SEO
is something that most of us have heard about. The last decade has seen a vast shuffling in terms of strategies and ranking systems. We have been witness to a series of transformations and release of a number of marketing channels that has impacted the way we live and communicate today. 7 of the major changes that SEO has seen over the last decade can be summarized as below:
- Content is King: A phrase that we have been coming across more frequently has certainly gained more relevance. Today content marketing is regarded as the best tool for implementing a successful SEO strategy. This has been more evident with Google adopting ways that refine its results and gives credence to quality. The popular Panda update by Google has been one of the leading examples of a transformation that came in the year 2011. With Panda things changed and it became difficult to use gimmicky content tactics like keyword stuffing.
- Link Schemes became useless: Google has its own definition for what link schemes mean. A simpler definition states that a link scheme is something that attempts to influence the ranking of your website by the use of links that qualifies under the head of spam-based link building. Penguin update that was released in 2012 takes care of this aspect.
- Local Promotion and its relevance: SEO now has its relevance in almost every area you can think of. Pigeon update was released in the year 2014 which incorporated the traditional web ranking signals within its ranking algorithm. These changes gave importance to well-optimized websites for local searches. On the other hand, Google has also paid more relevance to high-authority directories on its search pages.
- The frequency of SERP changes: There is no count when it comes to the number of changes that has been initiated for the SERP on Google. The changes have been more real time and rankings have been consistently changed over time.
- Knowledge Graph and its rise: Google’s Knowledge Graph has been one of the other major inflicting tools. It first appeared in the year 2012 and offers the users a direct and concrete answer to all their queries. Most often this is represented by a small box containing information about the search made. Although it is something great, it takes precedence over the other organic search results.
- Mobile friendliness: With a drastic shift in the audience base, Google started to give more importance to mobile friendly websites. More and more people are now using their smartphones and other handheld devices to search and browse online. Hence, it is very important to have a website that is optimized to meet the needs of the mobile users.
- Elimination of keywords: Keyword stuffing that had been a major approach by website owners till 2013 has no relevance today. Penguin and Panda have virtually killed the idea of keyword stuffing. Hummingbird is also an update that further refined this idea and introduced the concept of semantic search. Google intends to understand the meaning of matching keywords instead of merely matching the keywords.
Staying aware of where SEO stands today and how it has shaped over the years helps you to enhance your capabilities as an online marketer. With the right set of tools backed by white hat strategies, you can expect to excel in your attempts to rank over the search engines.