Topical authority is the process of successfully signaling your subject matter expertise (SME) online. Typically, this happens through the creation of high-quality, comprehensive content that is higher ranking in search engine results. This is aimed at building thought leadership rather than other content marketing goals, like brand awareness or conversions.

Establishing your topical authority is a critical part of a holistic growth marketing strategy. Recent updates in Google’s algorithm prioritize expertise, and the world’s largest search engine is rewarding established topical experts with greater traction in search. This includes ranking higher in SERPs and being pulled into AI Overview summaries.

If you’re not sure how to infuse your content with perspectives that reflect topical authority, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve gathered our team’s thought leaders and created a step-by-step resource (along with examples) to help you strategically build your brand’s topical authority in the year ahead.

Let’s dive in.

1. Research and Clarify

The first thing we always recommend to any brand is to do your research. Data and a rich understanding of your brand will be your best friend during the research process. Here are a few questions to help you get this started:

• What is your swim lane? What are the topical areas you should be known for above everything else? Based on that, what pages on your site are already getting the most traffic that coordinates with those swim lanes? 
• What does your company do? Where do you provide unique value within your swim lane? 
• What areas do your offerings focus on? Where should your brand stand out based on the products and services you offer? Based on research, where can you differentiate yourself from others in the industry?

You already know your company like the back of your hand. As you answer these questions, think bigger. Use competitor keyword research to find the search queries that are driving your target audience to search for solutions you can provide. Consider how these relate to your brand and services, and then use that information to target your swim lane topics.

2. Review Your Current Site

Don’t add to your site’s content until you’ve conducted a content review. A blog audit can help you understand what content you have surrounding each topic cluster you want to build. Vectorizing your site can also provide a clearer picture of where your site stands in relation to topical authority.

Along with seeing what you have, this reveals helpful insights. You can see what articles already perform well and which ones need optimization. You can also find ones that might need to be deleted entirely if they don’t have topical relevance.

We did this for a company in the insurance space and saw that they had great relevant content for one state where they did business. While this was a win, it also revealed other target states where the brand wasn’t ranking well for geographically targeted keywords. This helped us find areas of opportunity to expand quality content in those areas to better showcase their knowledge in those target states. Seeing gaps in content is just as important as seeing what you already have. 

A thorough site analysis helps you see the value of current content, where you have gaps, and where there are opportunities for growth and a higher ranking. This orients you and makes it easier to take effective next steps.

3. Build Your Onsite Authority With Content

Once you have a thorough understanding of industry trends, competitor analysis, and your own website audit info, you can start to build your onsite authority through fresh content. This should be well-optimized to ensure it is easy for search engines to find. 

It should also be educational and personal. Educational content goes beyond sales and marketing CTAs to educate users about your brand, your solutions, and relatable consumer pain points. 

In the AI age, generic information isn’t helpful anymore. Personalize your content with unique perspectives and personal examples that show your company and its leadership have hands-on expertise and cutting-edge insights. Use things like customer feedback, unique takes on the industry, and questions from your sales team to inform your topics, too.

Don’t be discouraged by the up-front investment here. There is a domino effect to focusing on topical areas within your swim lane. 

When working with a healthcare brand (See? Using a personal example!), we found that building strong topical authority in one area helped us gain topical authority in other areas much more quickly. The foundational work in one area will often help give you a leg up when you start targeting the next topic cluster. Google already sees you as having a high topical authority, and it allows your content to cut through the white noise in different areas of expertise faster.

Quality content is key for ranking well in organic search at this point. You need a strong base of informational content that can inform AI Overview summaries, knowledge panels, and similar AI-generated content. Keep in mind this is easier content to create. 

4. Build Thought Leadership for Your Experts

Along with creating informative content, you need to cultivate thought leaders. This has become an essential part of any content strategy. It makes sense, too. If your content enhances your brand’s topical authority, where does that influence come from? The people behind it.

It’s important to invest in who those thought leaders are. Who are your brand’s experts? Who are the thought leaders in your midst? Who has key information essential to your brand’s success?

These are your experts. They don’t have to be expert writers. Just make sure they are working with content creation teams to provide unique information and editorial feedback. Have them byline your onsite content and build out bios on your site for them.

It’s also a good idea to have them byline resources and thought leadership pieces on third-party sites. Authoring something on Forbes, Entrepreneur, an industry publication, or even social media such as LinkedIn can help reinforce their clout as leaders in their fields. This ultimately has a trickle-down influence on your content as Google connects the dots and sees that your site content is created in collaboration with recognized experts.

The bulk of your content strategy should be focused on this type of content that is perspective-driven and will show the brand’s unique POV. This authoritative content is how you build thought leadership in your industry and set your brand apart from the pack.

5. Develop a Strong Linking Strategy

Despite the recent shakeups with Google’s search algorithms, linking still matters — and it’s an essential part of building topical authority. 

Internal linking strategies tie your website’s content together. As you create your content, make sure to link back to relevant sources and related content across your site. 

If you mention a product or feature, place a internal link to its correlating product page or money page to move them down your sales funnel. Make sure your internal links are using good anchor text, too. Link to a keyword or phrase that honestly cue a reader to what is on the other side of that blue text. 

Backlinks are also important. These are links from third-party sites that point back to your own website. In early 2025, Backlinko released fresh data showing that pages with a lot of backlinks continue to perform better than others. Invest in a SEO strategy that builds credibility through backlinks from quality sources to your onsite content. These can come from a business publication with a high DA (domain authority) or an industry publication with a targeted readership.

Be the Lighthouse: Building Topical Authority in Uncertain Times

Digital marketing is changing faster than ever. While content marketing remains at the core of an effective growth strategy, the kind of content you create matters.

This is why you want to use your content strategy to do more than create SEO-rich content. Use it to build your brand’s topical authority online. This is one of the most effective investments of marketing resources you can make in the current age of fewer clicks, changing user expectations, and the growing use of AI Overviews.

If you need help creating your topical authority-building strategy, our experienced team at Relevance can help. Reach out for a free strategy session, and together, we can explore how to take your brand to the forefront of your industry’s conversations. 

The post How To Strategically Build Your Brand's Topical Authority Online  appeared first on RELEVANCE.

I’ve found that website SEO vectorization is one of the key elements to optimizing a SEO strategy in 2025. Here are some insights that our team has found through recent Google leaks and ongoing research and data analysis. They underline how important vectorizing your website is for your content marketing strategy to succeed moving forward.

What Does It Mean to Vectorize Your Website?

Let’s start with the obvious question: What does it mean to vectorize your website in the first place? 

The mathematical term sounds overwhelming, but in reality, it’s a fairly simple concept. All vectorization means is that you are looking at points of data to see how closely all of your content connects.

