SEO in 2024: 5 Key Tactics for Optimizing Content

Intro

There are over 6 million blog posts published daily, and popular search engines like Google and Bing churn out millions more when users hit the search button.

That’s a lot of content on the internet, so how do you ensure your page stands out?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices have helped content managers push their content and products to the front pages of various search engines, taking advantage of software algorithms to rank at the top of search results.

But the basis for ranking pages and content keeps changing by the year. Google, for example, with its helpful content update, keeps updating its algorithms to ensure web users get the best results that match their search intent. This means keyword ranking factors are constantly fluctuating too.

The evolving algorithm calls for content managers to stay ahead of the loop by keeping track of trends and implementing tactics that work to drive insane and consistent organic traffic to their web pages. How can you do SEO differently in 2024?

1. Use SERP features to your advantage

Search Engine Result Page (SERP) features are elements on the results pages that offer insight into which aspects of content your target audience is most interested in. Analyzing them helps you improve your pages' usefulness and how the search engine ranks them.

Some common SERP features include:

• People Also Ask panels
• Featured snippets
• Images and videos
• Reviews
• Related searches

SEMRush metrics indicate that some 25% of desktop searches and 17.3% of mobile search attempts on Google end without a click and about 75% of users never go past the first result page. These are pointers to how relevant SERP features can be in delivering information to users.

One such feature is the More to Ask section, where you find other probable questions that users might want answers to.

You can curate these questions and work them into your content so that when users expand them, Google previews your blog page beneath the questions. This will only work if you optimize your page to rank on Google.

For example, if you Google “how to buy coffee beans”, the results on the first SERP are optimized to rank. The question I expanded in the image below, ‘What is the best coffee beans for beginners?’, is from a page that has been optimized to rank, and that’s why I see it (and can expand it).

If I wish, I may continue my research directly on the coffeeness website.

Now, imagine if that page that could answer my question directly wasn’t optimized to rank on Google. That’s a lot of traffic the coffeeness website could have lost— And that's why you should leverage SERP features to your advantage.

You can also use the Related Searches section to generate keywords to incorporate in your content.

Back to the “how to buy coffee beans” search, here's the related search section result:

This means web users are also searching for these keywords and you can filter them in your content or create separate pages for them. This strategy will work if your coffee business covers the queries — if you sell Gourmet coffee.

2. Use Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords usually have low search volumes because they're more specific than short keywords.

They are also often associated with experts and people who are at the end of their information search.

What is an example of long-tail keywords? A Google search for ‘where to buy coffee beans in New York’ has these results:

As you can see, these are e-commerce pages where I can directly buy specialty coffee beans in New York.

If I search for specialty coffee beans instead, I’ll get this:

These are result pages that do not meet my buying intent — In other words, use long-tail keywords for users who are ready to buy because they are more specific with their search than users who want to be educated about your product or services.

Another bonus is the lack of competition on long-tail keywords. Why?

The target audience for these keywords is more streamlined to those at the decision-making stage. Because of this, you have a higher likelihood of ranking for those keywords and also converting visitors to your customers.

How do you get long-tail keywords?

You can find clues to long-tail keywords in the Related Searches section of the SERPs; you can also use a tool like Answer the Public. A quick check for ‘specialty coffee beans’ shows this report:

You can choose from these keywords and work them into the body of your category pages or blog content.

3. Create high-value, relatable content

Image source

Google’s latest algorithms are based on the EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

These guidelines stress the importance of leaving content creation to experts and individuals with first-hand experience with the subject matter. Such content is accurate and carries more personal insight which makes it more helpful and relatable for users.

Google wants to ensure that the top-ranking search results are relevant to users and that those pages are authoritative and reliable. Here are some ways to ensure that your website/blog/content demonstrates expertise and experience:

• Having experts review the content, like a financial expert reviewing a business blog. (nerdwallet does this a lot; see example below: the writer and the editor are different, meaning it is written by an industry expert and fact-checked by one).

You can hire a specialist marketing agency— they have access to industry experts and editors who can create and vet well-detailed pieces.

• Citing references or hyperlinking to reputable sources like industry blogs, magazines, and reputed studies.
• Creating author bios for your content creators, whether in-house experts or guests.
• Include real-life examples and case studies that are more relatable to the users.

Keeping your content up-to-date also ensures that they are relevant to user demands.

In updating your blog or content bank, you should note your audience’s evolving interests and adapt your content to meet their needs at particular periods.

For instance, a fitness outfit might want to publish blog articles based on home workout techniques since the current fitness trends (since COVID) are related to home workouts.

Another way to add some realism to your content is by including user reviews.

Google has become quite interested in User-generated Content (UGC) and its algorithms have been increasingly ranking pages with content from users. Considering the need for relatability and ‘realness,’ user reviews are becoming killer SEO tactics.

Besides boosting SEO value, incorporating UGCs like reviews and testimonials on your web page increases your site’s credibility, which is helpful for conversions if you're writing bottom-of-the-funnel blog posts or product descriptions.

So, while you get to convince your readers with the reviews, your content also gets top rankings in the search results.

4. Backlink development: Quality over quantity

In the past, Google ranked websites that had sufficient numbers of backlinks over others. At the time, Google prioritized backlinks as an indicator of authoritativeness and trustworthiness. While that has changed, Google still values backlinks from authority domains (like industry blogs or magazines).

Why? Backlinks from these places show that your website links out to credible pages, which in the long term, makes your blog a credible source of information.

How to get high-quality backlinks? Here are some tips for you.

• Focus on helpful, engaging content. This is because other blogs researching a similar topic may link out to your website.
• Guest-write or contribute to a reputable website in the same niche.
• Embark on and publish relevant industry reports so authoritative blogs can link to your statistics (and, in so doing, get you a backlink from a credible source).

5. Consider multimedia elements

Visuals have been a long-standing element of content optimization, and adding them to your web pages increases the chances of converting leads to sales.

What’s more, optimizing such images with keyword-based descriptions affects the overall SEO ranking of your page, exposing it to more eyes.

Now, with Google’s recent fixation on visual elements, the images in your content can be previewed on the first search results page. Even before users request images, relevant pictures are displayed before organic search results on Google, thus increasing the likelihood of conversion from optimized visuals.

These recent developments are even more relevant for e-commerce stores, where an attractive visual element plays a significant role in generating high traffic and increasing the chances of conversion on the web page. These are some of the ways you can optimize your web images for higher SEO ranking:

• Compress uploaded images to reduce their size and improve the page loading speed. Pages that are slow to load are unattractive to users and reduce chances of conversion.
• Rather than using generic descriptions for web images, label them with specific tags—considering keywords—to improve the page’s overall ranking.
• Use suitable image formats to ensure they load easily on all devices.
• Structure your text and visual content appropriately so search engines can understand your data and rank it ideally.

Read more on visual search here: How to Adapt Your SEO Strategy to the Rise of Visual Search.

To Wrap It Up

Content marketing is vital in bringing product and brand options to search engine users. And with the amount of content that appears on the web daily, you must ensure your content stays at the top of SERPs to reach your target audience.

Google and other search engines always create new ways to ensure that only relevant, verified content gets to the user/consumer. It's why you should understand these trends and enhance your blog/website’s visibility and conversions.