It wasn’t that long ago that quantity was the king when it came to creative content writing. The general feeling was that search engines only tracked the sheer volume of SEO-driven content that a site was producing – regardless of the quality of the writing. This led to an explosion of online content, much of which was lacking in quality or in informative substance.

Eventually, this became a kind of online scourge, as web searchers would frequently have to fight through page after page of “spam” content in order to find useful links. Users were upset, and eventually Internet search engines listened. Updates to search engine algorithms such as Google Panda were implemented specifically to place an emphasis on the quality of the writing. Specifically, content marketing services and individual companies were forced to consider if their content would be considered both useful and relevant to someone searching online.

In today’s search engine world, content can mean a lot more than just words. Infographics, FAQ sections, videos and social media content are all important parts that can add up to powerful SEO content. It’s important to analyze what your competitors are doing to determine the gaps in your content strategy. Here are three steps that you can take during this process:

• Visit a site such as SEMrush (https://www.semrush.com) to determine useful information about the URLs of your competition. Focus on individual rankings for major search terms rather than overall search traffic or sheer volume of ranking keywords. Take a look at the URLs beyond the homepage to see which ones rank highly and what type of content they have.
• Next, go to OpenSiteExplorer (https://www.opensiteexplorer.org) to see the top destination links for your competitors’ high ranking URLs. Find out which supporting content pages are getting a high amount of links back to them.  These pages typically have content that resonates with users and they want to share with others.
• Finally, visit MutualMind (https://www.mutualmind.com) to assess the social landscape. You can use this site to determine which social media sites are the best fit for the type of content that your competitors – and you – are likely to produce. You are looking for content that other people will want to share and become evangelists for.

SEO practices can go a long way in impacting your Search Engine Results Placement (SERP). Producing the right content and using best SEO practices such as authorship, site links and social signals can improve the SERP display of a website page on a search engine query. But this is only part of the battle. In order to profit from a high SERP, you need to be able to get people to click through to your link. With higher SERP conversion, your high-ranking link is as worthless as one that is at the bottom of the search engine rankings.

SERP conversion is often an overlooked element of search engine optimization. However, it should be an important part of any SEO conversion strategy. Organic clickthough strategies are proven to lead to an increase in highly targeted and motivated visitors to your site who are ready to make purchasing decisions. Ultimately, that’s the goal of any online marketing campaign – get qualified leads ready to buy to your site.

Over the years, we’ve developed many different strategies to improve organic clickthrough rates. The right strategy for you will depend on your unique position, but these five strategies have been proven to work over time:

Rich snippets such as ratings, number of total reviews, price range and contact information can go a long way in getting people to click on a link. This is even more powerful when combined with strong calls to action to “see pictures” or “read unbiased reviews.”

Building a brand through offline tactics can help your SEO strategy. Google rewards links associated with known brands. Running contests and offsite promotions are some of the ways that you can create positive association with customers and get them interested in clicking on your link.

Harness multimedia by going beyond text. Create videos and use attention-grabbing images. Make sure to caption and tag them for full optimization.

Optimize your site by reviewing your internal linking strategy and site structure. Research how customers are viewing your site so you can create breadcrumbs in your search results.

Take ownership of your content by attaching your company’s name – or your name – to the great content you are creating. It establishes credibility with searchers and helps with your Google ranking.

One of the most overlooked elements of any search marketing campaign is identifying the correct audience. Most people understand this when it comes to doing basic demographic research and targeting a campaign to hit customers’ particular interests. But many people don’t realize that this also extends to online advertising services and search engines. In fact, which search engine you are advertising on can significantly impact how you want to market and which customers you have the potential to reach.

It’s natural for companies to focus on Google as their search engine of choice when they want to drive higher ROI. After all, Google has the lion’s share of the Internet search market. According to recent comScore data, Google sites make up around two-thirds of the total market share in the Internet search world. Certainly, any online marketing campaign should include Google as one of the key points of focus.

But doing research beyond the market share numbers shows that it’s also important to focus on Google’s competitors such as Bing and Yahoo. One reason for this is because of exclusivity. Some people make the assumption that web searchers will go back and forth between one search engine and another to get the best results. The truth is that most web users find one search engine and stick with it. For example, 73 percent of people who perform searchers in the travel category of the Yahoo Bing network use that network exclusively. This means that the only way to reach these 12 million searchers in the United States is through Google and Bing ads.

In addition, considering other search engines allows you to tap into the potential buying power of web searchers. In December 2012, comScore published the Audience Buying Power Index, which went into detail about the potential buying power of consumers using different search engines. The results were surprising:

• Searchers on the Yahoo Bing network spent eight percent more than Google searchers on average
• The 47 million unique searchers who exclusively use Bing and Yahoo! in the US spend an average of 30 percent more than the exclusive Google searcher.

As you can see, there are definite reasons to consider advertising on the Yahoo Bing network ahead of Google. You’ll need to do the research to determine which combination works for you, and you’ll need to consider your target audience when doing this research.

