Over the years the way that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) works has evolved immensely. While it still serves to increase the accessibility that customers have to your website, we must also be aware of the changes it has undergone and what that means for your online presence
What is SEO?
First of all, search engines are online platforms that are designed to search for requested information in a user-friendly manner. Searches automatically rank results in order of relevance, while giving the user a number of options to alter the search results with ‘search tools’ or ‘advanced search’ options. Well-known examples of search engines include Google, Yahoo! and YouTube.
SEO, then, is the process of improving a website’s visibility in organic search engine results. The most familiar way to do this is by incorporating specified keywords and phrases into your website’s content and ALT text.
Quality SEO practice is useful to any website - the higher that a site is ranked on a search engine will improve the likeliness that target audience will access and engage with the website.
3 major aspects of SEO evolution:
Keywords
At one point in time effective SEO focused on singular keywords and terms, whereas today it is more productive to consider long tail search phrases and the true intent of keywords in relation to your desired audience.
Long tail searches are made up of specific keyword phrases and should be seriously considered when structuring website content. Long tail searches are usually made by customers when they are closer to making a purchase, tentatively leading to increases in your company’s ROI.
Content
In earlier stages of SEO it was easy enough to create content made for optimisation without the concern of quality and relevancy. A content writer’s goal would be to include as many keywords as possible into website content to ensure high ranking.
Due to increasingly sophisticated search engine algorithms (i.e. Google panda & penguin ) it is now also vital to create relevant and valuable content that appeals to your committed audience, as well as the future audience that you want to attract to your product and services.
Many debates argue that content marketing and SEO work against each other. It would be more productive to view the two as a symbiotic partnership, where SEO creates ranking requirements and content marketing fulfils such requirements.
Online landscape
This might be the most significant factor that impacts SEO evolution, if only due to the constant developments in both technology and online search engines. Search engines often switch up their ranking practice to suit new popular technology and user habits.
Such changes are proven with Google’s recent mobile friendly algorithm, whereby the search engine has adapted to increased smartphone use. Being aware of technological and search engine changes will integrally help to develop quality long tail keywords and content.
In short, the appropriate mentality to approach SEO building is one with a budding insight into the constantly evolving online landscape that SEO exists in. An awareness of customer searching habits and interests will help you to produce content that is delightfully helpful – which at the end of the day is the reason for practising quality SEO.
This helpful infographic explains more on the evolution of SEO