Search Engine Optimization - The Beginning
If I remember well SEO started some time way back in the late 90s after the advent of the Internet. It was hard getting connected to the Net those days when I had built my first site on Yahoo GeoCities. The free site built using Yahoo GeoCities tools and space was titled "The Tiger Heavens of India".
The site was responsible for my entry into the murky world of SEO or search engine optimization and content writing. At that time-on-page factors meant a lot, psssssst they still do. But then a simple insertion of the right terms in profusion in the content and meta worked wonders. The search engines had not yet woken up about spam since the Net was small as compared to the explosion taking place now.
The Search Market
Before we proceed further let us take a peek at the search market. Google alone commands an impressive share of 87 % in the USA. The other players are insignificant with a share of:
- Bing 6.6%
- Yahoo 3.24%
- Duckduck Go 2.49%
End of Black Hat SEO Tactics
Content writing (mine were perfectly written) with the inclusion of semantics, keywords, and grammar simply meant following the rules without losing the focus on the search terms and reader engagement. It was after the filters like Panda that sudden expediency in proper content writing as science came into the picture. All the spam blogs proliferating WWW became an overnight failure and lost ranking on the SERPs. This was a sensational beginning of the end of spam online. No more keyword or content spam!
Next to follow was link building which brought about an end to factories churning out backlinks helter-skelter. Yes, that was what the SEO agencies were doing and were successful. That too came to an end with Penguin. The black hat link building still exists today but is drastically reduced now.
Links though remain important have become contextual, naturalized, and effective in smaller numbers. Thus, authoritative link building came into existence as the algorithms evolved. External and internal links still matter but should be built wisely in association with relevant and engaging content on-page and off-page.
Then it was the turn of SEO Directory submission that became irrelevant somewhat as they struck the dead end. Instead content wrapped links on diverse platforms including some authoritative article sites with editorial scrutiny gained ascendency and contributed to higher ranking and authority on the SERPs.
Well to cut the story short, the search engine algorithms have begun to fight spam with greater efficiency as they evolve. With each and every update the indexing and ranking criteria are changing fast and the indolent webmasters are finding it difficult to keep pace.
Contemporary SEO and Digital Marketing
While SEO has become a mix of science, technology, and art, digital marketing encompasses all but is specific platform-dependent. SEO is considered a larger subset of digital or online marketing.
SEO is an important subset and contributes to more than 55 % of audience reach on the Internet. It is a gateway to free visibility and audience reach. For the eCommerce industry SEO delivers 65% of web traffic and is a vital component. If conducted properly the optimization campaign yield substantial traffic for portals and blogs on SERPs. This traffic is free, and whence the campaign includes paid Ads, and content strategies on Digital Platforms like Email, Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook to name a few, the whole exercise becomes explosive and leads to potential results.
Some technical aspects of SEO that call for larger employment of skill sets or a team are becoming as important as gaining an authoritative position. For example site speed is the number one metric that requires technical adjustment along with other features that make the website competitive and fit for the mobile world. Other issues that fall under the scope of technical SEO are crawling issues, canonical or duplicate content issues, language-based targeting, and website coding.
We must understand that all algorithmic processes, Internet-based platforms that enable content writing along with attributes like video, image, and infographics become intertwined as they evolve in cyberspace. Thus digital marketing is becoming more and more complex with each platform being unique, and involvement has become a much-in-demand skill set. Paid ads using dynamic and smart technologies have increased the complexities faced during the SEM Campaigns and require an understanding of the interplay of various Ad options that search engines are bringing forth to gain accuracy and increase the subscribers' return on investment - the much-touted buzzword ROI.
Data Analysis & Trends
Complexities are not limited to SEO or SEM, the whole digital marketing exercise is becoming embroiled in a tangible result-oriented campaign stressed by the employing digital enterprises to beat the cutthroat competition online. In the contemporary era, webmasters, and content writers are living in a stressed environment. They have to beat the heat with tangible success online.
Data analysis provided by analytical tools and search engine consoles, online reports, and statistics is becoming more and more important with the passing of time. Data and understanding of the latest technologies and trends help in shaping productive content strategies and digital campaigns that lead to the goal conversion.
SERPs & Complex Features
It is no more the 10 site links anymore the search engines result pages are inundated with Ads, free product listings from eCommerce sites by Google, knowledge panel, people ask, carousal, site links, snippets, videos, and images to name a few. The SERPs can show nearly 2000 feature elements based on search intent but thankfully not at once.
Though there are been a negative outlook related to inundating the SERP with these features the company assures higher traffic due to their inclusion. The negative reviews the features receive arise from visitors ignoring the ranking sites as answers are available without any clicks. The inclusion of free product listings and this Google Shopping is a free source of web traffic for many companies and so are the presence on local listings (GMB) and Maps.
Please note to qualify for free product listing the company should be on the Google Merchant Center and follow the prescribed guidelines.
Constant Updates & SEO
With the induction of RankBrain (2015), Google has successfully integrated AI with its indexing and ranking process making search optimization more difficult. Will these changes lead to the end of SEO? Well, most unlikely but increased importance to monetization is certainly having an impact that has to be skillfully maneuvered. The stress should be on accurate information on board provided by the search engine specialists. You should aim to be found out on targeted terms by the visitors and with the right optimization, AI will certainly come to your help!
Artificial intelligence together with the inclusion of machine learning methodology casts greater challenges on webmasters. Now it has become difficult to grasp what actually the search company derives from the search query or the content with the inclusion of these technologies.
By the year Google made 5000 changes to search with the help of over 800,000 experiments in order to refine the search results and thus keep its market share intact as a leader.
Additionally, visitors have an option for localized or personalized results. Though this does not complicate things, there is greater stress on search engine optimization specialists and writers. The content creation should take care of the right user (semantic) intent that has to be fulfilled. SEOs should anticipate queries that would be generated by the target audience and gauge the site metrics' ability to solve or provide solutions. This is imperative for loyal followings and to attract new user traffic. This is in order to reach the right target audience.
The SEO best practices include:
- Keyword Research
- Unique Relevant Content
- Natural Backlink Acquisition
- Constant Analysis
- Authoritative External Link Building
- Internal Linking
Uday provides a search engine optimization service for digital marketing. He provides website content and content for authoritative links. He also works as SEO Content Writer for digital companies on a remote WFH basis.
He also teaches digital marketing in his home town Jabalpur. He can be contacted at:
pateluday90@hotmail.com
09755089323
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