Organic search results are one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. But even if your search engine optimization leads to your results being at the top of the Google rankings, users might overlook them if the listing doesn’t grab their attention. Here are seven ways to improve your rates of SERP conversion for organic listings.

1. Title tags and meta tags are what tell users what to expect when they click on a link. Spend time on developing these with your audience in mind.

2. Brand awareness encourages people to click on a link. Offsite promotional tools can be a factor in increasing the number of clicks on your links.

3. Rich snippets such as ratings, reviews, photos and videos attract immediate attention. Make sure you are using the tools Google supplies to markup your content.

4. Authorship of content looks great in the eyes of Google. Along with a bio, consider linking stories to an author’s Google Plus account.

5. Multimedia elements such as videos and images are powerful ways to improve SERP conversion. Make sure you properly tag, caption, organize and promote your multimedia content.

6. Core optimization is at the heart of any search engine optimization campaign. This extends beyond linking your keywords and performing code tag optimization. You need to make sure that your entire site is optimized so that Google and other search engines can easily find and index your content. eVisible can help you to review your site architecture, internal linking and more to make your site ready for indexing.

7. Review your SERP results and tweak your content frequently. Old content is stale content. Using technology to track the performance of your SEO content can give you clues on how to improve your SERP conversion rates.

It’s easy to make the assumption that the search engine optimization strategy for Enterprise SEO — when you are working with a large corporation’s website — would be the same as SEO work for a startup or smaller company. But while many of the same principles remain, there are several major differences between standard SEO and search engine marketing at an Enterprise level.

Many of these issues come from the challenges of doing SEO work as part of a large business. As P.J. Fusco wrote about for Search Engine Watch, departmental barriers often make it difficult for someone doing Enterprise SEO (https://searchenginewatch.com/article/2236950/Enterprise-SEO-in-2013) to produce acceptable results from their SEO campaigns. When someone does search engine optimization consulting for small businesses, they have few approvals to get and can alter their SEO strategies quickly to react to changing search engine algorithms and other factors.

This isn’t the case when you are doing SEO consulting services or working in-house at an Enterprise-level business. The layers of management and departments means that you need “buy-in” from many people to implement an SEO campaign or to make changes to an existing campaign. This can be a major problem — especially if some of the people you need to work with are unfamiliar with the concepts of professional search engine marketing.

So how can you overcome these obstacles? One good tip was recently shared by Ray Comstock in Search Engine Watch (https://searchenginewatch.com/article/2234928/Defining-an-Enterprise-SEO-Strategy). Comstock recommends that you break your campaign up into two parts — a “foundational” stage where you are doing the keyword research and other background along with the early implementation and a “continuous” phase that includes the steps needed to keep your campaign moving through the long haul. This can include link acquisition, social media marketing services and more. Content writing services are a major part throughout all phases.

Another way to reduce headaches in Enterprise SEO is to conduct training with the key personnel who will be involved ahead of time. Chances are that you are the expert in online marketing services within your company, so you need to educate other people on what you know. Everyone understands the importance of ranking highly but they might not grasp the steps that need to happen to improve your search engine ranking. Getting people inside and outside of your circle educated on the different elements of Enterprise SEO will allow you to all speak the same language and improve communications as you move forward with your campaign.

When you are in the middle of a search engine optimization campaign, it’s easy to lose focus on the big picture because you so concerned with managing every minute aspect of your optimization. It’s great to be focused on details; this focus helps you stay on top of your rankings and make changes as needed. But it’s just as easy to get so concerned with the smallest features that you forget about the reason you are doing optimization in the first place — driving business to your site through an improved search engine ranking.

Over the years, eVisible has learned some valuable lessons about how to maintain the proper focus while undertaking a search engine optimization campaign. Here are three things to keep in mind as your campaign progresses but before you get overwhelmed with every little detail:

ROI, ROI and More ROI

The reason that businesses undertake an SEO campaign in the first place is to increase their visibility and get more customers and sales. After all, if you aren’t making money, why do SEO in the first place? As you progress through your campaign, make sure that you and your online marketing services provider stay focused on the tactics that will give you the greatest impact to your bottom line for the least amount of money.

Don’t Just Focus on Content

Content is an important aspect of search engine optimization. But if it’s the only thing that you are doing as part of your online marketing, you are missing out on a lot of potentially valuable tactics. Improving your site’s architecture will make it easier for search engine spiders to find your pages and for you to receive inbound links. In addition, working with a viral marketing agency to improve your social media platform or start an ad campaign can increase your visibility along with boosting your SEO rankings.

Be Flexible with Your Campaign

Developing a solid game plan is critical to having success with your SEO campaign and achieving higher search engine rankings. However, you need to look at it as a starting point rather than a script from which you can never deviate. The world of online rankings is extremely fluid and you need to be able to adjust on a regular basis as well. Major search engines tweak their ranking algorithms hundreds of times each year and you need to be open to change as well. Your provider of SEO services should be able to stay on top of any movements in the ways that search engines rank sites and make recommendations for updates to your tactics.

