The New Year has arrived! There are all the usual suspects: evergreens are glowing, Mariah Carey is singing, and me? I am hopeful that the coming year will be even better, more enjoyable, and more successful than the previous one.
The New Year is about reflecting on all that has gone well in 365 days and about looking forward! You can’t just go with the flow if you want to grow personally and professionally. You must choose a course of action. Here’s where resolutions come into play. They serve as a framework against which you can assess your progress. What exactly is the issue with resolutions? They are too unclear. People cannot implement them! The resolution to “prioritise SEO” strikes me as overly broad. We must also break it up! Instead, turn it into a list of actionable goals! And that’s indeed what we’re going to do here. We’ll make a series of smaller, actionable, concrete resolutions that will significantly improve the overall SEO of your website and potentially lead you to look out for SEO services in Singapore.
What you should remember
Remember this when setting goals for yourself for the coming year:
- Expect no results on January 2nd — To do anything right, you need time, and SEO requires it more than most. Take it one week, preferably one day at a time, and keep in mind that you’re in it for the long haul. Best SEO practices accumulate and produce long-term benefits, but it takes time and effort.
- Continue to ask yourself, “Why is that important right now?” — With so many things to do, you must carefully manage your time. When creating a plan for a day, a month, or a year, you must have a firm grasp on why dealing with this particular thing is necessary right now.
- SEO is difficult, so don’t try to do everything at once! Work always has complexities. Doing SEO entails a plethora of tasks ranging from website auditing to link building. As a result, you must spread your SEO efforts so that you are not immediately overworked. Remember that you can do anything, but no one can do everything.
- Only use precise definitions. If you’re going to do something for a year, you should unquestionably know what you’re getting yourself into. Furthermore, having a detailed description will prevent you from making a million excuses about the meaning of the word “exercise.”
- It’s not about the New Year at all — while we think of January 1st as the day of new beginnings, the reality is that there is never a wrong time to be better. That applies to everything: family, career, gym, SEO — it’s never too late or too soon to improve. January 1st is simply a symbolic starting point.
- Know how to carry out each resolution. Following the “what” and “why,” the “how” is now required. There will be a “game plan” for each resolution idea on this list. Avoid making resolutions that you have no idea how to follow through on!
That’s quite a lot. But all of those points are non-trivial and, yes, a little boring, but necessary for completing the year with consistent progress.
With that in mind, I’d like to share a few SEO resolution ideas for 2021. It’s only five items because I believe that you should never bite off more than you can chew.
However, if those five things are done consistently throughout the year, they will add up and make a significant difference for any webmaster out there.
1) Make link-building a regular part of your day-to-day routine.
What exactly is it?
Real-world equivalent: “Meet new people” — making more meaningful connections is critical to your professional and personal success. As it happens, it’s also essential for increasing your website’s ranking and growth.
Link building is an activity that aims to increase the number of high-quality backlinks by forming alliances with other websites. Guest posting on websites that write about your specific niche, connecting to topical blogs, participating in discussions on forums, researching your competitors’ backlinks, and so on are all examples.
What is the significance of this?
Your backlink profile is one of the most important ranking signals. Having many websites that link back to your web pages can help you rank highly in a competitive environment.
Google ranks its pages using the PageRank algorithm, among other things. It means that the more links a webpage receives, the greater its “link authority.” Thus, the greater its chances of ranking!
Treat it as if it were social networking because that is what it is. The simplest way to get a promotion is by recommendation, and knowing a lot of people in your industry can lead to beautiful, mutually beneficial partnerships. “Mingling,” while frightening at times, is always necessary.
How should it be done?
Well, there are a slew of totally legitimate link-building strategies. But you’ll need to start by gathering a large number of prospects — websites that could potentially link back to you.
Sure, you may already be familiar with some niche blogs and websites, but you should also consider using link-building software. Create a project in Link-Assistant for your website, and the tool will scour the web for potential prospects.
Choose from a wide range of link-building opportunities.
From guest posting to researching your competitors to finding opportunities to participate in giveaways, enter your target keywords, and the tool will compile a massive list of potential domains with which you could collaborate.
Using the email module in the tool, you can immediately contact any number of your prospects using the provided email next to the prospect’s domain. Send them an email, say hello, tell them a little about yourself, and see if they’re interested in collaborating.
You’d be surprised how many people are willing to collaborate for mutual benefit! You will discover opportunities to spread the word about your products while they will receive quality content and a link back.
2) Conduct a monthly website audit.
What exactly is it?
