2019 was a year of updates and changes in the land of Search Engines. As a result, a lot of websites witnessed a drastic drop in traffic on their sites. The whole community of SEO professionals went to a shock wave. It became evident that Search Optimization in the future will be going to get really hard. But is SEO dead yet? Well, the answer is both Yes and No. Yes, because most of the strategies that SEO professionals deployed to get links have become useless. No, because SEO at a large is still about “optimizing” your website so that it reaches the right audience with the right kind of content. So, the ‘marketing’ part of SEO is still relevant. True, that the application of these insights requires quite a work.
Unless you are adaptive enough and reinstall the fundamental marketing aspect of the field, it is soon going to be an obsolete skill. Now, what is this conventional SEO? And how are we going to re-invent ourselves to stay in the game? Conventional SEO lies in creating as many backlinks as possible often relying on strategies of PBN networks, bloggers, affiliates and links submission. And clearly, with recent updates from Google, we need to deploy some smart SEO strategies.
Well, from prehistoric times to modern times it is been evident if you want to survive you need to adapt to the change. Same way, marketing itself has undergone a major facelift in the form of digital marketing and social presence. Slowly digital space has taken a dominant marketing share from the traditional media and I am sure in the coming eras digital space will outlive its traditional counterparts. So, here’s my cents on how to cope with the changing and as well as challenging SEO landscape.
- Stay Informed with the updates (& Mandates) – 2019 was a year of benchmarking algorithmic updates from the mogul Google. The recent one being BERT which is implemented globally is considered one of the major blows to the SEO community. But then again if you play along as long as keeping intact the Google set of rules (with obvious intention of tactics) there’s less to worry. Fundamentally, rich content, contextual content and keeping the sites technically strong will make it a smooth sail.
- Importance of On-Page SEO – It is evident by the systematic updates from google that more importance is laid on-site structures, navigation, site speed, safety, and context. So, if you are going to stay in the game, you need to work on these factors of SEO. On-Page SEO have now become more crucial for site owners. So, in a nutshell, user experience is going to be the ace card in the coming years.
- No Only Link-Relationship – Invest in real relationship building rather than link interchanging schemes. After the recent updates, many PBNs have also lost its credentials so unless the blog is really of value and has some authentic traffic engagement, there is hardly any point to have mindless linking. Therefore, manual tweaking of bloggers, niche influencer reach outs will now become a more prominent off-page strategy.
- Content Marketing & Management – Content was always been the king of marketing, now it has become emperor. Relevant, informative and value-oriented content will always make it a “star performer” in the eyes of Search engines. The thumb rule is to search like an audience and deliver like a marketer. So, aligning content with the intent of your audience will increase the CTR significantly.
- Cross-Platform Reach– Smart marketers have understood the power of utilizing multi-channel platforms to market themselves. As an SEO professional leveraging the vast audience bases of social media is something one should focus on. Aligning keywords and content to distribute in these social channels will not only increase visibility but also garner leads for your business.
I am sure with these points included at your digital marketing checklist; you are going to witness the true power of sustainable digital growth. I truly hope you gain the desired traction in the coming year.