Has SEO really changed?
There is no denying that SEO has become more difficult in recent years. A decade ago, it was a relatively unknown profession and largely delivered by ensuring keywords were included as heavily as possible across fields as frequently as possible. Google didn’t check for rogue practices as closely, and website ranking was basically fair game for keyword stuffers.
For link building, directory submissions were a simple and rapid way to boost your website’s rankings, and submitting to as many as possible was the goal. The third angle was to deliver lots of marketing regardless of the quality.
Nowadays, however, things have changed. When you work with a digital agency that specialises in SEO and web design in Newry, you’ll find that the hurdles are more challenging and a more strategic approach is required. Skill is now the name of the game when it comes to topping a search page, with user experience being a key element.
Basic fundamentals hold true
However, the fundamentals are broadly the same in terms of on-page activity. The way those tactics are used have evolved, but they are still vital because SEO is still fundamentally concerned with organic search visibility in search engines. Metas, titles, internal links and alt tags might not be as strong as they once were for ranking signals, but they still need to be optimised. Companies such as Ryco web design agency in Newry can shed more light on the subject.
SEO practitioners still work with the basics. H headings are still important for meaningful and natural page formatting. Alt tags provide useful crawler information. Links are still vital, but now they need to be of high quality and used in a way that supports the site structure. Internal site navigation is essential.
Changing trends
Achieving a particular keyword density is no longer an objective. Today, we use keywords naturally when writing for a human audience, and we look for author and expert text to add weight to our copy. We integrate social channels to improve shares and backlinks. Increasingly, businesses will also use SEO experts and digital agencies to deliver their online ranking optimisation work.
Individually, the old elements might not have the weight that they used to for SEO, but they do still have an impact on your rankings and the overall user experience that your site visitors enjoy.