When it comes to SEO campaigns, using the right keywords is critical to success. You can corner the market on keywords that are related to your industry, but if these keywords don’t correlate to clients and customers, what good does this do? Keywords serve as invitations for customers to check out your site. When someone does a search on a keyword or phrase and your site ranks highly in the results, you’ve effectively brought them to the front door of your virtual business. A smart keyword strategy not only gets customers to your virtual store but makes sure they are looking to spend money and not just there to window shop.

Knowing your market and your place within the market is critical to researching your keywords. Less competitive keywords and phrases might generate less traffic but there’s also a greater chance that you’ll rank highly for them if you target them with an SEO campaign. If you are in a niche market, you can find keywords that will specifically target people looking for exactly what you’re providing. This can get your ideal customer to your website quickly while providing immediate returns on your SEO campaign. If you are an established company looking at long-term gains, you might want to focus on a few keywords that are more competitive. You’ll know your market and your position better than anyone else and will want to adjust your SEO campaign accordingly.

Before starting any keyword search, there are a few things that you’ll want to consider:

• If you are using Google AdWords Keywords Suggestion Tool, make sure you are doing an Exact Search instead of a Broad Search. This is something that you can toggle between by clicking a button before you perform a search. A Broad Search will include phrases that include your keywords in any order or even parts of your keyword phrase. It also includes plural or singular forms, stemmed forms and synonyms. An exact search only returns the phrase exactly as you entered it. You can search for both if you want to expand your search but this can create confusion in your research.
• Think about all of the different ways that people might search for your products. Instead of just focusing on your category of business, do searches for specific product models or sub-categories of services you provide. Search for variations with part numbers or popular abbreviations of products.
• More than anything else, ask yourself what customers are searching for and build your keyword list accordingly.

Before you start doing your research on your keywords, it’s important to have a game plan in place. Instead of just grouping words together that “seem” the same, group them into categories. If you sell golf clubs, one category could be for name brands of golf clubs. Another could be for types of clubs (such as drivers, irons, wedges or putters). Other categories could describe what people are searching for with new versus used equipment. This lets you select keywords that target the right audience and potential reach as many different customers as possible.

Ultimately, you want to get the highest Return on Investment for your SEO campaign. eVisible understand this, which is why we’ve created a powerful Keyword Research and Suggestion tool and made it available for free on our website. All you need to do is enter in a keyword, phrase or a bit of marketing copy and it instantly gives you a list of related keywords. It’s a great way to start your keyword research and narrow down (or expand) your choices. You might want to focus on areas of your business that are currently underperforming by targeting related keywords. Or you might notice keywords and phrases with a limited amount of competition that you can rank highly for more quickly. Having a smart game plan and doing the research the right way will set you on the path to smart and focused keyword-based SEO campaign.

eVisible is ready to help you reach your business goals by leveraging all of the latest online marketing tools. Who are we? We’re the hottest new company in the Search Engine Optimization world, but that doesn’t mean that we’re new to SEO. Our staff is made up of professional with years of experience in the SEO industry. Our executives have helped companies in all industries and of all sizes develop SEO and other online marketing programs that gave their clients enhanced visibility and let them reach a new audience.

Now you can benefit from this experience by working with eVisible to improve your search engine rankings and attract new customers. At eVisible, our motto is “Plan, Execute, Dominate.” We think this neatly summarizes everything we do to help our clients succeed online.

Plan

We work with businesses to develop customized online marketing plans that fit their specific needs. A start-up requires a different SEO strategy than an established brand looking to maintain its favorable search ranking. Whether you need small business solutions or programs tailored to Fortune 500 companies, we’ll work to understand your situation and develop a strategy you are comfortable with.

Execute

You’re busy running your business, so you probably don’t have the time to perform the SEO content writing, link building and other steps needed to execute a successful online campaign. So let the experts do it for you!

We’ll start at the ground floor and make sure your website is designed to be “search engine friendly” along with presenting your customers with a pleasing experience. From there, we’ll handle all of the steps needed to get your SEO campaign humming including creating content, setting up social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, doing link building and PPC search marketing and focusing on customers near you with local SEO services.

Dominate

Once your campaign is a success, we’ll do the work needed to keep it successful. We’ll make sure that you have the fresh content that search engines love by creating articles, blog posts, social media entries and more. We’ll also keep you in the loop throughout the campaign and work with you to tweak things as we go. There’s no mystery here: just the hard work that goes into SEO success.

www.eVisible.co has plenty to offer for visitors. Check back here for blog posts that highlight news and information that is relevant to businesses interested in improving their SEO. We’ll also give you access to free and premium tools designed to let you take an active role in your SEO campaign. We’re excited to launch and look forward to working with you in the future!