How much have you changed your SEO strategy over a couple of years? Unfortunately, many businesses struggle with search engine optimization as they don’t know how to evolve their strategy or accept that times are changing on the internet.
SEO is evolving a lot over the years, and you need to keep up with the growing trends constantly. If you do not adapt it now, it will affect your business in the future.
Let’s look at how search engine optimization has changed in recent years and what you need to be aware of.
Table of Contents
Constant Change in Google Algorithm
If you have used the same SEO strategy for years, you’ll find that your page ranks will now be affected by this. It is because Google always adapts and changes its algorithm.
Check out the trends you need to be aware of so that you can update your SEO strategy.
Quality Content is Prioritized
There used to be a time when Google ranked websites based on how much content they had. So it did not matter if we wrote the pages badly, had many keywords, or even if their content was not unique.
A lot has changed over the years, and this is something your business cannot do anymore. So instead, the focus is on quality content. It means that any business has to craft engaging, unique, and insightful content if they want to rank well on Google.
Ahbiv Digital Agency has the experience to write quality content and keep up to date with changes to the algorithm. It is not easy, so it can be helpful to work with an experienced team.
Another option may be to have us do your SEO for you. They can achieve results for businesses, which might be an option you want to take if you are not a writer or don’t know enough about SEO.
Stuffing of Keywords is Punished
Many businesses used to stuff their content with keywords thinking that this would help them rank better on Google. However, this is no longer an accepted tactic, and Google does not reward this black-hat SEO strategy.
We all know that keywords are important, the importance is on how to use them in a better way that adds value to the content. They should be placed naturally and not overused in text. It is very important because it can lead to the website being punished by Google and pushed down in the rankings.
Importance Of Local SEO
It’s important to realize that local SEO is now very important. In particular, people want quick and relevant information about the industry and brands they are searching for.
For instance, users use their mobile devices to Google places in their city or town. It means that your business has to optimize content and use local SEO keywords. You should also try to optimize & update your Google My Business profile.
Importance of Quality Backlinks
If search engines aren’t important to you, you probably don’t know much about SEO and backlinks. In other words, you’re linking to another website, and search engines like Google are focused on delivering quality content to their users.
They want to provide the best results, but not any backlinks will do. So you have to ensure that your website uses high-quality backlinks.
Most websites use many links in the hope that they will rank higher and improve their position on Google, but this is no longer the case.
You are better off creating just one high-quality link than several low-quality links. Nevertheless, it is something you need to understand when creating content.
Mobile Optimization is the Key
More people than ever use their smartphones to do searches, so Websites need to adapt to the mobile screens and have sufficient page speeds.
SEO changes Over the years
Google rolled out around 25 algorithm updates since 2015 till date. Each of the updates helped to reduce the ranking potential of spam sites. It also improved the search engine’s matching of the searcher’s intent. However, some major ones like Panda, Penguin, and BERT made some old SEO tactics outdated.
Five common SEO tactics you should avoid and change
Here are some search engine optimization tactics that are no longer effective. These are what you should stop doing and what to do instead:
Backlinking
Backlinks have always been a factor in search engine optimization (SEO), but their importance has changed drastically. For years, it was all about quantity over quality. Having 50 directory links was as good as having one link from a site with high domain authority.
Submitting your site to dozens of online directories no longer packs the same SEO punch as getting a few high-quality links from sites with high domain authority.
Instead, Do This
Aim for backlinks from high-quality websites. You get high-quality backlinks by submitting guest posts to sites with high domain authority, such as Forbes, The Huffington Post, and Outbrain. So, for example, if you get published on Forbes, you’ll have a lot of link juice pointing back to your site!
One way to get great backlinks to your content is to look at sites that write about topics similar to yours. Then, if you find articles that you think could be elevated by adding a link to your content, send a friendly email to the author or editor explaining why their readers would love your content. Remember that it may take you dozens of emails before one person bites, but when they do bite, your patience will be rewarded with a nice backlink.
Writing Content Using Keywords
Keywords have always been a factor in SEO. In the past, a site owner would choose a few keywords relating to their industry and write a page for each of those keywords. While getting a few backlinks would rank the page high on search engine results.
This strategy often results in low-quality content that sounds unnatural. The information written on the page may not even be good for human readers. Using keywords too much like keyword stuffing is also a big issue now. It might have helped your page rank, but now it will hurt your rankings.
Instead, Do This
Keep in mind that Google looks for content written for humans to understand and read. So instead of writing pages around single keywords and attempting to work those keywords in as many times as possible, try creating content around a topic or answering questions. You’ll better serve searchers, and your content will be of higher quality. For example, instead of writing an article using a single keyword like “Biryani recipe,” use keywords that people tend to search for, like “How do you make biryani from scratch?
Check out that more is Better
Today, more people know that the more pages you have on a website, the worse it is. Quantity over quality, in other words. Do not think you will get a good ranking, as low-quality content makes for a bad user experience. It won’t win you any favor with Google.
Instead, Do This
Create high-quality content, even if it’s just one or two new pages each month. Understand the topics in-depth that your readers search for and try to create that type of content so that people can link to and share it on social media.
If you have lots of pages following previous SEO strategies, don’t pull those pages down! Instead, look at the existing pages and think about what could be improved. Expand existing content. Remove instances of keyword stuffing. Those are better courses of action than pulling content down and losing any traffic that those pages may be bringing in.
Getting #1 Spot
For a long time, the goal of SEO was to get to #1 as an organic rank in the rankings; if you got to #1, congratulations! You were famous and had many visitors!
There are a few problems with this. First, ranking #1 doesn’t guarantee that someone will see your business or click on it. Second, even if they see your business, they don’t necessarily convert on the site. We see this a lot.
Your title tags and meta descriptions impact SEO. Since writing enticing title tags and meta descriptions will help you get more clicks, it is important to do so even if you’re not in the top spot.
Another problem is the rise of the “featured snippet.” The box of information shows up at the top of search results. So even if you’re #1, you could be overshadowed by a link in the featured snippet.
Keep in mind that to be #1, you should aim to be on the first page of results. Unfortunately, 75% of people never check out the second page of search results. So people can’t find you if you are not on the first page.
Instead, Do This
Focus on the results of your site instead of your position in the SERPs. You’re doing fine if your site is performing well and bringing in new customers/clients.
Exact Domain Names
Once upon a time, people thought a domain name like indianpunjabirestaurant.com virtually guaranteed you’d rank for almost any search for Indian restaurants in India. However, that’s no longer the case.
Choosing a domain that has rich keywords rather than a branded domain could bring in trouble as Google will flag your site as spam. Spam never ranks, so choosing a keyword-rich domain could cause you to lose rankings.
Instead, Do This
Choose a domain that is easy for your customers to read and remember. Your SEO success doesn’t hinge on your domain.
Conclusion
A lot has changed in SEO and link building during the coming years. We need to focus on new strategies and see that we should avoid keyword stuffing and long URLs in the domain. For more information, do Contact Us; we would like to help by guiding you in the right direction.