Real-world equivalent: “This year, I’m going to start taking better care of my health” — a timely audit, like a timely visit to the doctor’s office, will save you money and time.
To be clear, running an SEO audit entails analysing your domain and all of the pages within it to determine its rankability. The audit scrutinises every page to determine overall compliance with best practices for ranking in search engines. You can also see any technical issues, from the most serious to the most minor.
What is the significance of this?
Things change quickly on the internet; Google is constantly rolling out updates, your content becomes outdated, pages stop working, and you begin to be penalised for something you barely remember doing!
Check-ups, like your actual health, should not be done on a sporadic, once-in-a-while basis. Instead, the responsible thing to do is to visit the doctor regularly. You can do the same thing here and should not wait for issues to arise. The best medicine is to avoid getting sick.
SEO audits, like doctor visits, are extremely easy to put off indefinitely. There are a million things to worry about, so it’s easy to put off a thorough website audit in favour of something else. SEO audits, like doctor check-ups, must be performed on a regular and precise basis.
How should it be done?
You can, of course, hire a digital marketing agency to perform an SEO audit on your website, but this is no longer necessary, and you can complete the entire task without much difficulty.
Using an SEO audit tool like WebSite Auditor, you can complete the entire process in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.
Create a project for your domain and let the tool handle the heavy lifting. After finishing, you will receive a complete layout of your website. On the Site Structure > Site Audit screen, look for the alarming red signs in the columns.
Every red sign represents a specific problem that you need to address rather urgently. Clicking on those tabs, you’ll get an explanation of why those factors are dangerous and what you’ll need to do to fix them.
However, if you are still unsure, feel free to engage different search engine optimization services in Singapore to get all the help you need.
3) Find out more about SEO.
What exactly is it?
“Learn a new language” is the real-world equivalent. Search engine optimization is a broad topic that encompasses almost every aspect of website management.
There is a “best practice” approach for almost every task a webmaster may have to perform and to learn it takes a significant amount of time and effort.
What is the significance of this?
It is because SEO is constantly evolving! SEO, like a foreign language, is never truly “learned” once and for all. It’s a world that’s constantly shifting and mutating.
So, with SEO, you must constantly refresh your knowledge and learn new things. Make time for it; otherwise, you’ll fall behind!
Ranking factors in 2021 aren’t the same as they were in 2019, and they’re a lot different than they were ten years ago. Yes, conducting thorough keyword research is still essential for ranking. The “how” of it, on the other hand, changed dramatically. Search engines now understand synonyms much better and penalise keyword stuffing harshly.
It only takes one change to Google’s algorithms to render a large portion of your SEO efforts obsolete. It is why you should devote time to learning more about SEO.
How should it be done?
To begin with, don’t expect knowledge to magically appear in your head after reading a large book or enrolling in a 6-month course. I’d advise staying away from them in general.
In my experience, they are overwhelming, and people quickly abandon them. Instead, you can make SEO-related reading a regular part of your routine. Sign up for an informative SEO newsletter to gain SEO insights along the way.
It is impossible to read everything ever written about SEO. What you need is a steady supply of learning material and insights spread out over a month. Make it your weekend to read here and there, to put the concepts you’ve learned into practice for better absorption of the material — but take it easy!
You can still go if you go slowly, but if you try to take in everything at once and then get tired and stop, you haven’t done anything useful at all.
4) Begin with on-SERP SEO.
What exactly is it?
Real-world equivalent: “I’ll pay more attention to my appearance” — it’s all about changing how people perceive your website on the results page.
On-SERP SEO is a set of practices designed to make your website stand out among the other SERP results. It’s less about improving your ranking and more about controlling what Google displays about you on the SERP.
So, just like getting your shirts pressed and wearing a suit and tie, an investment in your appearance is an investment in yourself, and the same is valid for online space. It’s not just a matter of vanity but of standing out among your peers.
For example, it could be editing your content to make your page a Featured Snippet. That is the result displayed above the other organic results, and it provides an immediate answer to a user’s question.
What is the significance of this?
Did you know that for the first time in 2019, more than half of Google users conducted zero-click searches? It means that in 2019, most people are Googling something that doesn’t end up on any of the SERP’s web pages.
With the introduction of features such as the aforementioned Featured snippets, knowledge graphs, People also ask, and so on, the user has less and less reason to leave the results page!
Some would describe it in apocalyptic terms, but I don’t see anything to worry about.
To begin with, most of those features eliminate clicks that are unlikely to convert anyway: answers to specific informational queries.
