For many small businesses, staying on top of marketing trends can seem like a full-time job. In fact, it actually is — which is why marketing agencies exist!
Digital marketing agencies, in particular, have a number of challenges to face. They’re tasked with creating effective campaigns for their clients that incorporate the latest in user behavior. They need to figure out how to effectively promote these businesses in a way that helps both prospective customers and search engines.
Ultimately, that all comes down to SEO. And while some agency owners will take a DIY approach to develop and managing client campaigns, countless others will opt to partner with a white label SEO provider for fulfillment. As Semify reviews the white label SEO landscape for the coming year, it’s this second group they’re keeping in mind.
If you work directly with businesses that need digital marketing services, this post can serve as a helpful guide throughout 2021 and beyond. Once you know how Semify reviews white label SEO trends, you can make better decisions for your business and for your marketing campaigns — whether you’re performing some duties in-house or you’re part of a white label reseller model.
So what exactly should you keep in mind when developing your clients’ campaigns — and working with agency partners — this year? Let’s take a closer look at how Semify reviews the white label SEO landscape, including the trends that will matter the most.
According to a survey conducted by Gartner in March 2020, 76% of marketing leaders expected their budgets to decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we do know from prior crises that the most successful businesses avoid cutting their marketing budgets during periods of economic downturn, the novel coronavirus caught so many business owners by surprise last year that certain cost-cutting measures might have been unavoidable.
Now that it’s almost a year since COVID-19 first came to the U.S., many businesses are at least in the process of recovering their losses. That means that marketing budgets may have a lot more wiggle room in 2021 — but it still makes sense to protect your firm for whatever might happen in the future.
In other words, it’s a great time to consider outsourcing certain aspects of your business. Working with a white label SEO agency or downsizing your in-house operations in favor of freelance hires can be a good way for you to reduce costs for your own agency without eliminating deliverables for your clients. In many ways, it could actually produce better, more consistent results for your digital marketing campaigns while allowing you to create a much-needed financial cushion for your business.
Understandably, companies are expected to increase their outsourcing as a result of the pandemic. While that’s not to say you can’t handle anything in-house, this scenario is often a win-win for your business and for your clients. And with so many people wanting to continue working remotely, it makes sense to outsource rather than hire new full-time employees.
When Semify reviews the white label SEO landscape, they’d be remiss not to mention the importance of local search engine optimization. During the pandemic, local SEO has served as a lifeline for many small businesses across the country. And as an agency owner, you might want to leverage the power of local SEO for your own business, as well.
When you optimize a website for local SEO keywords, you’ll be more effectively able to target potential customers within a given area. Whether you work with attorneys, restaurant owners, real estate agents, or medical facilities, focusing on locality can make it much easier for those businesses to generate web traffic, brand visibility, and conversions.
You’ll also want to focus on Google My Business (or GMB). Even if you don’t offer GMB optimization services yourself, you should make it a point to ensure your clients can utilize this free platform to be more readily found online. A well-optimized GMB page can allow businesses to show up in the Google Map Pack or in other areas in SERPs, which is huge for organizations that have struggled throughout the pandemic. If you don’t know enough about this platform yourself, Semify reviews GMB best practices on a consistent basis to help small businesses grow.
The user experience (UX) a website provides matters a lot — both to Google and to web users. However, there are still business owners who have outdated sites or who unknowingly alienate potential customers due to underlying design problems.
As Semify reviews the white label SEO landscape for 2021, it’s important not to forget about user experience. We know that Google will be paying close attention to how websites address user needs this year, as a new Page Experience algorithm update is set to be released in May.
While it might not seem like website enhancements would be an effective part of any marketing strategy, the reality is that web design mistakes can really hold campaigns back from reaching their full potential. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many ads you run or how solid your keyword research is; if a lead is scared off by a website that doesn’t meet their needs, all of your hard work will be for naught.
To succeed in 2021, agency owners should conduct regular audits of client websites, share information related to Google algorithm updates, and offer onsite optimizations that can help customers minimize the negative consequences of outdated web features. Rather than taking a “set it and forget it” approach, web design and development should be consistently improved over time and with the newest information in mind.
It’s already been mentioned that mobile and local search is more important than ever. But another related aspect of SEO is voice search. Voice-powered technology has been around for a while, but it’s really become part of our daily lives over the past few years.
Anyone who has ever asked Siri or Alexa to complete a task knows how helpful voice-powered tech can be. It’s really no surprise that, as the technology has improved, our reliance on voice search has increased. While not everyone will conduct Google searches with their voices 100% of the time, it’s becoming much more common now.