Vectorizing your site builds a mathematical 3D model structure for your content. It creates a visual representation by assigning everything a data point — something called vector embedding — and then plots where each item lives on your site in relation to one another. 

Once you’ve thoroughly plotted out your site, you can compare data points between pieces of content to see how closely related they are. This is super important, as it gives you, in essence, a “Google filter” that shows you how the biggest search engine of them all likely views your content. 

Once you’ve vectorized your site, you can review what are called cosine similarities. This is another mathematical term that measures the similarity between two things. Consider, for instance, a vector embedding for the word “cat” on your website. Another vector embedding for the word “kitten” should show up as relatively close to cat because of their close similarity. In contrast, the word “dog” would be less strongly related to cat, while a word like “rocket” or “philosophy” would be even further away in your model.

Why Is Vectorizing Your Website Important Today?

Why do vectorization and cosine similarities matter? Because the recent Google Docs Leak from earlier in 2024 revealed that this is how Google, at its base level, is getting search results. That’s right. Google is vectorizing websites — and so should anyone who wants to rank as a top search result.

SEO vectorization shows whether your content is clustered around areas that you consider topical authorities for your brand. It ensures that you’re staying in these topical swim lanes and that you don’t have outlier content holding you back. 

Here are five more ways that our team has found vectorizing your website can boost your SEO in 2025.

1. Understanding Where Your Topical Authority Stands Right Now

Owning topical authority has been a central part of the content game for years now. However, it’s difficult to know if you’re actually accomplishing that in the eyes of a search engine. SEO vectorization gives you a clearer picture of where your site stands at any given moment. 

One example that comes to mind is an email platform company that we worked with. They sent us a list of 10 or so ideas of what they thought were their areas of topical authority. At the same time, we came up with our own list based on the data we had from their site. 

We compared the lists to identify what they were hoping for and measured that against the reality that the vector database had revealed from across their site. We looked at what they, up until then, had hoped was their topical authority against how Google was actually grouping their content together. 

This contrast of hope versus the reality of data analytics helped open their eyes to where their content was off the mark, underperforming, or simply an outlier. From there, we helped to strengthen known areas of authority and came up with new topic ideas where they were needed. This process is key in building up your topical authority in the important areas, which will in turn help your SEO performance.

2. Map Where You Want Topical Authority to Go

Another benefit of vectorizing your website is figuring out where to take your content in the future. If, for instance, you’re creating a new service line or product, this can help you understand how you already cover a particular topic. From there, you can map out next steps to strengthen this fresh area of local authority that you want to rank for.

I’ve been diving into this for Relevance’s own site in recent months. We vectorized our site to analyze it and see where it stood at the moment (see the previous step). Then, we used that data to be proactive by overhauling our blog strategy.

We considered baseline data to see where we were actually considered a strong authority compared to where we wanted to go. We also found areas that were weak or that we hadn’t previously realized we wanted to rank for and focused on those niches in our content creation and optimization. This can help with prioritizing areas of focus for your content team, guiding your content optimization efforts as well as broader ideas of topical areas you want to own in the future.

3. Finding Areas of Opportunity

Vectorization also shines a light on the areas where you think you’re shining out — but, in reality, you simply aren’t. 

A great example of this is a multi-state insurance agency that we are currently working with. When we vectorized their site, we found that their content in connection with an entire state was marked as “anomalous content.” This was a state where they had specific product offerings and wanted to rank as an authority. This realization opened up the opportunity to create targeted, state-specific content that strengthened their ranking in that geographic area. 

4. Cleaning Up Site Content

Vectorization can also help you clean up your site. If you’re getting a ton of anomalous content in your vectorization report, it may be a sign that you need to do some trimming.

You can use your vector embeddings to find where cosine similarities are weaker. Once you identify these off-brand areas of your content map, you can decide if you need to strengthen them (like in the previous point), optimize them through things like keyword mapping and internal linking, or simply delete them as outliers that are detracting from your site’s main topical focus.

5. Understanding How Google Sees Your Site

Finally, vectorization gives you a broader perspective of how Google sees your website. This helps you create meaningful, optimized SEO initiatives that are backed by clear data.

This also helps you reinforce your topical authority in the eyes of Google. 

It is a surgical rather than a broad approach to SEO that trims, reinforces, and adds to your vectorized site in ways that reinforce your primary messaging. This can send the message that you’re staying in your swim lane and encourage Google’s algorithm to keep you high in the rankings that you want to own.

Using Vectorization to Own SEO in 2025

Vectorization is a big part of how Google search views your site and ranks its content. That’s why, as we’ve learned about its critical importance in recent months, we’ve woven it into the services we offer clients.

Relevance has used tools like Screaming Frog and our own internal code to help us vectorize client sites and look for pieces of content that are related to the search queries that matter for their brand. We identify outliers, too, and either build them up, optimize them, or remove them.

The result is a clean, targeted SEO content strategy that packs a punch in a world where most SEOs are spinning their wheels. If you want to see how our system works in action, contact us for a free strategy session. Together, we can see how site vectorization can improve your brand’s SEO, traffic, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

The post Vectorizing Your Website: How It Can Boost Your SEO Efforts appeared first on RELEVANCE.

In the two years since the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI has soaked up a significant portion of the search engine traffic that used to go to traditional SERPs. This has prompted content creators to adapt their search engine optimization tactics to include another element in the optimization calculation: Generative Engine Optimization or GEO. 

This emphasis on GEO and SEO is happening now because AI search already works — and it’s gaining momentum. Generative search may not be able to address everything, but its solutions are at least as good as a standard search engine in many situations.

The question is, how can content creators and marketing leaders incorporate GEO into their marketing strategies? Here’s what you need to know about this new and exciting area of the Internet.

What Generative AI Tools Are Impacting the Marketplace?

Before we dig into the ways you can incorporate GEO into your traditional SEO strategy, let’s look at some of the Generative AI tools transforming the marketplace. This isn’t just for fun. It sheds light on an important new reality of GEO marketing: we aren’t exclusively catering to Google rankings anymore.

 Honestly, we’re not even catering to Google anymore.

You can get answers from an AI tool that has nothing to do with Google’s search engine. We already mentioned ChatGPT, which is focused on providing human-like, conversational answers to questions.

Perplexity is another one that emphasizes concise, fact-based, and cited responses. Gemini and Google AI Overviews blend search-based results with AI-generated text summaries. Microsoft’s Copilot is a productivity-based AI tool that optimizes work experiences. 

These are just a few of the big AI platforms. And don’t misunderstand. Google is still the biggest fish in the pond. It just isn’t the only fish worth caring about anymore. There are countless others both in existence and coming down the pipeline. The era of machine learning and AI technology providing answers to search queries has officially dawned, folks.

