SEO has changed. In fact, SEO keeps changing. Change is good. Change is inevitable. The previous SEO best practices now seem weird and outdated. Gone are the days where you could prop an ugly website. Splash mediocre content, build some links and hope to rank well. Now, you ought to make an excellent website. Write the kind of content that will solve people’s problems. Create useful links and get hordes of social shares. You can do this and more by following the SEO "best" practices that are relevant to our time.
- Data Analysis tops the chart
You get caught up watching phrases that send you the most traffic. Later it affects when you can’t rank for those high competitive high traffic keywords. Traffic isn’t everything. Lower traffic phrases may convert way better than larger ones as they are specific. Thus getting first page rankings for most of them drive a few sales. The best way to find is to track. You could use an analytics package and setup conversion tracking for keyword phrases.
Compare them against each other to see what produces best results. Once you’re aware, it helps to optimize better your site. You would know which efforts are worth focusing and which ones to let go.
- Content can make you king
The quality of content is a vital part of SEO. Moreso, content that answers users' questions in a convincing way. Earlier it wasn't so, quantity was more important than quality. Now think if you had plenty of articles with right keywords. People would flock your site and stick on. But then, you need to provide value to your audience to win conversions. Don’t resort to using poorly written content. Search engines can spot when you provide value and make sure that your stuff stays high in the rankings.
- User intent are key words
User Intent is an important factor in SEO; it tells us what customers want. It goes beyond the general idea of keywords. Rather those keywords or queries drive at a client’s intent. The primary three purpose being navigational, informational & transactional. The Idea is anyone who performs internet search has a definite purpose. There is a great deal of interest in user intent as an SEO strategy. If you can figure customers informational purpose. You can deliver content to meet that significant need. It results in more and better traffic.
- ROI is the new buzzword
Way back it was all about guaranteeing high page rank by any means. Getting people to your page and gaming search engines for the site to rank high was part of the process. All this has changed.
A recent infographic on Quicksprout blog shows some startling revelation. The fact is an obsession with keywords and rankings gets replaced. With a renewed interest in user engagement and ROI. Ranking doesn’t even show up in the SEO focus list. Keywords have dropped to a poor fourth. It is way behind analytics, content creation and social media marketing.
- Build quality links to last
Old SEO best practices included building inbound links wherever you could. Spammy link building was the order of the day.
Matt Cutts declared quality rules a long time ago but now it is more true then ever.
But now, Quality rules over quantity. Incoming links from questionable sources will only devalue your site. Earning rather than paying for a single link from an authority site is the way to go. Today SEO works on high quality recommendations that lead to conversions.
- Make user experience euphoric
Earlier SEO didn’t take many accounts of user experience. With the improvement of technology the tables have turned.
Users will not put up with websites that don’t work for them. It’s even truer for mobile device users. Get the user experience right to avoid pogo sticking, get it wrong, and users will never come back. In short, good user experience makes real conversions. Poor user experience makes none.
- Authority & Reputation will follow you
SEO today is all about authority and reputation. Page rank for the website gets replaced by domain authority and page authority. If you think, you can be successful at SEO.
You have to be clear about your target customer, who influences them and what channels to use to reach them. You have to understand where customer issues align with your business goals. Figure out how you spread the word. To make people see your company as the go to destination, rather than your competitors.
- Social media: Modern smoke signals
Social media is key to SEO. Social signals show the content; people have an interest in and relevant to them. Landing pages are important in making it easy for people to discover and share your content. Content marketing amplifies social signals when you plan to share content across many sites. Finally, you need to measure and adapt to get the best from your social media conversion strategy.
- Drop Anchor text only for internal links
Add keywords to the internal links on your website. If you want to increase your stores visibility in search engine. For, e.g., Instead of click here to visit XYZ, the best eCommerce Platform. Write, visit XYZ, the best eCommerce platform. It’s an opportunity for tailoring your anchor text. It is one of the most important components of SEO.
Best practices aren't static. They keep changing with changing technology. The best practices that were relevant yesterday are just weird today. Adapt and embrace the best practices that are worthy today till some new ones emerge.