Why The Basics of SEO Always Matter

When it comes to putting together effective SEO content, a lot of the time, people get caught up in the bells and whistles. However, there’s a big difference between adapting to an SEO trend and getting stuck with an SEO fad. For example, optimising your content for voice search? That’s a solid SEO trend you should be incorporating into your strategy, especially in hospitality. There’s a growing amount of traffic coming from mobile devices for hospitality websites, so voice search is a good fit. However, if someone tells you some bizarre keyword “trick” that will have you top ranking overnight? This may be more of a fad.

Because you want your site to be evergreen in its ranking, it’s essential that you build your website around the basics. Some of these are common, other things are constantly getting missed. Either way, here are some things that you should be working on.

Know The Basics

Website Design/Ease of Use

This is probably the first thing you want to look at because, without this, none of the other fundamentals of SEO really work. For example, a site that is slow to load or has broken links will not only have a weaker ranking in Google, but will also be far less likely to have people stay on it long enough in order to create a conversion. As a result, you need to be diligent with your website’s organisation. If a link changes, make sure every page matches this right away. Keep an eye out for expired plugins or oversized image files as well.

Quality Content

Quality means a number of different things. For one, you want to make sure that you are focused on implementing keywords that not only match what your customers are looking for, but aren’t impossible to reach in terms of ranking. There are a variety of tools you can use to try and learn about what the competition is focusing on keyword-wise. However, along with proper keyword research, you also need to focus on creating content that is easy to read and actionable. This matters both for ranking in and of itself as well as getting backlinks—more on that in a bit.

On-Site Optimisation

When you have the keywords that you want and the quality content, you want to make sure you are implementing keywords properly in the back end. This means effectively using image tags, meta descriptions, and other components of your website in order to help raise your ranking.

Backlinks

This next step is unique in that it’s specifically tied to the quality of your content. We have evidence that Google not only factors in the number of backlinks you have into your ranking but also the quality of said backlinks. Quality, in this case, means the domain authority of the websites that are linking to you. In order to get websites with high domain authority to link to you, you need to have a proper outreach plan in place. This means reaching out to reputable publications and journalists, as well as having content worthy for them to use.

SEO Monitoring

Finally, adjusting is a part of any good SEO strategy. It’s essential to track different key metrics to see if the keywords and strategies you are using are leading to increased conversions. This may mean investing in software, but it can pay dividends if it keeps you from investing time into a failing SEO plan.

The Fundamental SEO Mistake People Make

While we’re talking about the basics, it’s also important to acknowledge the key mistake that people make when constructing their strategy: not having a concrete goal. In general, you should be able to explain your goal for each piece of SEO content on your website, but the catch is that “increased traffic” isn’t good enough.

What’s wrong with “increased traffic” or “visibility” for a site? Nothing in and of itself, but increased visibility isn’t a true SEO goal, but a step towards that SEO goal, namely some sort of conversions. For example, a hotel may be looking to increase their direct bookings, and want an SEO strategy that is focused on that. This is a true concrete goal. Ideally, your SEO goals should always have some sort of conversion as the end game, and this doesn’t necessarily have to be the same thing all the time. For example, with email marketing for a restaurant, your goal may not necessarily be to get the reader to book a reservation right away. Instead, you might mention an upcoming event and try to get people to share it on social media. Raising your engagement numbers also makes for a concrete goal.

Other areas where people tend to stumble in terms of SEO strategies is trying to be too much to too many potential audiences. It’s important to remember, for example, that different people will have different searcher intent when it comes to what they put in search engines. For example, a person looking to learn more about a hotel and someone looking to book at a hotel may type in keywords differently. Rather than make a single blog post trying to rank for all the appropriate keywords, make several posts that rank for each of those keywords.

If you’re not happy with your digital marketing efforts or your SEO ranking, there may be a number of reasons why. In some cases, your initial strategy was flawed. In other cases, you have a solid idea and goals to shoot for, but you aren’t using the right keywords to get the traffic you are looking for or optimising your site as much as you could be. It can be difficult for those in the hospitality industry to juggle the attention this requires with all the other duties of their business, which is why it’s generally a good idea to try and enlist outside help to try and create the best options possible. This starts by working with Blue Beetle. Not only do we have knowledge of the SEO fundamentals, but can also help make sure that your website is adapting to concrete trends to keep with the times.