The most important difference between the results provided by these generative AI tools and traditional SEO tools is that you aren’t trying to rank at the top of a list. You want your text to be incorporated into an AI-generated answer (and thus featured as a source for that answer). 

Google AI Overviews, for instance, include “cards” that show where it sourced its information. These showcase multiple sources and are displayed along with the AI text to allow users to dig deeper into an answer if they wish.

How to Optimize User Experience with Generative Engines

The question for marketers and content creators is how to incorporate this new generative AI reality into their marketing strategy creation. 

1. Hone in on User Intent

User intent is the driving force behind AI responses. These are intended to personalize responses for specific user queries. Make sure every piece of content you create has a strong emphasis on how it serves the user.

For example, you trying to inform on a simple concept? This is something likely to be pulled into a Google AI overview, so write your content knowing that. Get straight to the point quickly and clearly.

2. Study AI Responses: 

AI responses aren’t mysterious. They’re right there, available for everyone to see. Use that to your advantage. Study how AI responds to topics where you are an authority. Then, optimize your content to provide information that is easy to incorporate into those AI solutions. 

Review the keywords that are important to your business and evaluate which have AI overviews showing up for them. Once you know what is being prioritized by AI overview, you can adjust and update content accordingly.

3. Remember E-E-A-T: 

E-E-A-T content is Google’s acronym for high-quality content. It must flash expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness. In other words, make sure your content strategy is relentless in its pursuit of providing exceptional and insightful solutions for your target audience.

The best content and most authoritative brands will show up in generative engines, so make sure you’re priming your content and your brand to be just that with E-E-A-T tactics.

4. Optimize Content: 

Optimization remains essential, but its specifics are changing (or at least expanding). Along with traditional SEO, generative engine content optimization should focus on holistic messaging. In addition to comprehensively and clearly communicating important information, this includes a range of keywords that relate to the core subject and should be backed by solid technical GEO (which basically follows technical SEO practices). 

Investing in a GEO Future

Search engines aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, the Google-dominated, search-driven behaviors of the past are quickly becoming obsolete. In their place, we are seeing a rapid rise in AI-driven search engines that are already dominating top-of-funnel questions and answers. 

Gartner predicts that traditional search engine volume could drop by a quarter in the next couple of years. This is because generative search and AI-driven tools are working. They may not have all of the answers. Still, they are siphoning away a significant portion of search queries — especially for simple things, like how to convert from imperial to metric measurements or what continent Montana is located on.Generative search is gaining momentum, which means businesses must react now if they want to stay ahead of this technological revolution. If you need help understanding generative engine optimization and how it integrates with search engine optimization practices, our team at Relevance can help. Reach out for a free strategy session, and together, we can make sure you stay ahead of this epic-defining shift in the online marketing world.

The post Generative Engine Optimization: What Is GEO and What Should You Do About It? appeared first on RELEVANCE.

Companies in the financial sector can use the online landscape to improve visibility and serve customers. They can also establish brand authority by educating consumers and helping combat misinformation in a highly important area of the internet.

At least, financial enterprises can do this if their online content is easy to find. That’s where search engine optimization comes into the picture. What does SEO for financial services look like? It’s not quite the same as your traditional optimization process. 

Let’s examine four key factors that can help financial service companies create SEO-rich content marketing strategies. Consider these the collective key to the mint that can help your financial company shine out in a crowded online marketplace.

1. Understand That You’re in YMYL Territory

One of the most important factors when engaging in financial SEO is to understand that you’re working with YMYL content. YMYL stands for “your money, your life” and it is a category that applies to online content that influences key decision-making processes for individuals. 

Finance is one of the most obvious categories of YMYL, which means you’re going to be held to a higher standard with your content. That means you can’t afford to write weak or incorrect content. You're held to higher standards and need to take extra care with all of the info you put out there. 

With that in mind, make sure your YMYL content always has value. Also, invest in strong editorial processes backed by expertise that meets Google’s E-E-A-T standards. From my experience, when companies can establish a strong fact-checking system that ensures all the content is accurate, they thrive.

Also, make sure to reinforce your helpful content with a clear demonstration of your expertise. The best way to do this is to attach articles to accredited authors, such as a certified investor or financial advisor. 

With one financial client in the past who was in the retirement space, I suggested having content reviewed by a CPA and ensuring that is noted on each blog that they review. That helped to build trust with the reader that this content was accurate. This was also done by adding a bio for the author to each blog, and linking out to author pages on the website as well. The more you can inform readers about who is writing the content and why they are qualified to talk on financial subjects, the better you’ll be following E-E-A-T standards. 

2. Review Competitor Practices Carefully

You always want to know about your competitors, including when you’re crafting an SEO strategy. In my time at Relevance, I've found that competitor research is especially valuable when working with clients in the financial sector because there are only so many areas to target in this saturated market.

Financial content can also vary depending on the financial service you’re operating in. A bank’s blog, for instance, might have personal finance tips whereas a cryptocurrency exchange could have a fintech or breaking news focus. You want to understand what kind of content resonates with your particular financially-focused audience.

Identify the top two or three competing brands with a strong online presence and then do some research. If you can get an idea of where competitors are already performing well, it will help you find the best opportunities for digital marketing.

For that same client in the retirement industry, while in the strategy phase for the account I reviewed a smaller start-up sized client, a comparable mid-size company, and 2 larger enterprises that were honestly not even direct competition at that point because of their size. Those two large companies represented what my client hoped to be in the future. 

By reviewing  a variety of different types of competitors I was able to get a better idea of what goals we should have for the future, and ideas of what was and wasn’t working for both comparable competitors and those “big dogs” of the financial industry. This gave me a better understanding of what was achievable both now and in the future.

3. Create Helpful, Authoritative Content

Helpful content is key to search engine ranking in the current Google algorithm and showing up in search results. This is particularly important when dealing with YMYL content in the financial industry. Remember, when most people find your content, they aren’t just curious. They’re looking for information, answers, advice, and help.

As a financial company, you have the authority to provide those answers, and you want that expertise to be on display throughout your content. To do this, keep your focus on topical authority areas. (Google’s leaked document in early 2024 showed sitewide topical authority is important for SEO.) Go beyond basic promotional content marketing, and provide multiple perspectives and relevant first-hand experiences whenever possible.

Going back to the client in retirement, I implemented a strategy focused on creating helpful, informational blogs. They didn’t have much of a foundation on their site and were blogging sporadically and inconsistently. By implementing a thoughtful content strategy focused on building topical authority around the idea of alternative investments for a self-funded 401k, I was able to help them start ranking on page one for that keyword after around 5 months. The key was ensuring the blogging was consistent, authoritative, and honed in on the topical authority area of alternative investments.  

