Boston — Content marketers often struggle to keep up with Google’s algorithms. Google’s algorithms can make or break your efforts, making search engine optimization difficult.
SEO strategy was one of the top marketer concerns at HubSpot’s Inbound 2022 User Conference. People rely on search engines to find the content they need, and a web page that ranks on the first search results page for a keyword phrase can receive a lot of traffic. Marketers need to understand how to optimize their content for search engines if they want to improve their page rankings.
Some of the major SEO challenges marketers face include changing algorithms, underdeveloped AI, slow results, and too many tools.
1. Google Algorithm Changes
Google changes its search algorithms several times a year, which can affect your organization’s website traffic. This change usually rewards quality content related to your main keyword phrase. However, the algorithm evaluates many variables such as content links, site speed, and content richness. Many marketers who attended Inbound said they struggled to keep up with the changes.
“We saw a 20% drop in organic traffic for all our clients from March to now, which is a bit concerning,” said Gracie DeSantis, Inbound Marketing Specialist at Vye Marketing Agency. “It’s like, ‘Is that what we do as an agency?’ [algorithm] Update. “
Marketing teams can’t control Google’s algorithms, but they can control how they react to them. Organizations looking to improve their SEO strategy should not only stay on top of what Google publicly says about its algorithms, but also build a strong brand to increase their authority in the market.
In a session called “What’s Next: How to Navigate Marketing Around Marketing and Social Algorithms,” Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital marketing agency, explained that Google’s algorithm favors established brands, so marketers Is brand building an SEO strategy.
To build a strong brand, organizations can offer free online tools, Patel said. Free tools like plagiarism checkers and calorie calculators tend to generate a lot of brand he queries on Google from people who want to use the tool, which increases an organization’s brand authority and his SEO ranking.
2. Artificial Intelligence
Almost every industry uses some form of AI, and marketing is no exception. Her AI-powered SEO tools help marketers find alternative keywords and generate variations of her text for anchors, but many struggle to create complex content on their own. I’m here.
“Today, it is difficult to get an AI to write an entire article because [the technology] Dale Bertrand, Founder and President of Fire&Spark Marketing Agency, said:
You can’t write a complete article, but AI can help writers create content. For example, a title that a writer can edit, add, or create.He can generate tags, subheadings, and other pieces of content.
“Before, whenever I wrote an article, I would pick keywords, write an outline, then write the article,” Bertrand said. “Now, when I let the tool enter keywords, it will suggest more keywords and questions that should be used in the headline, suggest sentences and paragraphs, and then have to be edited by a human.”
Additionally, marketing teams can use AI to generate what Bertrand calls “efficient content.” This could include comparison pages, templates or FAQs, where he can do a better job of generating that type of content for AI, Bertrand said. .
3. Slow results
SEO strategies can help organizations increase site traffic, but it can take months to see results. These strategies involve many factors, including content quality and quantity, page authority, and site user experience, all of which take time to develop.
Cole Godsey, senior marketing manager at 121eCommerce, an agency that helps clients build ecommerce websites, says business leaders often underestimate how long it takes to see traffic improvements. It usually takes at least three months to see results, said Godsey.
Marketers need to commit to a long-term SEO strategy and not be discouraged by slow results. You must invest time and resources to build a library of high-quality content specifically tailored to your audience’s needs. Additionally, to increase site authority, an organization can get backlinks (instances where one website links to another her website) from other sites that Google deems trustworthy.
4. Too many tools
SEO tools can streamline processes like keyword research, but too many tools can slow down your productivity. For example, an SEO strategist may use one tool for keyword research, one for performance tracking, and another for web crawling. Too many siled tools in your software stack can make your users frustrated when switching between different apps.
“It can be overwhelming,” says Godsey. “One of the things he’s had to do over the years is cut back on all the resources he’s using.”
To optimize their SEO software stack, marketing leaders must first identify feature overlap. For example, an organization pays for a standalone keyword research tool, but may also have a web crawler tool with its own keyword research capabilities. In this case, marketing leaders can eliminate standalone tools. A marketer may also choose to replace all or most of the siled tools with her SEO software suite to improve her UX of the software set.
Over time, search engine algorithms have become more sophisticated and more difficult to manipulate with shortcuts such as keyword stuffing. To be successful, marketers must keep up with algorithmic shifts, create quality content, and build brand authority. AI tools can help streamline the content creation process, but editors need to steer them in the right direction. Additionally, SEO marketers need to develop a long-term strategy and optimize their SEO software suite.
