Changing Face of SERPs & WebMasters Guidelines

Overview

With paradigm shift in search engine optimisation brought about regularly at the behest of changes to the algorithms of major search engines, webmasters are facing an uphill task. While the gist of the shift is attributed to the search engines pushing the clients towards paid advertisement on which major chunk of their revenue depends there are other reasons surfacing as well.  

Though webmasters role remains central to optimisation the rein on the SERPs is now in control of the companies with popular search algorithms. There is another sacred reason for the reins loosening from the webmasters. Through the last decade of development of search on the result pages the companies like Google have been according greater weightage to quality and relevancy. This has been brought about by regular evolution of algorithms and emerging associated technologies which have made the robots much smarter.    

On the SERPs people seek answers as well as amusement and unraveling of mystery of sorts. Yes a good lot is there for simply whiling away. The result page is like a Pandora's box for you never know what you may come across - this remains in the focus of users till this day. They are not interested in seeing the same results day in day out especially the brands which they are aware of anyway. The search is also for the lesser known embedded deep in the piles of results capable of springing surprise or a rarity. Hence with decreasing role of webmasters the diversity on the SERPs is taking a back seat giving rise to oft repeated results with which the users are getting tired off. This is what I call as demystifying the Internet. There will definitely be less takers. 

Internet is like a celestial void you never know what lies in the ahead.

With greater control of the contents and the backlings,the companies have brought about these changes as mentioned here earlier. This has also meant less control of results for the webmasters and elimination of black hat techniques.

BackLinks

In contemporary the impetus on backlinks has certainly decreased but not eliminated. Greater impetus is now placed on contents and related attributes of web design like the speed, architecture, images, videos, graphics and so on. The technical side has also experienced a weightage with better coding, usability, fluid navigation and quality design being preferred. There has been efforts to maximise search results with easy navigability with introduction of knowledge box, metadata and the carousel. 

But the fact remains that only ten results are usually looked into. Hence the race for the first page. 

More and more metrics are being included in indexing and ranking algorithms. This has made the whole process of optimisation holistic. The social media presence is one of the yardstick of measures or rather a number of activities where in online reputation aids search engine as to who will reach higher for relevant search terms.

Internet Marketing 

Hence Internet Marketing is the right term for promotion on Internet. Albeit this is inclusive of SEO or search engine optimisation as a key process. It used to depend heavily on link building earlier. Though building links is imperative even if the engines devalue it, a webmaster's effort should be holistic with content creation and social media participation being the major role players in the contemporary scenario. 

Coming back to link building it is an effective method to create referrals and place content on social media apparatus. Links are easy and free advertisement medium albeit they carry less value up the SERPs but nevertheless spammy links will penalise your site as well as devalue your online reputation on the social media. 

Webmaster Alternative : Online Presence 

With ever constricting space on SERPs the webmasters have to find alternative route to expose their client site to prospective or targeted audience. This is where Internet Marketing comes into the picture. Social media activities, push on the messaging sites using email and SMS should be an associated activity. This way there will be less reliance on SERPs and costly Ads. You will be able to provide targeted exposure to the site without being much on the result pages. 

This only means that content creation is imperative without which you should be looking for another job. On the design and development side association with coders and programmers is a must that is if you know the attributes of sound design and can instruct the designer fraternity in touch to make necessary changes.