4. Enhance Credibility and Visibility

As your helpful, topic-focused, authoritative content library begins to build, you want to take further steps to reinforce your financial SEO strategy. Linking is a major part of this process. Interlink your content to other pieces across your financial website. 

In addition, seek out opportunities to have third-party sites link back to your content. (This is external linking or backlinking.) Backlinks provide validation and signal to Google that you are the authority you say you are. And backlinks aren’t just a quantitative game. You want to have diverse, relevant backlinks from high-quality, authoritative sources.

This strategy was key for the retirement client as well. Not only were we regularly creating helpful, informative content, but we were securing regular backlinks to the informational pillar page we wrote as well. Ensuring your backlinking strategy is working in tandem with your onsite content strategy helps to ensure an effective SEO strategy, which is exactly what I saw with that client as their rankings in the SERP rose.

In addition to backlinks, you also want to improve SEO visibility through technical SEO. A few tips for this include:

• Filling out and watching your local and Google My Business listings.
• Creating a smooth website design with fast speed and easy navigation.
• Setting up and regularly evaluating Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track search results.

SEO success takes time. If you don’t see results after a few months, though, you want to conduct a content review and make adjustments.

Growing Your Financial Site Through SEO

Search engine optimization can be a powerful part of a financial company’s growth marketing strategy. However, you want to make sure you go about things the right way. In this YMYL field, bad content can not just waste your time and resources. It can hurt your brand.

If you aren’t sure how to build a strong financial SEO strategy, or certain areas like backlinks and bylines are holding you up, reach out for a free strategy session. Together, we can create a content plan that can crush your SEO goals and send your finance company to the next level.

The post What to Know About SEO for Financial Services appeared first on RELEVANCE.

While an important part of healthcare marketing, though, SEO in the healthcare industry isn’t easy. In fact, it can be downright challenging — and limited, too. 

Most business sites need to take a long-term approach to begin ranking well in the SERPs. Even then, they typically won’t outperform industry-leading publications, such as .org sites like Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic or .gov sites like the CDC.

With so little wiggle room, healthcare companies have to excel in their medical SEO if they want to boost their brand in the digital marketing landscape. Here are seven tips to help you do just that.

1. Get a Thorough Understanding of Your Goals

SEO takes time. You often won’t see results for months. The last thing you want to do is get those results and find that all this time they didn’t align with your mission or current marketing initiatives.

What are your goals at the moment, especially as they relate to SEO? Do you need more visibility online? Are you trying to drive more traffic to your site? Do you need to increase conversions? Does your brand need greater credibility in the eyes of consumers?

Clarify your mission and objectives first. Then use that information to guide each step you take as you create and execute a healthcare SEO strategy.

2. Invest in E-E-A-T Content

Winning the SEO battle is never easy. In the healthcare industry, it is especially difficult. Why? Because you’re talking about YMYL (your money, your life) content, which Google is extra careful to analyze when ranking. 

As a healthcare provider, you want to clearly demonstrate your credibility through E-E-A-T content. The acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. If you have a medical concern or question, you want to go to a company that you can trust, right? By creating helpful, educational content, you establish your company as that trusted brand.

In the case of healthcare, you should go even further by backing each piece with accredited professionals. Optimally, you would have them author the piece, infusing their first-hand clinical experiences (there’s your first “E”) into the narrative. Each piece they byline should link to their bio on the site listing their credentials and explaining why they are a trusted expert (there’s your second “E”) on the subject.  

If you can’t find a provider willing to write a piece of content, don’t fret—there are alternative options that can still help build your authority. For example, a telehealth client I worked with didn’t have providers that would byline content, but a medical professional would review each piece for factual and clinical accuracy. However, this review process wasn’t noted on their site. I asked them to include a tag that said “medically reviewed by [provider name]” and the date it was most recently reviewed to help support E-E-A-T efforts. Doing so helped build trust with their audience and contributed to ranking improvements.

3. Hone in on Your Topical Authority

There are many aspects and nuances to every field, including healthcare. Where do you have unique health information and insights that you can offer?

As you create your SEO-optimized content marketing strategy, make sure you stay focused on the areas and healthcare services that you want to be known for. Don’t stray too far from the formula.

Google’s SEO document leak in early 2024 shows that sitewide topical relevance matters. If you use generic messaging, your brand will never stand out. Stay focused on what you’re good at. 

With that same telehealth client, I even saw that ranking in the SERPs was easier in other health-related topical authority areas once we owned one healthcare-specific area. You should be able to rank quicker in other related areas if you dedicate the time and resources to building topical authority in one core area first.

4. Gather Multiple Perspectives

Healthcare content marketing is more than a professional sharing advice with patients. You want to hear from multiple perspectives. (That’s why we have the classic “let me get a second opinion” line in so many medical situations, right?)

In the case of medical SEO, you can seek out multiple professional opinions, but in many cases, some of the best content can come directly from your patients.

Look for stories that reinforce your company’s success and what you’re able to offer your clientele or patients. Use things like reviews to build trust, make your brand more relatable, and turn your site into a trusted source in the online healthcare community.

5. User Experience Matters With SEO

Good website optimization goes beyond well-crafted content. Healthcare content needs to be practical. It is the last place you want to bury a lede or drag things down with sluggish load speed or complex navigation. It also includes things like interactions, mobile friendliness, and site architecture.

If you want your healthcare website to attract organic traffic, you need to maintain a quality user experience (UX). This starts with technical SEO elements like page speed, load times, and image sizes. 

Good calls to action (CTAs) are also important for engagement. Provide intuitive navigation, easy-to-find information, and accessible-friendly options so that everyone who finds your content through the SERPs has a positive and insightful experience.

6. Optimize Local SEO

Many healthcare operations are local. Hospitals serve geographic regions. So do doctor’s offices, dental practices, and urgent care clinics.

If you have a local aspect to your healthcare organization, you want to make sure it’s optimized to help potential patients closest to you find you. An urgent care center in Oakland, California won’t be able to help much if it’s the top result for someone with a medical emergency searching for local support in Miami. 

You can improve your local SEO by including geographic information (like an address) across your website. You can also use Google Map Pack to ensure you show up in the local listings by geographic location, too. Claim your Google My Business listing, as well, and then fill in your information to encourage the search giant to target local search results to your site.

7. Invest in Quality Backlinks

As you build your healthcare website’s SEO through educational, high-quality on-site content, you also want to consider backlinks. These happen when a third-party site links to a piece of your content.

