller by the minute, and with the right strategy, you should be able to generate great rankings on SERPs.

Here are some strategies that will go a long way in helping you dominate the world of Google rankings.

Top SEO Tips

Focus on Quality Content/Backlinks.

Useful, elaborate and overall great content should always rank first in every list of top SEO strategies. Changes and updates in the ranking algorithm for the past few years have been putting a precise focus on long-form, deep, well placed and relevant content.

So how do you get around this as a beginner in SEO?

• First, ensure you put up content that is well researched, well formulated and logical. Don’t shove in a write up just for the sake of keeping your website alive, or to make up the numbers.
• Backlinks! Once you put up good content, you earn backlinks. Content and backlinks are jointly exhaustive, they complement each other every possible way.
• Create content that improves user experience; it may be solving some problem, answers a burning question, motivates. The more useful the information, the better your rankings will be. Note that conversion in 2019 will largely be influenced by content management. It’s not just about getting people to your page, it’s about how useful your page is, and that’s what will make the difference.

Keep a Close Eye on your User Experience index

Google recently pulled out ‘RankBrain’ as a metric that evaluates user experience.

How it works

• This algorithm keys in data based on factors such as bounce rates and dwell times. The idea is to evaluate how long a user spends on your site as a feature to determine if they got what they were looking for.
• The fundamental question here is, does your site deserve its ranking? If for instance you are ranked 1st on the SERP, and a user clicks back into the SERP a second later, you didn’t provide a satisfactory answer.

Strategy

The idea here is to get people to click on your site and stay as long as possible. This can be summed up as high dwell time, and low bounce rate. Before figuring out what changes to make to your site to achieve this, you will need to evaluate a few things.

• Dwell time.
• Pages per session.
• Average period per session.
• Overall bounce rate.

Once you’ve chalked this down, then you can use some or all of these tactics to improve the average dwell time on your site.

• Improve content. If the bounce rate is high, then you’re not answering fundamental questions asked by your users. Well written content has a pull-effect.
• Ensure it is easy to read. The content may be rich, but if it isn’t easily palatable, isn’t in bits, then no one will read it.
• Videos will be a key feature in 2019. Make it interesting, and make it informative.

Focus on Building Brand/Social Recognition

You may have great content, but the fact of the matter is, a catchy headline doesn’t cut it. As a beginner, you have the daunting task of competing among some of the top brands that have been around for decades.

Source: Google Search

So what is the solution?

• The more featured the brand, the higher the click-through rate. Focus on building a brand name, feature your page on social media sites, and try to elicit more shares, impressions and reach.
• The plan is to build a reputation. The quickest way to do this is to backlink to as many social sites as possible, a transition to paid social ads if possible, track the responses, see the reach, and evaluate the shares etc.

Once you have all your brand building campaigns hit the ground running, there are a couple of ways you can measure how well they are doing.

• Ensure your site dashboard has a pay per click metric. This will help give you a clear indication of the reach and efficacy of your SEO analytics.
• Your social ads are also a good way to measure response.
• You can also base your metrics on branded searches as well as the click-through rate on your website. These will give you a more precise indication of how your SEO strategies are coming along.

Invest in Video-based content

Most people still haven’t realized that the largest video SEO tool is actually YouTube! YouTube has actually been ranked as the second largest search engine resource, outscoring Bing and other SEO platforms. Most ‘’How-to” questions are actually directed straight to YouTube, and it is estimated that by 2021 4/5 of all internet traffic will actually be video content.

So if you are looking to develop an edge, start investing in quality videos. Start a YouTube Channel and backlink it to your website. A little disclaimer, don’t shove videos on your website-only the most useful ones. Too many decorative elements will slow down your load time.

How can you track your video content?

• The key is to get users to engage. So you may need to add the video content to blog posts, where you can measure response, session duration etc.
• Adding YouTube to your dashboard may also be a great way to gauge user experience.
• Views.

Develop a Mobile-Friendly site

With projections estimating mobile-based traffic at 60-70% in 2019, how responsive your site is to mobile users will have a large bearing on your SERP ranking.

Google, in an attempt to cater for their large mobile following, are rolling out the Mobile-first index that will determine and rank sites based on how mobile-friendly they are. Although it has been an influencing factor for some time, with this index, mobile-friendliness is now a key feature that can’t be ignored.

Use Other SEO platforms

 Although Google is the most effective platform to start off your SEO journey, there are other avenues you can use to put your brand name out there.

• Although it has been mentioned a bunch of times in this article, Social Media is a very effective tool. Backlinks to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any of the numerous social sites is a great way to put your brand on the map.
• Quora, or any of the several forums that focus on Q&A.
• Guest posting sites.
• YouTube SEO.

Final Thoughts

The ranking algorithm gets a few tweaks every year, meaning that each time you will require a couple of new strategies to match up. The best way to match these dynamics is to try and focus on emerging trends rather than past tactics.

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