They say some things never change, but not in this case because quite a few marketing channels around us have evolved and that too rather swiftly. Search engine optimizat…
They say some things never change, but not in this case because quite a few marketing channels around us have evolved and that too rather swiftly. Search engine optimization (SEO) for one has seen some dramatic changes over the past 10 years. In its early years or infancy period, the practice of SEO was the shady process of just shuffling and stuffing keywords. You would just tweak back-end codes and spam and stuff links until you would start ranking well for those keywords of your choice. Thankfully though, Google was clever enough to stamp out those practices pretty quickly. Ever since its search algorithm and keyword preferences have never really stopped evolving.
So what are the few things that changed SEO over the past decade?
Content
First and foremost we need to take into account the rise of content marketing as one of the most formidable forms of online promotional tactics. Content marketing is a part of every successful SEO strategy and needless to mention that Google has been steadily refining what it considers “good” content over the past 10 years. Experts say that the Panda update in the year 2011 served as a deadly blow to the head to every spammy article and/or blog and content which was nothing but words and phrases stuffed with keywords. After this Panda came into action, it became virtually impossible for anyone to get away with any kind of gimmicky or tricky content. So no more high quantity content while compromising on quality and substance and that shows now in their current practices.
No More Link Schemes
Google says that any attempt to influence your ranking with links qualify as a link scheme. By the end of the first decade or in the late 2000’s that is, Google had stamped out most of the prevailing black-hat and spam-based link-building practices adopted by many businesses. They had penalized participants and by the year 2012, with the Penguin update, link building was given a much needed face-lift. That is what made link building what it is today with only natural link attraction and valuable links being added with guest posts that work to earn you a higher rank.
Knowledge Expansion
With the advent of the internet and its wide coverage and increased use all over the world, people have come in contact with more and more information and gotten themselves familiar with words and terminology that was earlier not a part of search engine optimization. Now content marketers have to include words and phrases in their content that were nowhere to be found up until a few years ago. With time we have evolved and so have the words and phrases that we use to look for products and services on the internet. This evolution will continue to happen for as long as there is still scope for improvement.