Good backlinks are best when they are on important keywords (called anchor text) and link to content that closely matches search intent. For instance, you could link to a CPR instruction page on the words “CPR manual” or something similar. 

For the healthcare client I mentioned above, backlinks were a way for us to support the visibility goals for some important keywords. However, we weren’t just expecting backlinks alone to move the needle—we were most successful and saw the most significant increases in ranking overall when we executed a comprehensive onsite content strategy in tandem.

Once you have great content, look for digital PR opportunities to get your business mentioned and linked to on quality industry websites and publications. Getting backlinks from respectable healthcare websites boosts your credibility and can make sure you’re getting the most out of your SEO efforts.

Using SEO to Shine Out in the Healthcare World

Healthcare is an important, high-demand field. However, there is a lot of competition on a local, regional, national, and even international level.

Effective SEO is a key tool that can make your healthcare business shine. It can help your audience find your content in their search results, click through, and then work their way down your online marketing content funnel.

If you aren’t sure what that funnel looks like, or you need help crafting an SEO strategy in the first place, feel free to reach out for a free strategy session. Our team of growth marketing experts can help you manage the pitfalls of this high-stakes YMYL field, craft elite E-E-A-T content, and ultimately crush your healthcare marketing goals.

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Ecommerce SEO uses many similar SEO elements, like keywords and linking. However, user intent plays a large role. While ecommerce SEO should still encompass the entire funnel and target top and middle of the funnel terms, it often narrows in on the consumers who are already considering making a purchase at the bottom of the funnel. 

This isn’t easy, as you’re engaging with Individuals further down the sales funnel. Competition over product pages is also fierce, and your digital marketing must remain in lock-step with things like processing and inventory capabilities. 

Ecommerce SEO requires special attention to work well. It must effectively present products and their details through good site structure, on-site content, and back-end information. If you want to integrate SEO into your ecommerce digital marketing, here are five ecommerce SEO tips to help you do so.

1. Build a Strong Technical Foundation

Technical SEO is a critical first step for effective commerce SEO. There is a distinct difference between technical SEO and other forms of SEO. Technical SEO refers to optimizing your content on the back end. These are things like a meta description, title tags, site speed, and even site structure. 

Technical SEO considers the user experience from a unique angle. In the context of ecommerce, it provides specific pieces of information that can help you not just rank in search engine results but put your best foot forward. 

Simply showing up in search results can help with traffic and search volume, but when you’re selling a product, you want search engines to be able to provide more than a blue link to click on. Structured data is an effective way to maximize Google Search. Structured data includes things like:

• Product details, such as name, price, color, and product description.
• Brand and breadcrumb schema that helps Google understand your site’s structure and navigation.
• Local business details (if you’re geographically focused).
• User-generated content in the form of reviews.
• FAQ pages with important answers to common questions.

With ecommerce, you also want to help search engines display rich search results. These are SERP results that flesh out text results with things like images, carousels, and videos. You can test your current pages to see if they support rich results using this tool.

2. Develop a Content SEO Strategy

Good SEO is always backed by a strategy. This gives it consistency and direction to help support your goals. For a ecommerce SEO strategy, there are a few key areas to focus on:

• Product pages: These are your key transactional landing pages. Make sure each page has a strong title, meta description, and image alt text. Provide helpful content (more on that in the next tip) and ensure user experience is top of mind. 
• Category pages: Along with individual product pages, create pages that gather related products into a single category page. This can help users with navigation and aid search engines in indexing your ecommerce site.
• Keywords: Conduct keyword research surrounding each product. (Google Keyword Planner is a good starting point.) Ensure you understand keywords that apply to top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel topics. With sales pages and ecommerce SEO, it’s best to focus on bottom-funnel, transactional keywords that are more likely to convert.
• Linking: Interlink any topically related content on your website to their associated product page. This helps spread link authority from informational pages that tend to get more backlinks to product pages to help them gain organic traffic and build authority.

Once you have your strategy in place, make sure you have analytics and SEO tools set up to help you track effectiveness and make needed adjustments over time. Google Search Console shows you search-result-focused data, while Google Analytics sheds light on user behavior. Get both SEO tools set up and check them regularly!

3. Create Thoughtful Informational Content

SEO factors into the content that you put on and around your ecommerce site pages. (Usually, this is your company blog or resources section.) The key here is to create helpful content that prioritizes readers first and search engines second. Since Google’s Helpful Content Update, its E-E-A-T content (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) standards have become critical to SEO success. 

Demonstrate authority, credibility, and knowledge throughout your ecommerce site’s content. Make sure everything remains topically relevant to your main service areas, too. Google’s document leak in early 2024 revealed that site-wide topical relevance is important for being seen in SERPs.

As a final note on content, make sure you are using your non-ecommerce content to address all of your top, middle, and bottom funnel keywords. This gives you a more comprehensive content library, all of which should link together and connect to your bottom-of-funnel, rich ecommerce content.

4. Address Offpage SEO, Too

SEO takes place off of your ecommerce website, as well. Backlinks, for instance, are a major factor that can boost your site’s credibility. These signal to search engines you have authoritative, helpful content. 

Digital PR is another component of a good backlink strategy. As you seek opportunities to have third-party sites link to your content, make sure to spread some of the benefits to your ecommerce pages, too.

Linking aside, brand mentions in online publications are also a big deal. They signal to search engines that you are genuinely impacting your target market and industry for the better, and you have the social proof to back it up.

Even social media can help with offsite SEO. By posting on social outlets, you can increase brand awareness, grow organic traffic, and gain backlinks. When you share category and product pages, this can impact ecommerce SEO, in particular.

5. Building an SEO-Optimized Ecommerce Website

SEO is a major factor in a good growth marketing strategy. It can improve your rankings, drive traffic to bottom-of-funnel content, and boost sales.

As you implement SEO solutions for your ecommerce website, make sure to track your analytics. Watch your conversion rate, in particular, to ensure that your SEO efforts are positively impacting ROI.

If you aren’t seeing the results you want from your SEO efforts (or you’re struggling to get started with ecommerce SEO in the first place), we can provide a free strategy session to help your company get organized, efficient, and profitable through its online sales channels. Let’s talk!

The post Ecommerce SEO Strategy: How To Do It Well and Boost Sales appeared first on RELEVANCE.

The unexpected event released thousands of details about ranking features and metrics (although it did not clarify how much it weighted each of these). Readers were treated to insights on how content is ranked, boosted, and demoted on Google’s industry-dominating search engine. In late May, Google confirmed that the leak is, indeed, real, which means the internet has been gifted with a unique glimpse into how Google ranks content — or at least how the company did as of March 2024.