Second, while it can be a problem, I believe it is counterproductive. On the contrary, we should try to capitalise on the opportunities presented by these features. It’s a chance to evolve! Now that appearances are so important, you can pull off a three-piece suit!
Being a source of the knowledge graph, a People also ask, or a Featured snippet almost guarantees you significantly higher engagement than your SERP competitors. Making no effort in that direction is essentially leaving money on the table.
How should it be done?
Determine which of your target keywords is eligible for a snippet. It’s somewhat simple to do this — Google your target keyword and see if there’s a featured snippet.
However, if you don’t want to spend up to three weeks on a single task, you should use a tool. In the Rank Tracker software, create a project for your domain and fill out the target keywords.
In the appropriately named module Target Keywords > Rank Tracking, you can see if any of the keywords you want to rank for have a SERP feature associated with them.
Then, look at how to organise the content on the page where the snippet is. Examine what makes their page more “snippable.”
In general, you’ll need the following to get into a Featured snippet:
- create a list of information
- employ structured data markup
- Include a variety of neatly distributed keywords between headings and content.
In general, using structured data is a “best practice” approach. It’s one of those two-for-one deals: search engines like it and users like it.
It is simple: use WebSite Auditor to perform an audit, then navigate to Site Structure > Pages. You’ll be able to see which of your pages have structured data markup right away.
Remember to include the keywords you want to rank for in your page titles and descriptions! In Site Structure > Site Audit, you’ll be able to monitor meta description and title tags.
The On-page column has everything related to the titles and descriptions of your pages. When you click on those tabs, you’ll go to the pages that contain the potential errors.
Typically, resolving those issues takes little to no time at all.
Remember to use about 160-170 characters in your page description for search engines, and try to give a sense of what your page is about.
Given the increasing importance of the SERP, we can no longer ignore the display of search results on the page. Implementing best practices is necessary to avoid getting lost in the
shuffle of results.
5) Maintain your Google My Business page every week.
What exactly is it?
“Find more ways to express yourself,” says the real-world equivalent. It’s about opening up a new channel of communication with your users and clients.
Google My Business (GMB) is a Google feature that allows you to create a profile for your business, which Google will then display in response to relevant search queries. You fill out your company’s location, address, work schedule, and phone numbers.
In 2021, it’s essentially your business card. It’s what most people see when they look up your company online, and it’s what a large number of potential clients look at to form their first impression.
It’s also a place where your customers can leave you a review and rate your company. Your average grade is calculated from these reviews and displayed as a score ranging from 0 to 5 stars.
What is the significance of this?
GMB, like other Google features, is consuming more and more space on SERPs. Right now, having a properly filled-out GMB page is the most important thing to let users know where you are and how to contact you.
Assume you own an ice cream shop in Singapore. A user who searches “buy ice cream Singapore” will see a list — we call this a Local Pack — appear above the usual organic search results. As a result, you’ll see GMB businesses before anything else!
It is also the first place people go to express their dissatisfaction or ask questions about the service. That is why you should check your GMB page regularly.
How should it be done?
Sign up for Google My Business using the starting page! Claim your business and fill out the details. Upload a bunch of photos showing your products, services, and office building. You can also upload anything else you think might help a potential customer recognize your location.
Consider your GMB page to be yet another marketing channel, albeit an important one. It should be updated to notify your customers of all incoming sales and special offers. Use GMB to provide quality answers about your company, respond to potential criticism, and interact with users in a more face-to-face manner.
Something to consider for next year
When making New Year’s resolutions, you must remember that a year is a short period. I know it doesn’t seem like it, especially as we approach the year 2022. But, in reality, time flies by in a flash.
This year, focus on making visible progress, and don’t kid yourself: it will go by quickly! Every day counts, but stuffing yourself every day will exhaust you. If you see that you’ve made consistent progress throughout the year, you can begin working on setting new objectives.
You will base your goals on your newly acquired knowledge and lessons learned while working on your previous ones.
Conclusion
Resolution making is a hopeful act. In some way, shape, or form, it’s saying, “I want to be better.” Resolutions are only something you can make for yourself. It is you who has set a goal to improve yourself.
And, yes, most resolutions don’t go as planned, and you end up forgetting about them or putting them off until next year. But I believe that this does not have to be the case!
There is a way to set a goal for yourself and stick to it, and while a large part of it is to have the willpower and desire to do so, a large portion of it is setting the right goal. Using the principles I’ve described, make your SEO resolutions that you know you’ll be able to stick to! Engage your desired SEO services today.