So, it’s 2018. Happy New Year! Now that we have that formality behind us, let’s consider your SEO strategy this year. Just like anything else that is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. At least that’s our approach at Red Shark Digital. Be Better. What does that mean? Well, it’s a direct and to the point statement that encapsulates an action of striving to stay educated and aware in order to grow our clients businesses while growing our own. When you succeed, we succeed. With that, let’s consider your SEO tactics and strategies in the new year.

To echo another topic mentioned in another blog here, indexing and mobile will dictate a good bit of successes. As Google indexes websites from their mobile version first, your SEO strategy should be shifting to that direction as well. Now, lets not abandon all the work you’ve done to get on the coveted first page, but - be thoughtful and considerate of your audience. To do that best, hire us. But, really consider how you or friends or clients might search for a product or service from your website. Using that train of thought, be sure to integrate the phrases into your planning, writing and overall SEO.

You’ll want to monitor those phrases so you can see how or if they grow. Add to them, take away from them. Work with them until they are serving your needs and working for you. In most cases you can study your keywords and how they might relate to your site and begin to consider how they might be changed or altered to better fit your product or service offering. For instance, if I’m selling deep dish taco pizzas in Chicago, and I only have one location - I should focus on local SEO. Trying to rank nationally for such a huge industry is noble, but dominated in large by billion dollar companies.

In this case, use analytical tools to learn where your audience is. Then begin to shape your SEO strategy in that direction, considering mobile and AI’s like Siri and Alexa. Consider the phrasing. Someone visiting Chicago will probably search using a voice term like “best pizza in Chicago” or “where's the best pizza near me” or “Highest ranked pizza in Chicago.” You can apply this type of keyphrase usage to your plan to yield better results in the new year, and we at Red Shark Digital can help. Pizza is a relatively easy topic, and a warm, cheesy delicious one at that. You could be eating a slice right now. So could we, if you send us one. Seriously. Send a pizza to 324 B Evans Street, Greenville, NC and we’ll love you forever. Promise.

What if you’re not selling pizzas? What if you’re selling tires or boats or jewelry, maybe chicken? That sounds like a challenge, and one that we rise to each day. We represent folks in just about every field out there. We can represent you, too. So, what I'm getting here is this, we learn your business extremely well. We dig into your analytics, or set them up if needed. We compare the competition and set out a roadmap to success. No matter what business you are in, there are clusters of people in certain locations that buy from you more than others for one reason or another. We compile information from several corners of the internet and set a strategy to help you stay, become or rise to relevance in your vertical.

Local SEO is on the rise for most businesses that serve mainly in their own area, and it should be. As per my pizza example, why waste time and money trying to rank if the result is shown to a person out of reach? This is where and why local SEO comes into play. Pay Per Click is also something that has been around for awhile, but may be more useful in the new year. As we as a community get more precise about the results we want, so must the clicks that follow. Voice search through AI will only grow exponentially in the years to come, and you should be prepared for it.

Your onsite content remains to be of great importance and should remain optimized. As image searches continue to grow, you’ll want to be certain your images are tagged and optimized correctly. If you search for any item in Google, Bing, Yahoo or whatever your engine of choice is, it is not random as to what image is first. Those images have been optimized and will stand a greater chance of being lovingly clicked. Like anything else in SEO, there are rules to this game, and yes - we can help.

So, as you consider which path to take on the long and winding trail of SEO, know that we’re here. Everyday we’re looking at industry trends and applying new concepts to better serve our clients needs and rankings. We offer an array of tiers that allow you to spend predictably within your budget, and stand by what we do. We invite you to look at our growing portfolio and decide for yourself whether or not you're willing to be better.