Anyone looking to establish, re-establish, or maintain SEO should be sitting up and paying attention. That said, sifting through 2,500 pages is a big ask. We’ve scoured the reports and media emerging from the leak and pulled together five of the biggest takeaways you want to keep an eye on (along with a few bonus SEO factors to keep in mind) during your next content review.

1. Backlinks Really Are Important

Backlinks have always been a contentious subject, but many have maintained their aura as a critical component of a link building SEO strategy. And now we know, for sure, that they matter. The quality of each backlink is important here, but relevance is also important. Don’t just value a backlink because it comes from a reputable site, but also look for those links that come from sites relevant to your business.

Link diversity is another area to consider. Don’t pile up backlinks from the same source, even if it’s a good one. Look for a variety of relevant, high-quality third-party sources to provide a smorgasbord of off-site signaling that your site is both relevant and credible in your niche.

2. UX + SEO = Marketing Synergy

Clickstream data (that is, the process a user takes as they click to and around your website) is also important. There are indications that data from Chrome (the most popular browser by a long shot) may even be particularly important in making these ranking decisions. 

Click data can help you rank, which means user experience (UX) isn’t just helpful. It is an essential part of good SEO. 

The takeaway here? Never do SEO without UX in mind. Take advantage of every consumer interaction to reinforce UX. Focus on keywords that are less competitive to show up higher in search results. Fill out thoughtful meta descriptions. Consider the user experience when someone clicks through a link. 

Also build up your brand across a variety of digital marketing channels — YouTube, social media, display ads, etc. Use these touch points to build positive brand recognition. That way, when a customer does see you show up in the SERPs, they’ll recognize you and click through with confidence.

3. Sitewide Topical Relevance Is Important

Topical authority has been recognized as an important part of Algorithm Google Search for a while now. Ever since the Helpful Content Update came out in 2023, the emphasis on E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness) has gone through the roof. Now, we’re seeing that your topical relevance shouldn’t just be clear. It should be reflected across your web page.

Google uses site embeddings to determine how on-topic each page is. It turns out that the search engine is also vectorizing entire sites and comparing pages to see how on-topic they are to a brand’s overarching topical authority. Post a page that isn’t in line with your site’s topical relevance, and it may have trouble ranking. Make sure you have a strong website content strategy in place.

User-generated content (UGC) is also important here. Commentary from consumers on your site can be a ranking factor based on your topical authority. One easy test could be turning off UGC on your site to see if it helps or hinders your search ranking. If positive, on-theme comments are common, it might help. If negative or tangential threads are a regular occurrence, they might be diluting your topical authority.

4. Build, Build, Build Your Brand

In the past, Google denied using a site-ranking metric, even if tools like Google Analytics seemed to indicate otherwise. Turns out they have one, and it’s called site authority. While it remains mysterious, especially as it relates to downstream website scoring, we know it exists, which means the quality of your brand’s online presence is a really important ranking factor.

Make sure every time you invest in digital marketing, you’re building your brand. If you’re creating a piece of online content, procure the byline of a reputable author or subject matter expert. If you’re trying to get backlinks, make sure they’re clean, high-quality, and relevant. Always keep your content helpful and build that positive consumer sentiment.

5. Indexing Matters

Google’s core indexing system, called Alexandria, is organized into tiers using its SegIndexer. The most important, consistently updated content is stored in a flash memory tier. Less important content is put on solid-state drives for quick and easy access when needed. Poor quality or irregularly updated documents go on TeraGoogle, a secondary, long-term indexing system composed of standard hard drives.

What does this mean for your content? Make sure you’re indexing all of your pages. (If they don’t automatically rank, you can manually submit them using Google Search Console.) Then, review, optimize, and delete content as needed.

Gleaning Value From the Google Algorithm Leak

It’s been a rough year for a lot of SEOs as they’ve navigated more than one algorithm update and the arrival of AI Overview. The Google Algorithm leak was a godsend for many looking for a way to react and improve their chances of surviving and, eventually, thriving again after the Google Update.

There are many other takeaways besides these five, too. For instance, the leaked documents indicate that:

• Font size and weight matters: Make sure to bold and underline text thoughtfully and choose your anchor text carefully every time.
• Documents tend to get truncated: Don’t bury the lede. Get to the point of your content early.
• Page titles matter: They influence search queries. Get your keyword into every title!
• There isn’t an optimal character count: Lengthy pages don't necessarily lead to clicks — even if they do tend to drive rankings.
• Dates are super important: Keep your content fresh, update your dates often, and avoid them entirely in URLs if you’re going to update something later.

The biggest takeaway of them all? Google isn’t a complete black box. SEOs have cracked many of the codes already, and this recent leak will help us all do even better in the future. 

If you’ve been struggling in the wake of the Google algorithm update in the past months, don’t give up hope. Use the tips above to retool your content and SEO strategies. If you find you need a helping hand along the way, reach out for a free strategy session. Together, we can help you right the ship and get your site back in the good graces of Google’s ever-intimidating algorithm.

The post What to Do After the Google Search Algorithm Documentation Leak appeared first on RELEVANCE.

And Google? The biggest search engine of them all has upended the marketing industry yet again by introducing AI at scale in the form of AI Overviews (AIO). 

Let’s take a look at these new generative AI snippets at the top of many SERPs, why they’re important, and what you can do to make the most of them in your marketing strategy.

What are AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are Google’s official term for what it previously referred to as Search Generative Experience (SGE). After developing the AI search experience in its Search Labs since early 2023, Google rolled out SGE results to the public on May 14, 2024, and relabeled them as AI Overviews.

The new experience adds an AI-generated response to the top of the Google SERP. This takes several third-party search results and creates an amalgamated response that best answers a user’s query.

Why Prioritize AI Overview?

AI Overview is a major turning point for online marketing. It takes a front-and-center position in the primary vehicle that drives so much activity across the internet. This is especially true for top-of-funnel (TOF) queries.

AI Overview can provide accurate, informative, and tailored results for basic questions. If someone needs to know a preliminary concept, such as “What is SEO” or “What does SaaS mean?” They can get a quick answer, and, in many cases, their search ends right there at the top of the SERP.

Fortunately, marketers can get in on the action right in the AIO. Google displays the primary sources that it uses to formulate an AI response in the form of “cards” that sit just under the initial response. In the search engine’s own words, 

 

“AI Overviews show links to resources that support the information in the snapshot, and explore the topic further. This allows people to dig deeper and discover a diverse range of content from publishers, creators, retailers, businesses, and more, and use the information they find to advance their tasks.”

We’re still learning how these links are selected. What we do know is that a large majority of carded AIO links were not top-ranking content. This indicates that AI Overviews operate with a different set of ranking factors from the traditional Google algorithm and anyone can show up in these snippets.

