Whenever a new year rushes in, there is always a hush in the digital marketing world, whether SEO will still be relevant or will it starts to see its demise. However, as the year presses on, SEO continues to soar, solidifying the thought that it will not go anywhere, not anytime soon.
SEO has become the core of digital marketing in recent years. Many brands and companies have anchored their strategies to SEO which helped build their name online. As technology continues to move forward, SEO has dramatically evolved alongside these days.
While it is not true that SEO will soon bid farewell, some of its concepts are now long gone or has evolved into something new. Keeping tabs on the latest updates in SEO can help you stay ahead of the competition and make your SEO efforts still relevant.
SEO Still Matters
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of making your site rank high organically in search engine results through the use of keywords, contents and other strategies.
Knowing that it will not bid farewell anytime soon, you may ask, does SEO still matters? The answer to that question is still a big resounding yes. Doing SEO can always provide you with many benefits which can help grow your business.
SEO continues to expand in recent years as more people are now searching online before buying any specific item or just looking for things that might catch their interest. Accordingly,
70% of customers check an item online first before making any purchase. This shift in customer behaviour will let you know that people can are now found online, they are doing their research, and they still rely on search engines to look for things they want to know. Amazingly this year alone, Google has already received almost
1.2 trillion searches that continue to grow each day.
Given these numbers, SEO does still matter, and it can always be a massive opportunity to grow your brand.
Importance of SEO
Over the years, SEO has become one of the essentials in digital marketing. Aside from making your website appear in top searches, it has given many benefits to numerous companies.
• People Who Google Are Ready To Buy From You
When a person accesses his computer for research, he has an idea already with what he wants and what he needs to buy. According to a study, 81% of shoppers go to search engine sites to do online research before purchasing any item.
• SEO Is Cost-Effective
Results for doing SEO does not come overnight. Some people who do not succeed in this strategy do so because they lose their patience while waiting for the SEO results. However, SEO offers long term result even though you cannot see results coming in your way fast. Once you have accomplished your goals to rank high in search engine results, you’ll enjoy its benefits over a long period.
• Long-Term Quality Traffic
As you build your SEO campaign, you also build your audience. Once you have established your website authority, and as long as you provide quality contents, the possibility to gain a new audience will continue. Over time, your content will continue to attract people to visit your website, use it as a referral link and eventually lead to an increase in sales conversion.
• Better User Experience (UX)
As you try to optimize your site for your
SEO strategy through its technical foundations, you also improve your website’s user experience. SEO and UX can make a good team and can bring in good numbers in the table.
Irrelevant SEO Strategies
While it is essential to bring people over to your site through different SEO tactics, there are SEO strategies that have already seen the end of days or have already evolved into something more significant. Here are some of the practices that you should altogether avoid in your SEO efforts.
As you read this, check if you still lean on these strategies that are considered no longer adequate. If you do, now is the time to review your tactics and start to formulate some methods that can bring you success instead of demise.
• All - Out Links
Perhaps one of the most important thing you have to do to make sure your find success in SEO is through link building. It is even one of the ranking factor of search engines like Google.
However, link building is not what it is supposed today. There was a time when to rank in search in engine results; all you have to do is include as many links as you want to your site. Spamming links from different digital directories and website become acceptable.
These days, this is not the case anymore. No matter how many links you provide as long it does not offer value and does not give valuable information; it will not matter.
• Focus On The Top Spot
If your main objective in doing SEO is to get the number one spot in search engine results, then you have to reevaluate your goals and objectives.
Actually getting the number one spot does not give you the “top” spot these days. Above those organic search results, you’ll find featured snippers, question boxes and even ads like Pay-per-click or PPC. So also if you have got the top spot, you are most likely get buried by those above you.
While ranking number one can be a good thing, what you should do is to make sure you have a compelling headline that will grab attention and an enticing meta description that will hold on to that attention.
• Massive number of pages on your website
Donning your website with a massive number of pages is an SEO tactic that is harming your site instead of helping it. The principle “the bigger your website is, the better” is no longer valid and should have gone a long time ago.
While it is true that your website should have a sensible weight on it, but adding several pages to emphasize a single keyword can make be detrimental to your site instead of adding to it.
Google will not rank you based on the number of webpages you have but instead on your webpage that is most relevant to a keyword query. Having too many pages will shy away from your visitors as they have to delve deeper to find what they are looking for during their search.
It will not only help you with your SEO ranking, but it will connote a negative user experience.
• Over Use of Keyword
As an SEO practitioner, you know that the use of keywords is your ticket in getting the traction that you want for your website and for it to crawl in search engine results.
In earlier days of SEO, like links, you can stuff your content with keywords as much as you want. However, that is not the case these days. Your keywords should be placed strategically in your content instead of putting it awkwardly in your sentences and headlines.
Final Thoughts
To say SEO is long gone is untrue. It is very much alive and if done right, can still great wonders for your site. It is always the core of digital marketing and still dominates all traffic sources that can lead to your website.
What you can do to make your SEO efforts are on the right track, always keep tabs on the latest in this strategic campaign to make sure that your tactics are still relevant and can bring an outstanding success for your brand.
Author’s Bio
Maricar Morga worked as a marketing professional for almost a decade. She became part of the biggest real estate company/mall operator in the Philippines and handled concerts, events and community service-related activities. Leaving her corporate job for good to pursue her dreams, she has now ventured in the path of content writing and currently writes for
Softvire Australia - the leading software e-Commerce company in Australia and
Softvire New Zealand. A Harry Potter fan, she loves to watch animated series and movies during her spare time.
