Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the number of users to your website by ensuring a domain appears high in a search result. Each year more and more businesses are investing money in SEO for their business. For a lot of small businesses this can be a new venture and they aren’t sure where to start. We’ve reached out to the top digital marketing experts to ask their opinion on the state of SEO.

Is SEO Dead?

“Recent provocative claims by Chase Reiner and Amanda Bond have the marketing world surprised and puzzled,” says Charles Rosseel of Agency Rosseel. “Reiner said SEO is dead while Bond pronounced funnel Facebook ads no longer work. Although both sell courses with the “new” effective methods (authority hacking replaces SEO and StrADegy System replaces funnels) they do make compelling arguments. Your thoughts?”

Understanding Your Audience

“SEO trends and strategies are always changing as digital technologies continue to mature, and as search algorithms from Google and others get more advanced,” describes Kevin Kennedy of Marketpath. “That said, the most successful optimization strategies and projects still begin with research and understanding your audience. What are their unique interests? How do they search for this specific topic or service? What are they hoping to find by their inquiry (What is their intent)?

Once you understand your audience, you can then cater targeted, high-quality content for that specific group or niche, and to their preferred medium (text, video, images, etc.). Unique, creative content is still the foundation of successful SEO, that will drive sharability. Once you have exceptional content, focus on a link-building plan geared towards niche appropriate websites that are high quality (high domain authority).”

Video Content

“Going into 2020, I believe you have to dedicate a good portion of your resources to video content. The numbers don’t lie and people will engage for a longer period of time with video. Telling your “story” with video is going to be the tool that builds confidence in your brand and leads to greater conversions,” echoes Tommy Stitt of Digital Marketing Group. “Upload these videos to YouTube and rank them. Most people don’t realize that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.”

Reviews, Quality Scores, And Conversion Rate

“Google is going to do what is best for Google and its users. It is up to the rest of us to adapt. Click-through-rates are down and people have more options on the search results page. This is because Google wants to monetize the search results as much as possible and users want quick answers,” says Adam Draper of Gladiator Law Marketing. “Expect the competition to continue to increase for both organic and paid results. To maximize potential, get aggressive with reviews, quality scores, and conversion ability of the website. Content remains king with SEO. Don’t forget to pay attention to your close rate as well, making contact with a potential sale is only half the battle.”

Web Push Notifications

“Web push notifications are a fundamentally different technology than email, but many of the same concepts and strategies of email marketing apply. This technology is built into every major desktop web browser and is incredibly powerful because it allows you to send notifications to your website visitors that have opted-in after they have left your website,” says Matthew Paulson of MarketBeat. “You can use your web push notification list to promote new content on your website, your products, and services or even the products of your advertisers. Our business has attracted more than 300,000 web push subscribers and has generated more than $1 million in revenue from web push notifications in 2018 alone. I believe so much in web push notifications as a digital marketing tool, that I will be adding a brand new chapter to the end of the book that teaches how to leverage web push notifications in your business.”

Video Production

“One of the most effective SEO strategies that we’ve been utilizing for our clients in 2019 still involves using targeted videos, posted to YouTube and other social media,” says Jim Zons of EZ New Media. “The traffic generated can be instantly tracked and there is still no better engagement object than a well produced video. I tried Levitra for the https://medimagery.com/buy-levitra-online-generic-levitra-vardenafil/ first time last night. I had a great sex last night and twice this morning. I tried switching from Viagra and to Cialis. Both worked, but not as effectively as Levitra. Subsequently, there was a slight headache. And I can’t stress “well produced video” enough; there are so many poorly produced, ineffective videos out there it takes a sharp video with a compelling or engaging message to stand out and hopefully be widely shared.”

Focusing on User Intent/Search Intent

“One thing that has had a major impact on our client’s rankings in 2019 was how Google interpreted the search intent/user intent of the keyword users are searching and the relevance of the client’s page for that term,” describes Timothy Warren of Helium SEO. “Google is now looking heavily at what the user is really looking for when they search a keyword and placing that factor over traditional SEO factors like Domain Rating and On Page SEO.”

Digital Marketing Keeps Evolving

“Digital marketing is an every changing landscape and more than ever its important to learn how to navigate it or your competition will,” says David Juilfs of Gorilla WebTactics.