In the past, achieving a high SEO ranking was pretty easy. But good SEO is no longer as easy as stuffing your website with the top keywords.
SEO strategy is an entire industry, and your website must stay on top of SEO trends to rank in Google searches. It is becoming harder to rank high in search engine queries as Google continually changes its algorithm to trend more toward quality over quantity.
At MarketingPests, we offer tips on SEO for pest control companies. A niche market requires a niche marketing service, and Marketing Pests can help with your SEO strategy.
Authority Is Key
With AI-generated information taking over content creation, showing writer authority is more important than ever before. Google prefers web pages with content it can identify as being created by a real person with real experience and expertise in the topic.
How to Show Domain Authority
For any informational content like blog posts, include a writer bio and photo. A writer bio can be just a few sentences long and will speak to the experience of the writer. A photo puts a face to the name and reassures the reader they are receiving credible information from an expert.
Link to relevant social media. If your writer is accessible through social media, they are less likely to seem like an artificial intelligence (AI) generator.
Link to other articles from the same writer. A writer with multiple published works within their industry is more credible.
Keep Updating Your Site
Building a website isn’t a one-and-done situation. Even if your website successfully brings organic traffic to your business, don’t forget to update it frequently. Knowing a little about SEO best practices will help a great deal.
Outdated, stale content will not keep Google’s attention, and search engine rankings will drop over time.
Current information within websites quickly falls out of date. You should always have an influx of new data to maintain a high click-through rate.
Optimize Page Load Speed
Several years ago, Google began factoring in the load rate of a website into their rankings, and the search engine will focus even more on it in 2023. If your page takes more than a few seconds to load fully, you will need to make improvements in order to rank high in search queries.
Stick to Pest Control Information
It’s important to keep posting new content in order to keep your site relevant. However, Google also pays attention to how valuable your content is.
If you post outside your typical topic too often, Google will know it is not pertinent information and downgrade your ranking. The important thing this year is giving relevant information to your readers.
Investigate the top search queries for your niche and create relevant content around those topics in order to rank higher.
Less Frequent Crawling
Website crawling uses a lot of electricity and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Google has promised to reach a carbon-neutral status in the coming years. Part of this plan involves crawling and indexing websites less often.
That is why it’s more important than ever to frequently update your website. When Google crawls it next, it should receive the most current information.
Prioritize Helpful Content
In August of 2022, Google released an algorithm update focusing on identifying helpful content. Google measures helpfulness in a few ways:
- Content should demonstrate authority from an expert in the field.
- There should be no evidence of AI generation.
- Content should relate to the main idea of the brand.
While surface-level content with all the best keywords was once enough to rank high, Google now looks for in-depth content in order for a page to receive a high ranking. All current SEO trends lead back to authority, helpfulness, and genuine knowledge.
Google’s EEAT Expansion of 2023
EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, all topics we have discussed in this article. In 2023, Google expanded it to Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, or EEAT.
Google looks for EEAT elements to ensure the most factual, relevant, and trusted content ranks the highest.
For example, if you have an online store, EEAT elements include a legitimate payment method, proven customer service, and numerous product reviews.
Add to Product & Service Pages
In 2023, Google will continue to prefer pages with long-form content. Product and service pages, which tend to be fairly sparse, should contain as much information as possible to stay on top of trends.
Look over your FAQ page, and see if you can answer any questions within the product or service pages.
Include reviews from real customers, details of your pest control services, and related information. Include as many details as you can, but keep in mind that you need quality as well as quantity.
The Growth of AI
Like it or not, AI-generated content is on the rise. It is becoming harder to spot content that a machine wrote. Simultaneously, Google continues to make strides toward identifying AI-generated content.
In 2022, Google released a content update that improved the ability to identify AI content, but not with 100% accuracy. Currently, Google can easily spot spun content, which is basically rewording.
Google continues on in the battle between human and computer-generated content. While artificial intelligence can create decent content in a short amount of time, there will never be a replacement for detailed pest control content created based on your lived experience as a trusted, local pest control expert.
Let Us Handle SEO Trends
These SEO trends are just the tip of the iceberg for the future of SEO marketing. If you want to dip your toe into the world of SEO, here are some common types of SEO to get you started. There is a lot to learn when it comes to staying on top of the SEO curve, but your business will greatly benefit from an improved SEO strategy.
If you would rather leave it to the pros, our team MarketingPests can help you stay on top of search engine rankings and SEO trends. Book a strategy session today with our digital marketing team that specializes in pest control SEO!
