The 4 C's of SEO are changing in 2021 to reflect a new method of analyzing websites, Core Web Vitals. It is no longer enough to stuff your pages with keywords or add the right tags. If content plays front-and-center at the heart of Google search results, Core Web Vitals is its supporting player. This blog post will discuss how these 4 C's can improve your SEO despite the constant changes in SEO.

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1. Content

You need to have more than just keywords or tags on your pages. You must write high-quality articles for the topics directly related to your SEO strategy to get a good tone from Google's algorithms.

With more technology using the power of search, it's so important that your content provides value to your visitor.

For example, if you owned a bakery and someone were to do a voice search for your keyword, like "cheesecake desserts near me" through Amazon Echo or Siri, you need to make sure that there's content about cheesecake desserts besides just the menu listing you probably already have.

Include an easy recipe, write an article about how you create your cheesecake, or discuss what types of cheesecakes are best for certain occasions.

Here are 5 different content type ideas you can use for your website:

1. Blog posts

Write engaging and informative blog posts to increase user retention for your website.

If you're not sure what to write about, try using answerthepublic.com.

On Answer The Public, you can enter a keyword about your topic and it'll generate commonly-searched phrases around your topic.

This should give you more than enough ideas to write content about.

When structuring your blog, try this quick outline as well:

• Make sure that the body of the article is brief but also detailed enough so readers know what it's about
• Summarize all points made at end with an overview paragraph or list, preferably including key terms, as well as hyperlinks where appropriate
• Include images throughout depending on content
  

2. Infographics

Coming up with infographics can be frustratingly annoying and time-consuming.

Fortunately, here's a great resource to create infographics for your website is Genial.ly.

This free service lets you create practically any design with ease from infographics to presentations and more.

3. Podcasts for your website visitors to listen to.

The world of podcasts is booming.

With over 700,000 podcast episodes available and new content being published every day there have never been more options for listeners to find their niche on the internet or in audio form than now.

Take advantage by embedding podcast episodes on your website to make it more engaging for visitors.

You can embed these audio files using a free service like SoundCloud or YouTube, and if you have an RSS feed of the latest episode from iTunes then people will be able to subscribe right there.

4. Videos for your website visitors

Video content has been shown to be an effective way of getting your message across.

When you have videos on your site, visitors will feel more engaged, which helps with retention. Visitors can absorb ideas better through video.

Needless to say, you can then start posting these videos on YouTube as well to further drive traffic to your website.

Quick note about YouTube:

Most people confuse YouTube with a social media platform. But it functions more as a search engine on its own. Your video's presence on YouTube will bring in double the benefits versus posting on your website alone.

I highly recommend investing time into making high-quality videos.

5. Social media

Social media is a great way to reach your audience and get them involved in the conversation. You can post pictures of new products, ask for feedback on what you should make next, or share recipes with followers who are looking forward to it.

• Share photos from behind scenes at work (elevate their curiosity)
• Post videos about how they create certain dishes like cheesecakes that might be difficult without visuals
• Promote your upcoming specials

Best of all, creating a live update to your website will have tremendous SEO benefits as well.

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2. Crawl

This means that Google's crawler will be able to see the content on your site more easily.

This is great for SEO because when Search Engines crawl sites, they use this information to establish tone-of-voice as one factor in determining how relevant pages are related.

It'll also better understand what you're trying to say.

Businesses need to use SEO or SEM, especially with voice search coming into play and artificial intelligence being integrated into other platforms like Facebook Messenger chatbots.

Quick Tip #1: Google Search Console

Google has several tools to help you improve your website's SEO. One of these is Google Search Console, a free tool that provides both diagnostic and monitoring features for your site.

If you're not using Google Search Console, it's time to start. It'll help you see how your site ranks in search results and suggests ways for you to improve your User Experience on different devices.

Quick Tip #2: Bing Search Console

Although Google dominates search, I'd also recommend creating a Bing Search Console account as well. Like Google, Bing created this platform for users to monitor their site rankings within its own search engine on bing.com.

With this new tool from Microsoft, it's easy for businesses to monitor page rankings so they can improve their efforts on the go.

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3. Credibility

Sites with high-quality original articles are seen as credible sources by search engines like google.

Why? The more in-depth and valuable the information, the more difficult it would be for competing businesses online to recreate that information, making it more valuable.

Sites that copy-paste other blogs or give short, basic blogs that don't do much to provide value can hurt SEO in the long term because the value isn't there for visitors.

Needless to say, stay away from copy-pasting content and make the effort to write original content that will help your visitors in the long run.

4. Content (but now we mean how users interact when visiting our website)

People won't go out of their way to use an app if they can’t find their needs.

If there isn’t a quick and easy solution, people will gravitate towards the available content on other platforms.

Here are some key things to focus on when looking at improving your UX (user experience):

1. Improve Your Main Menu.

Your main menu is one of the most overlooked parts of your website.

Although your main menu isn't the most exciting part of your website, it's one of the most important.

It's how users will navigate to other pages on your site or blog, so you want them to be simple and attractive. They want to figure out what's on the site and where to go next.

So make sure your site is easy to navigate and easy to understand, so visitors know exactly where things are without having any confusion at every turn.

2. Determine your Calls-To-Action on each important page.

On pages you consider important, there should be 1 core action you want people to take.

Why one? You want visitors to stay focused and know exactly what to do next.

If you include too many buttons to different locations on your site, you create confusion.

And a confused mind will always say no.

For example, if you have a Contact Me page, that page's purpose is to get the visitor to fill out the Contact form you may have on that page.

You shouldn't have a button to your Podcast page and to your Shop page as well.

That's what your main menu is for.

3. Whenever possible, try to support and communicate your ideas through visuals.

The more text you have, the more draining it will be for your visitors to read through all that mess.

Don't create fatigue in your visitor's mind – encourage engagement and retention by giving them eye candy and easy-to-follow images and videos.

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Conclusion

To summarize, follow these 4 C's to SEO glory in 2021:

1. Content
2. Crawl
3. Credibility
4. Content!

I hope this helps you navigate the murky waters of SEO in 2021.

The easiest thing to remember is just to stick to these fundamentals.

By doing so, you set yourself up to weather any future SEO change madness and adapt quicker and easier than your competition.

I hope you can take these tips and make your SEO rock this year.

And as always, if you'd ever like to chat about your own website and how you can improve SEO through a redesign, feel free to reach out using the Contact page.

Cheers.