When you make it into an AIO result, it can lead to clickthroughs to your site. Even if that isn’t the case, it helps with brand recognition, which can build trust for later inquiries that move further down the sales funnel.

How to Make the Most of Google AI Overview

It’s easy to understand the game-changing nature of Google’s AI Overview. The question is: 

How do you get your content and links featured in AI Overview snippets? 

Google reports that its system automatically decides who ranks. It also says creators don’t need to do anything different and should just continue with business as usual. 

However, we’ve done some extra digging, and we think SEOs and marketers hoping to rank in AIO results can maximize their chances with a few basic steps.

1. Understand Where You Stand

Make sure you invest in AIO with a content plan in place. What are the keywords you’re targeting? Does AI show up for related queries? If so, what content is it pulling from? Compare this to the content you already have ranking. Make sure this is part of a holistic marketing plan that takes everything from social media to paid campaigns into account, too.

2. Optimize and Delete

As you review your content, consider what is and isn’t working. What pieces could use optimization to help them move up the SERPS toward that top AIO carded position? Are some pieces cannibalizing one another or failing to perform, in general? In that case, consider deleting them entirely.

3. Create Helpful Content

Never underestimate user intent. As you review your content, don’t just look at the stats. Consider how each piece is genuinely helping its target audience. Google’s Helpful Content update in 2023 put an added emphasis on content user value. Don’t sacrifice value for quantity. Make sure every piece you have ranking is clear and direct and leaves a searcher with a positive user experience.

4. Deliver Perspectives

In the past, 101 content has been streamlined and generic. Now, AIO is pulling on a growing number of perspectives and viewpoints to round out basic TOF information. In fact, user-generated content (UGC) is having a moment. Google is paying Reddit tens of millions of dollars per year to access its user data, which represents an infinite number of personal perspectives and insights. Add yours to the mix. If you have something unique to say, speak up. It will give your content a better chance to cut through the white noise.

5. Publish Original Data

Regurgitating existing information is no longer helpful. You might be able to present a basic concept better than the next guy, but you can’t outperform the tailored responses of an generative AI answer. Instead, look for ways to release your own owned data. Use research, polls, stats, and any other first-party data sources to help you stand out. This can go beyond AIO and even help you land helpful backlinks and meaningful digital PR.

6. Hone in on Your Specialty

What do you want to be known for as a company? Try to clarify and streamline this focus and then hone in on that message. Only publish content in the topical areas you want to rank for. Pushing into those niche messages will help Google recognize you as an industry leader worthy of AIO contribution.

7. Secure Backlinks

Backlinks have been the bread and butter of SEO activity for years — and they remain important in the age of AI Overviews. In fact, in light of the recent Google documentation leak, we now backlinks and link building are important ranking factors. This makes sense, as it indicates that a website is a trusted authority and resource. Keep investing in a backlinking strategy. These will continue to be important for a long time to come.

8. Analyze and Optimize

You saw this one coming, right? It’s always important to track and analyze your AI Overview initiatives over time. Watch AIO as it evolves and look at your marketing outcomes. Even if you’re doing well, consider how you can do better. Regular iteration and optimization are key to ongoing success.

Thriving in the Age of AIO

AI Overview is here and it is only going to become more embedded in the Google search experience. Are you taking advantage of it yet? Use the tips above to set the stage for AIO success — and remember to stay holistic in your approach. 

If you need help differentiating and optimizing your growth marketing goals, reach out for a free strategy session. Our team can help you stay up-to-date and optimized, even in a digital marketplace that is in such a constant state of evolution.

The post Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI Overview appeared first on RELEVANCE.

As the term implies, the most obvious YMYL category would either be health and finance. However, the categorization can also apply to things like legal advice, news and politics, parenting and child development, personal safety, real estate, and even education and employment.

If you’re creating YMYL content, it’s important to be thoughtful about every piece you develop. Google search uses YMYL SEO guidelines as part of its standard for how it ranks content quality to ensure that these important pages never sacrifice accuracy for SEO.

This makes it hard for YMYL websites, but if you have genuine, high-value YMYL content, you can (and should) ensure that Google Search can find it and present it to your target audience. Below are seven tips to help you address YMYL SEO optimization in an honest, transparent, and effective manner for your content marketing.

1. Always Be Helpful

YMYL content is inherently helpful. When addressing something important like mental health or financial welfare, you should always seek to provide genuine value to your readers. Be helpful to humans first and optimized for search engines second.

The good news here is that Google’s Helpful Content Update has raised the bar for all content across the internet. Everything needs to be helpful now, and the more value you offer your readers, the higher you’re likely to rank in the SERPs.

2. Use Quality Links to Enhance Value

Link building is a common SEO strategy. Backlinks come from third-party sites. Internal links interconnect your own owned content. External links point outward from your site to third-party resources. That last option is a particularly effective way to enhance YMYL SEO.

As you source external links, look for high-authority websites with quality information. Often, sites with .edu or .gov URLs are considered high quality. Major news sites like Forbes and Deadline or health sites like Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic are also typically safe. By using quality links, you connect your YMYL site to reputable sources capable of furthering the conversation. This sends the signal that you’re invested in creating honest and transparent solutions for those with real-world problems.

3. Follow E-E-A-T Standards

E-E-A-T (often simplified to EEAT) is a set of Google content quality standards that stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are all traits that you want to exhibit in all content—but especially YMYL resources.

YMYL topics naturally address important concerns. As such, you want to ensure that you are bringing an appropriate degree of quality that can pass the E-E-A-T filter. Expertise and experience are particularly important here, as you want to speak from a position of knowledge and understanding as you help people answer important questions in their lives. The result is better engagement, which can positively impact your SEO.

4. Emphasize Contributors

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are important contributors to YMYL content. This type of content creator has specific knowledge and experience in the areas of business, health, and any other YMYL subjects or categories. 

As far as SEO is concerned, you want to publicize and emphasize SME contributions. Whenever possible, have an article bylined by a credentialed professional. If you can’t do that, at least have it reviewed by a qualified SME and then indicate that in the piece. Once again, this sends the message that you’re doing your YMYL homework and ensuring your content is genuinely helpful.

5. Get Rid of Low-Quality Content

Low-quality content is never helpful for any optimization. With YMYL content, in particular, it can be an search engine optimization killer. In the past, Google has stated (via Forbes), “We have very high Page Quality rating standards for YMYL pages because low-quality YMYL pages could potentially negatively impact a person’s happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.” 

The use of YMYL pages is important enough to justify these stringent standards. As such, it’s wise to proactively review and either optimize or eliminate your low-quality content. Consider performing a content audit every 6 or so months to prioritize high-quality content.