That’s important because the way we use voice search differs from traditional search queries. When we type something into the Google search bar, we usually choose a few important words and hope that the search engine will understand our meaning. But when we use voice search tools, we commonly ask complete questions and use conversational language. That means the way we optimize for these searches needs to evolve.
In 2021, agencies can help their clients optimize for voice search by focusing on local SEO, providing mobile-friendly websites, and including FAQ pages with relevant topics.
Whenever Semify reviews SEO trends, the concept that “content is king” remains relatively consistent. But the kinds of content that appeal most to users and to search engines have certainly changed over time.
Video content has emerged as one of the most engaging options for all kinds of businesses. One statistics report from last year found that 87% of participants said video marketing increased traffic to their sites, while 81% said video marketing increased time on page for their web visitors. “Explainer” videos tend to be among the most effective, as 96% of people say they’ve watched videos like these to better understand products or services.
Even if you or your clients don’t have any fancy video equipment or a studio space, it’s possible to make enticing video content to market yourself or the businesses you’re working with. Video content is highly shareable, improves brand awareness, and can have some impressive effects on traffic and conversions. If video content is going to be a main focus for your agency in 2021, make sure to prioritize accessibility through closed captioning and transcriptions.
When an SEO company like Semify reviews trends for white label marketers, online reviews have to be included. Knowing how to generate and manage online reviews is particularly important during the pandemic, as customers need to know who they can trust and who they should support.
Reputation management continues to be an essential aspect of online marketing, though it’s sometimes overlooked in favor of flashier tactics. Customers want to know that businesses are providing a safe environment for both consumers and employees — and one of the most effective ways to get that across is via online reviews.
As an agency owner, you can work with your clients to come up with ways to ask customers for reviews in order to heighten the business’s profile online. Whether through Facebook, Yelp, GMB, or other platforms, you’ll want to illustrate the important roles reviews can play in acquiring new customers this year. Consumers are actually more likely to trust reviews than almost any other form of marketing, so it’s worth investing some time in reputation management for your clients in 2021.
Just as Google cares about the user experience, search engines also want to provide relevant and useful results to web users. The days of publishing thin, keyword-stuffed content are over. Now, Google wants to see content that truly sets a site apart.
That’s where E.A.T. comes in. Short for “Expertise, Authority, and Trust,” this concept is used to help determine search rankings. A website that provides content that’s consistently trustworthy, reputable, and helpful will be in a better position in search results than a site that publishes data that’s opinion-based, biased, or potentially harmful. Google has penalized sites it sees as non-authoritative in the past, including financial and medical sites that couldn’t prove their expertise.
When creating content for clients, don’t take a chance with unproven data. Everything that business posts on its website should be backed up with both experience and industry knowledge. Keep in mind that information that isn’t factual will often drive web users away, which Google will definitely notice. Well-researched content can allow the business to emerge as an industry leader while creating longer, more valuable posts that people will be more likely to revisit and share.
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. As Semify reviews the first months of 2021, it’s clear that a lot has changed over the past year. And while certain things have returned to normalcy, we’ll likely be dealing with the effects of COVID-19 for quite some time.
It’s essential, therefore, that you plan for the worst and hope for the best. Remaining flexible is key to your survival as we continue to navigate this new world. Although none of us expected the effects that a pandemic would have on our economy and our businesses, we now know to respond in the event of a crisis.
You’ll want to develop backup plans for your agency should something like this happen again. Businesses that already had those safeguards in place had an upper hand last year. It should be your goal to be among them for next time.
As Semify reviews their response to COVID-19, they note that their team had already become accustomed to remote work years before the pandemic hit. Because they already had the technology in place and had developed a strong culture, their transition to working from home was relatively seamless. This allowed them to continue delivering consistent results to their resellers, even as many scrambled to figure out a plan of action for themselves.
Another trend for marketers is to develop communications plans for potential crises, which can allow you to effectively dispense information to partners, employees, and customers without delay. You’ll also want to determine how adjustments can be made more quickly if employees fall ill and must quarantine, if supply chains are cut off, or if rising cases warrant widespread shut-downs. Continuing to offer virtual assistance — like webinars or teleconference calls — should also be part of your strategy moving forward. Even as the pandemic eventually becomes a distant memory, it’s likely that many businesses will want to keep these innovations as part of their regular routine to accommodate different needs and reach a wider audience.
When Semify reviews white label SEO trends for 2021, it becomes clear that collaboration and growth are more important than ever. While things may continue to look different for a while yet — and digital marketing is always evolving — certain aspects of your strategy will remain consistent. With these tips in mind, you can strengthen campaigns for your clients and be in a better position to face whatever challenges come your way.