As I continue to expand my business, helping companies market with search engines, I'm continually baffled by the lack of search engine understanding. Many companies still think you can buy your way to top organic results. But they're called organic search rankings for a reason.

The reality is that Google's EAT model - expertise, authority, and trust goes way beyond keyword stuffing or paid internal links. And for good reason. Every since the introduction of artificial intelligence into the search engine algorithm, user experience is improving exponentially. By removing spam and focusing on quality content that users want to engage in, everyone wins.

Google has an advantage. It's not what you think. Their scale is impressive but its also the technology they use to learn and learn quickly. They are able to test improvements in a millisecond and consistently over time - making successive improvements all day every day. This results in cleaner results that are more accurate and get higher engagement.

How Can You Improve Your SEO

Knowing that fewer methods exist to manipulate rankings, what can you do? The answer is always the same. You have to do the work. What do we mean when we say do the work? The answer is simple but not easy to implement.

1. Create engaging content that readers want to engage with. This means having a deep understanding of what your audience wants and needs - and providing it on a consistent basis. Learn to get better as a company and as a publisher of information, tools, and resources. What at the things you can provide to your audience? Can you be the only one to provide it? If not, how can you improve the user experience and associate it with your brand?

2. Build a following. When you understand your audience and deliver quality content, they will follow you. It's like your favorite brands that you keep going back to again and again. You do so because they give you something. It might not be something tangible but rather a feeling, a level of certainty or something else. What can your website or brand deliver? A great example of this is from a client that focused on IT Consulting - Owlpoint. They've done a great job of building a following around their services and certifications.

3. Focus on the long term. I still struggle with clients that want to improve website authority and traffic in just a couple of months. That's difficult if not impossible to do. Rather, focus on the fundamentals like putting a physical address on your website, publishing content via a blog, and making sure you've verified your Google My Business listing. Once you've covered the basics, you can start to engage on a more consistent basis.

Speaking of consistency, remember that good search engine optimization takes time. When you focus on the long term that doesn't mean that you do one thing and just give it time to perform. Rather, it means having a plan, a strategy, and executing daily on that strategy. That's not to say that you won't have ups and downs but it dos speak to the need to continually apply yourself to improving online visibility.

How to Increase Online Visibility

Something else you should keep in mind is that having good search engine rankings is only part of the opportunity that lies before you. Companies and individuals that do well online realize the importance of looking good online - taking advantage of everything that search engines have to offer.

This includes the knowledge panel on Google, Questions and Answers, featured snippets and so much more. Unfortunately, not enough people take advantage of universal search results. The best way to do so is by taking your content and translating it into different formats.

For example, a power point presentation could make a great article or video in addition to the actual power point itself. Videos can be transcribed or even made into interesting info graphics. All of these different formats give Google a variety of ways to share information with search engine users.

The best thing you can do is set up a regular publishing schedule and then create a process to translate that content into a variety of assets. Companies like MOZ do a great job of this with their white board fridays. Consider creating videos and transcribing the content onto the webpage.

Getting Started with SEO

If you're just getting started with search engine optimization, it's important to have a plan. Whether you're using an SEO agency or not, its important to have your basic SEO taken care of before moving on to more advanced optimization techniques.

Foundations SEO means that your have your Google My Business account verified and completed. It means that your business information appears on top directory sites. It also means that your website's on page SEO is up to speed. Use a free SEO site audit to test your on-page search engine optimization.

By addressing the foundational needs of your website, you're in a much better position to enhance and improve your overall website rankings. In addition, consider identifying your ongoing SEO plan. What are the things you can do on a regular basis to create more awareness for your website or blog.

Start with on page optimization. On page optimization means that your website is abiding by search engine optimization best practices. This ensure a full website crawl and classification. Google Search Console provides a great report, the Core Web Vitals report, that will show any errors or issues impacting your website. By taking care of the basic blocking and tackling, you're in a much better position to improve upon your rankings.

Once you've completed the on-site work, don't forget to monitor your progress. In addition to tracking your rankings you also want to scan your website based on the latest Google algorithm updates. Updates happen on a seemingly regular basis and definitely impact result.

Building Website Authority

One of my favorite saying is, "you can't diet your way to bigger muscles". If you want to add muscle you have to lift weights. There are no shortcuts. The same is true for website authority - which is your website's measure of importance. This comes from other sites linking to you.

Build inbound links to improve website authority and rankings. You can do this through guest blog posting, press releases, and basically anything that builds a link back to your website. I recommend working with an agency or freelancers to explore all of the different link building opportunities that are available given your business and SEO strategy.

If you want to achieve new heights with your SEO program, you can find affordable SEO services that get you there. As long as they start with Basic SEO fundamentals and expand into on-page and off-page optimization strategies, you'll reap the rewards of increased online visibility.