Is Search Engine Optimization Dead
Google makes thousands of algorithm changes every year. It now integrates artificial intelligence to better understand search queries. It also takes into account a huge amount of data related to the searcher’s location and their preferences. With all this in mind, you may wonder whether search engine optimization (SEO) is still alive. So lets review “is Search Engine Optimization Dead”.
The State of Search Engine Optimization
With over 3.5 billion searches carried out on Google every day, search engines are the go-to place for people searching for information. SEO helps to make this information easier for search engines to understand and for people to find. In that regard, it serves a functional purpose that transcends marketing goals.
But SEO has undergone many changes and falling back on old methods to do it can prove to be a costly mistake. What exactly has changed in the world of SEO?
- Google is increasingly answering searcher questions without requiring them to click links and visit the websites from which the information is taken. The information snippets Google displays atop the search results page are easy to scan and often very useful.
- Because Google is answering more questions now, click-through rates (CTR) to organic search results have declined.
- The number of results for many keywords exceeds the number of searchers. In other words, there’s more content out there than there are searches related to it.
- A lot of brands are taking their marketing to social media and using influencer marketing and other strategies to reach out to customers.
- Competition for keywords is tough across many niches so that it’s difficult to rank for them, especially since this is a process that takes time. Smaller businesses, in particular, may struggle to compete with established brands.
- Backlinking strategies don’t weigh as much as they used to do. Getting as many people as possible to link to your website is still great, provided that your website offers a great user experience. Otherwise, the backlinks won’t make up for it.
These are some pretty momentous changes. They may force you to rethink your online content strategy if you haven’t already.
How to Make SEO Work for You
Now that we’ve seen some of the changes that impact SEO, here are some ideas that can help you keep up with the latest SEO developments.
- Focus on the user experience. By providing the best web page experience for visitors you are increasing your chances of ranking at the top of the search results.
- Be active on social media as Google gives weight to social signals. Having a large and engaged following on social media that follows your content and shares it will increase your website rankings. Being on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat can boost your SEO efforts.
- Promote your brand. Google loves brands and will display brand results to keywords related to the products they are selling. Using SEO to make your brand story easy to discover can be a way to use Google’s love for brands to your advantage.
- Focus on a niche. Both searchers and search engines love specific content that provides a lot of information and is reliable and trustworthy.
- Personalize your website content. Allowing visitors to choose their preferred content and adapting your pages to their preferences sends a positive signal to both visitors and Google.
Is Search Engine Optimization Dead – NOT
Is search engine optimization dead no but SEO is constantly evolving. Sticking to old SEO strategies like over-optimizing for keywords could be a waste of time and money. Search engines continue to be extremely useful and popular—more useful and popular than ever perhaps.
But how search engines interpret user signals has changed. Now they are smarter than ever at picking up these signals and interpreting them. SEO is not dead, but it is different. You need a fresh approach to SEO focused on the user experience. Make your SEO about people, not about keywords.