6. Improve Your Brand’s Reputation

A strong brand is a key aspect of the ongoing health of YMYL content. If you can support each piece with a recognizable brand name, image, and reputation, that can develop trust with both consumers and search engines.

With this in mind, consider investing in digital PR to get positive press alongside your SEO efforts. These two marketing tactics can have a synergistic effect when used together and provide digital marketing momentum for your YMYL content.

7. Utilize Social Media, Too

Along with digital PR, use social media marketing to enhance your brand reputation surrounding your YMYL content. Engage with consumers, stoke conversations, help answer questions, and generally spread brand awareness through socials.

By incorporating consistent social media content into your marketing activity, you can build further momentum for your brand. As is the case with digital PR, this can translate to greater SEO impact, even for something as sensitive as YMYL content.

Building SEO Momentum for YMYL SEO

YMYL topics thrive on quality content. They also are notorious for their strict standards and resistance to SEO-focused promotional activity. The better the content, the more likely quality raters will appreciate and reward the site.

However, focusing on SEO tactics that go hand-in-hand with quality content creation can enhance your YMYL SEO while also serving your target audience. If you’re struggling to identify and optimize your YMYL content, our team of content strategy experts at Relevance can help!

As you look for ways to optimize your YMYL pages, remember the golden rule: always put people first and search engines second. If you can do that, the search engine results will speak for themselves.

The post YMYL SEO: How To Make SEO Work For You in the YMYL Space appeared first on RELEVANCE.

The impact of a Google algorithm update is difficult to predict. Some can have detrimental effects on a site, while others can harmlessly pass you by.

If you were hit by a recent Google Core Update (or you’re unsure if you were), you want to identify the potential issue and, if there is one, fix the problem. Even if you haven’t had a catastrophic hit, a slight dip in traffic or clicks can be the perfect motivation to re-evaluate your on-site SEO practices and ensure you’re setting yourself up to withstand future updates.

Let’s see if a core algorithm update negatively impacted you. Then, we’ll consider steps you can take to restore life to your owned digital media and regain your presence in Google search.

Have You Been Hit by a Google Algorithm Update?

The first thing you want to identify is that a Google update actually impacted you. Here are three steps to take:

Check in on Google Search Console

GSC is the search results side of the equation. It gives you insights into things like average search position, impressions, and click-through rates. 

Check your site’s GSC data on and around the date when the last update rolled out. If you see a drop in impressions, clicks, or search result positioning at that time, it may correlate with an update. 

In that case, review your core web vitals and make sure your site is performing well. In addition, look for any manual actions that may be on your account. These occur when a human reviewer flags a site for spam-like behavior. When that happens, read the entire manual action description and thoroughly update the marked pages on your site to address the issue.

Look at Google Analytics

Once you’ve reviewed GSC, hop over to Google Analytics. This is where you can find data related to user behavior, such as demographics, page views, and bounce rates.

Review the same period of time on and around the latest update and compare it to a period of time prior to the update. Did you lose organic traffic during that time? Did any other healthy metrics dip? If this aligns with a decrease in GSC, chances are an update had something to do with the downturn.

Identify the Breadth of the Impact

The last step in identifying the issue is figuring out if the SEO damage is sitewide or if it is contained to a select number of pages. Look at both GSC and GA data to see if the decrease in search engine-related activity is occurring on a specific page, a group of pages, or across your entire site.

Start with page-level data in Google Analytics. As you identify pages that are lower, conduct coordinating queries in GSC to see if you lost clicks. Compare these searches to alternative dates that are reasonably removed from an algorithm update.

Once you’ve confirmed that you were hit by an algorithm update and you know the parts of your site that need help, it’s time to take action.

Steps to Take After a Bad Algorithm Update

Below are eight different steps you can take to help your site bounce back after a negative experience with an algorithm update. 

1. Research the Update

Make sure you understand what Google is trying to improve before you make adjustments. Research what changes took place in the update that hurt your site. You can usually find this kind of information in unbiased industry publications like Search Engine Journal or Search Engine Land shortly after an update goes live. 

2. Revisit Metrics

Once you know the target areas of the update, review your core web vital metrics again. Is your LCP (loading performance) under 2.5 seconds? Is your site’s mobile responsiveness smooth? There are several tools you can use to conduct an audit of your site when looking for these kinds of website performance shortcomings like SEMRush or Ahrefs. Or, it may be time to bring in an SEO agency to assist.

3. Analyze Hit Pages

If an algorithm update hits certain areas of your site, review the page experience for those trouble spots. Do they provide helpful content that moves a conversation forward? Are they written for the user first? Do they cover important keywords for your brand? If so, can you re-optimize technical SEO for those pages for better SEO? Can you clean up and improve the content to fall in line with the update?

4. Review Rankings

Where was your site enjoying strong SERP positioning before the update? Have you slid down the search rankings in areas that are important to generating quality organic traffic for your site? If so, consider if the correlating content addresses the search query it is ranking for. Can you tweak it to better meet search intent? Can you update and enhance the content to be more relevant?

5. Offer Helpful Content

If you want to attract your target audience and nurture leads, don’t simply create fluffy promotional content that works the system. As you review your content, remember to prioritize users first and search engines second. Along with answering basic search intent, make sure you’re offering quality content with unique value, genuine insights, and actionable takeaways for your readers. Unoriginal content or low-quality content won't help you succeed in the current Google ecosystem.

6. Reassess Linking

Links are the network of the internet. Backlinks, in particular, are important, as they provide third-party validation that your site is important and relevant. If you’re low on quality backlinks, invest in a good linking strategy that incorporates both SEO-focused backlinks and digital PR to beef them up through mentions, bylines, and similar backlinking strategies.

7. Utilize UX

User experience can make or break a website. If a core update dings your site on its UX, take steps to improve it—for the sake of your target audience as well as your search rankings. Interlink content thoughtfully. Make navigation easy. Do everything you can to facilitate a positive online experience.

8. Update Your Content Marketing

Finally, step back and consider your site from a 10,000-foot view. Is your content focused on important themes that are relevant to the industry you’re in? Were you giving your content strategy a healthy amount of attention and investment before? If not, re-evaluate and improve your content workflow to ensure your content is satisfying both Google updates and website user needs moving forward.

Bouncing Back (and Staying Ahead) of Algorithm Updates

If your site is already struggling, use the list of recommendations above to get back on track. Once things are moving in the right direction again, take steps to keep your content helpful, high-quality, and optimized at all times. 

If you need help turning your digital marketing around or you want to reinforce your site against future updates but aren’t sure what steps to take, reach out for a free strategy session. Together, we can develop a plan to keep your company healthy and growing, no matter what surprises Google sends your way.

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