Among the latest SEO measures for 2018, the important thing is to clarify the target and purpose.
Is your website already optimized for SEO?
As mentioned in the column ”
,” SEO measures are measures to increase access (attracting customers) from search engines, and they also involve optimizing your site for search engines (Google). I mentioned that we will aim to achieve this goal.
Search engine algorithms (criteria for evaluating each site) are changed hundreds of times every year, and it is not uncommon for SEO measures that were valid until a few years ago to no longer be effective.
This time, we will introduce the purpose and important points of the latest SEO measures in 2018.
Google’s User First
The market share of search engines in Japan is Google and Yahoo! It accounts for over 90%.
Also, since Yahoo! uses Google data, you can see that for search engine countermeasures (SEO countermeasures), you only need to do search engine countermeasures for Google.
I mentioned earlier that there are cases where SEO measures from a few years ago are no longer effective, but the basic principles of SEO remain the same.
The basis of SEO is the “user-first” philosophy that Google clearly states, which puts user convenience first.
Search engines, including Google, match users seeking specific information with websites that provide that information, and indirectly generate advertising revenue through this matching.
In order for search engines like Google to improve user convenience, they need to quickly display the information users are looking for in search results.
This is also the reason why search engine algorithms are changed hundreds of times each year in order to improve user convenience and ensure consistency in search results.
Purpose of SEO measures and search keywords
Keeping in mind Google’s user-first policy, we will consider the purpose of SEO measures.
SEO measures are upstream lead generation (acquisition of potential customers) measures in the BtoB marketing process.
In order to obtain specific information, a user searches by entering the keyword of the information he/she wants to know in the search window of a search engine, reads the introductions from the top sites displayed by the search engine, and then searches for a site that matches the search purpose. access.
SEO measures whose ultimate purpose is to acquire potential customers (actions such as inquiries and requests for materials) are measures to increase access to your company’s website and make your website appear higher in the rankings.
One of the important SEO measures for acquiring potential customers is to find the search keywords that users (targets) type into the search engine search window.
SEO measures for long tail keywords
It is said that “long tail keywords” will become the core of SEO measures in 2018.
What are SEO measures using long tail keywords?
Rather than specific search keywords that are highly competitive, choose search keywords that are likely to lead to results even if the number of searches is low.
The idea is to aim for higher rankings for that keyword and increase the number of keywords that rank higher.
If your goal is to create a customer list (lead generation), you can definitely increase the number of site visits by increasing the number of keywords you can rank for, rather than aiming for high rankings for highly competitive search keywords. You can go there.
By implementing SEO measures using long-tail keywords, you can ensure stable access, increase page views of your site, and increase the number of inquiries.You can also work on other measures such as internal measures that will be introduced later. It will also look like this.
Internal measures for the latest version of SEO in 2018
In addition to search keyword strategies, internal site SEO strategies are also important.
As mentioned above, search engines have algorithms that evaluate and rank each site in order to display search results quickly.
Search engine robots called “crawlers” (programs used by search engines to collect site content) have the role of informing search engines about the existence of each site.
Search engine crawlers regularly visit each site and convey the site’s content to search engines.
When a crawler visits a site, it acquires information about the site and passes it on to search engines, but since there are many sites, crawlers cannot acquire all the information on the site.
At that time, measures to make it easier to convey site information to crawlers are called internal measures.
There are various internal measures, but the most recent one is Google’s announcement of a shift to mobile-first indexing.
One of the measures to address mobile-first indexing is responsive design (a screen in which a website is automatically displayed optimally depending on the screen size, such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone).
There are many other measures as well. I would like to introduce it to you another time.
summary
◆The basic principles of SEO have not changed, and Google clearly states that it is user-first, and that it puts user convenience first.
◆SEO measures are the upstream lead generation (acquisition of potential customers) in the BtoB marketing process, and SEO measures and search keywords are inseparable.
◆The core of SEO measures in 2018 will be “long tail keywords” and “internal measures”