Noted author Mark Twain is said to have given that response after a U.S. paper printed his obituary while he was in London travelling. Some marketers have also been saying the same about search engine optimization or SEO in spite of the fact that companies invested $72 billion on it last year. The outlook for the future is even larger with an estimate of nearly $80 billion being spent by 2020. So why are some marketing observers eulogizing SEO? Part of the reason is that 51% of web traffic gets to online vendors via organic searches or unpaid advertising. Amazon is one such example where 55% of online shoppers say that’s where they begin their online searches. One study revealed that 40% of sales are reached via organic searches.

What Can Be Done?

Rather than take sides, continue to effectively use SEO and keywords and know that the landscape is ever changing. Continue to strive for your website to be the first thing customers discover when they google a product or service you provide. Be aware that Google changed its algorithm to reflect less of a need for you to employ a scatter gun approach in using numerous keywords. Instead, Google recognizes websites that demonstrate well-developed content on subject matter or products. Thus, the evolution to keyword clusters and pillar clusters. Google’s free keyword planner can be very helpful in assisting that effort.

Once They Arrive

Once customers arrive on your website, they need to see pertinent information about what they’re seeking. Ideally, they’ll bookmark your page if they don’t make a purchase right away so they can return later to complete the transaction. If the content you have is worthwhile to customers and they spend several minutes on your page, that “dwell time” will be reflected by ranking you higher than your competition. hat’s the value of great content.

Another Change

If you haven’t yet noticed, voice searches have also become in vogue and your website needs to be augmented to rise to that challenge. Teens are way ahead in that area as a 2014 study reported half pf teens surveyed said they voice searched at least once a day. Today, we use voice commands for everything from GPS searches to turning on our lights. You can improve results on voice searches for your products or services by taking a look at your local listings and improving them. Areas to consider are location, price and reviews. Employing good information and data on all three will enhance chances of being moved to the top of a voice search. Another thing to add to your voice search arsenal is microdata. Properly employed, it will enable search engines, browsers, and web crawlers to identify and pull microdata from your website and provide that information to users. Don’t give up yet on SEOs but do adapt to the changes as well as the other changes described above. Stay ahead of your competition and you’ll excel! Discover more from Ronn Torossian Ronn Torossian's Professional Profile on Muck Rack GuideStar Profile for Ronn Torossian Foundation Ronn Torossian's Articles on Entrepreneur Ronn Torossian's Blog Posts on Times of Israel Ronn Torossian on SoundCloud