A few weeks ago I was sent a couple of articles to review that focused on a couple of different areas of Organic SEO. The first article was focused on “How worried should SEOs be about Google’s new SERP” and the second article discussed the best “Strategy for a Successful Site Launch” from an SEO perspective.
While both of these articles are about different topics, I took away the following:
- If you are planning a site launch, you should be focusing on the SEO prior to the launch.
- If you are going to be focusing on SEO prior to the launch, you should be concerned about how the new SERP is going to affect your optimization as you launch your website.
If you are launching a new website or a re-designed version of your website then an SEO team is imperative to the launch’s success. A high-quality SEO team, whether in-house or at an agency, such as Anvil, will be able to make sure that not only the organic keyword optimization of the new website content is accurately focused, but also that the new website is using the best SEO practices including, but not limited to 301 redirects, an updated sitemap file, robots.txt file, and that the website is optimized for both mobile and desktop devices.
This brings us to how Google’s new SERP layout should be taken into consideration…
For those of you who are not aware, Google recently changed the SERP (search engine results page) to no longer include Google Ads on the right-hand side of the search results, instead opting to list ads above and below the organic search engine results. This means that there is less “organic real estate” on the SERP for websites to be displayed naturally/organically and means that organic search engine results may now be pushed down “below the fold.”
The first thing in the “How worried should SEOs be about Google’s new SERP” article that stood out to me was the “Learning to Love Scrolling” as I am not one of the 90% users described in the article that studies show are willing to “scroll on a page independent of page design.” However, with that being said, I am definitely more apt to “scroll” SERP’s or actual web pages on my smartphone or another mobile device. This is now one of the main reasons that users are now more apt to scroll or delve deeper into pages.
The main thing that I enjoyed about this article is the concept of “SERP Saturation.” This is something that I believe should be focused on as part of a successful strategy for a site launch. Making sure that you are using site links, a site links search box, a full Knowledge Graph, and getting mentioned in areas that can show up in the “News” or “Articles” section of search results is going to be very important to capitalizing on the limited “organic” real estate in the SERP’s. I also feel that optimizing images so that unique keyword phrases and branding are being used in the image file name and ALT tags will increase the visibility of a website and/or brand in the “image” search results.
Also, utilizing areas such as the search engine title tag and search engine description to try and push CTR up due to the limited organic search engine results is likely going to become more important as well. Using calls to action such as “Shop Now” or “Buy Now” in the title tag or the search engine description, for applicable pages, could become an even more, viable way to maintain and increase CTR to a website.
In summary, if you want to have a successful site launch/re-design, you need a solid agency like Anvil Media, Inc. or in-house SEO team. It is crucial to have someone that is focused on making sure every aspect of the organic optimization of the website content, as well as SERP saturation, is considered. This will ensure that the website launches and results in improved organic traffic and CTR. Not involving an SEO Team or agency could possibly result in a significant decrease in the CTR and organic traffic to your website.