Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of improving your website’s content (by adding blog posts, for example) so a search engine will show it as a top result for a particular key word.

Sounds simple, but when you consider the fact that WordPress users alone publish two million blog posts every day, or 24 posts every second, those are pretty long odds.

So, is SEO still the predominant means to achieve a top spot in natural search? Turns out, the answer is NO!

That Was Then, This Is Now

Several years ago, people were actually willing to search five pages of results to find what they wanted, then it was three pages, then two. Nowadays people are unwilling to scroll to the bottom of page one. The first 5 results on a Google search get 67% of all clicks!

If Keywords Aren’t The Answer, What Is?

With 90% of searches being made on Google, Google rules everything. More people than ever are using cell phones and tablets – rather than laptops or PCs – to search the web. At least 58% of ALL searches are performed with mobile devices.

Things That Affect SEO

The top three factors impacting your ability to influence search engines are… Mobile-responsive, Speed, and Security.

1. Mobile-Responsive – Google now rewards mobile-responsive websites by pushing them higher in rankings ahead of old-fashioned website designs.

   Google formulates its ever-changing algorithms to favor mobile-responsive websites. This includes words, pictures, navigation, and the time viewers spend on your site. If your navigation is hard to figure out, the viewer becomes discouraged and will ‘bounce.’ Google sees this as a strike against you. Your ranking goes down.

2. Speed – Just as people no longer have the patience to search several pages of results, they also no longer have the patience to wait for your site to load or move from page to page. Old-style websites with clunky layouts, big graphics, and PDFs that get reduced to dinky unreadable clots on a mobile device don’t look good on the smaller screen. Viewers become frustrated and ‘bounce.’

   Google rewards speed. If your website is mobile-optimized for rapid loading and agile navigation, your ranking goes up.

3. Security – With daily news stories of data breaches, identity theft, and election tampering, data security is an essential requirement, not a luxury. As far back as 2014, Google announced that they would prioritize websites that are using ‘https’ in place of those with ‘HTTP,’ for improved SEO rankings, to encourage data security measures.

   Google will now warn visitors that your site is not secure if it doesn’t have built-in security features. If the public doesn’t trust you, they will leave immediately and your ranking goes down.

The Solution Is As Close As Your Typing Fingers

Luckily, you don’t have to be an SEO expert to put internet marketing to work for you. When you partner with Big Rig Xpress, you have 20 years of digital marketing savvy at your command. You can trust Big Rig Xpress to put Mobile-Responsiveness, Speed, and Security to work on your website.

Let Big Rig Xpress put this expertise to work for you. Contact Big Rig Xpress today and make your site more ‘search-able’ tomorrow. Contact Us!