SEO Tactics That Will Not Work Anymore

There are those who believe that SEO is dead or dying this 2018. This has led to confusion for new business owners who have come to know about SEO and its relevance in building a brand. Does SEO still work?

The truth of the matter is search engines have evolved and there are SEO tactics and strategies that will not work anymore if applied today. These so-called strategies can be considered dead or dying when it comes to SEO.

Search engines have always prioritized high-quality content as a ranking factor in order for a website to get higher rankings in search results. This has led some experts to think that as long as you come up with great content, you no longer need to do SEO. Content marketing is an important factor, but it can’t work well on its own. Without the proper SEO optimization of a website, there is a chance that no one will get to know about your stellar content. This is why SEO still has a role to play, which can’t be overlooked.

There was a time when SEO practices that are unethical or what we call black hat were getting results in search engine rankings. Now that we have the Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird updates a lot of these tactics are now being penalized. These updates make SEO all the more relevant today. Websites should be using SEO practices that are in line with current Google updates and guidelines.

With the current SEO trends, there are things that will not work anymore. To answer the question, does SEO still work? It is alive and kicking in 2018.

Gone are the days when people can stuff their content with a lot of keywords and get good results in page rankings. Links that are paid for are also a thing of the past, same with spamming and coming up with low quality and irrelevant content. Search engines have gotten rid of all artificial page rankings and this has made their users get a higher satisfaction rating with their search engine experience.

Having websites that are optimized for mobile is now a necessity. Businesses have reported that they get a lot more inquiries from mobile devices than their desktop versions. This makes mobile optimization more important than ever. With Google’s shift to a mobile-first priority, companies cannot have just one version of their website that is not compatible with mobile. Research has also shown that many mobile users buy or transact directly from their mobile devices.

This is a trend that business should take advantage of. They should come up with ways to make things faster and more convenient when it comes to closing and making transactions with their mobile version websites. Security features should be upgraded to give consumers a reason to trust you with their sensitive information like credit card credentials.

Speed in website loading and closing transactions is essential for users. Your website may be loading at a lightning-quick pace, but customers may be put through so many procedures in order to buy a product from you. Being efficient with transaction procedures will help give customers a great user experience and make them want to deal with you more often and may even recommend their friends and family to buy from you if they are satisfied with your product or service.

Search engines are also starting to process real speech patterns. This should be taken into consideration when coming up with short and long tail keywords. Experts expect a trend in shifting to voice search options especially with new technologies like better speech recognition in our devices. Typing in a search may be slightly different from using a voice search. We need to take note of these small differences because they may affect search engine display results. This is why we should start changing our keywords to mimic real speech patterns.