Is SEO dead?

SEO is not dead – it has, however, evolved! For years, many operated under the illusion that if we just tweaked our title tags a little more and got just one more link, we would be rewarded with a higher ranking.

Winning at SEO today is not about figuring which buttons to push. Once you have done the technical due diligence to make your site Google-friendly, you need to put on your marketer’s hat and give up the old school SEO “tactics” that used to work but don’t anymore.

Instead, focus on the experience of your site: How can you make it better?

Get deep into the mind of your ideal visitor and figure what makes them tick. What are their frustrations? What are they looking for? You need to solve for your user, not for the search engine.

Your focus should be on creating remarkable content that is clearly head and shoulders above its competitors, and then on getting users to rabidly consume and share that content.

Content has always been important with SEO. Now more than ever, extraordinary and noteworthy content that creates a conversation or adds massive value to existing conversations is an essential prerequisite to successful SEO.

So what SEO strategies should I use?

1. The Importance of Social Media

More and more social content will be indexed on Google. Search for your favourite brand and it is highly likely that it’s Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter page will appear. So be prepared to find, collect and use your valuable social content for optimising your page for maximum visibility.

2. Videos Still Rule

We all know that videos are a great way of keeping audiences engaged and entertained. But do you know that by using enough videos, you can improve the ranking of your page on search engines? To achieve this, create and load your videos onto You Tube and perform SEO on the video. It is important that Google is able to find your video content, successfully index it and display your video content when specific keywords are entered as search terms.

3. Mobile Optimisation is Crucial

Is your business website mobile-friendly? Your audience is no longer in one place. People use all sorts of devices such as tablets, smartphones, laptops, phone watches to browse the web. So, it’s high time you changed the way you conceptualise and create SEO strategies for mobile searches.

4. Optimisation for Voice Search is a Must

These days, people who are on the go, use voice search simply because it is more convenient and safer, especially when someone is driving or multi-tasking. It is becoming a huge part of mobile usage as it has taken away the pain of typing keywords to run a search query. Almost all mobile devices have a voice search function. So make sure that your content is easily searchable through voice searches by using long-tail keywords, which are more likely to be spoken than conventional keywords.

5. Content is Still King!

Consistently creating high quality content is still by far the best way to rank well in search engine results, with the emphasis being on quality over quantity. However, now people also look for sources that provide all relevant information for a particular subject or topic in one place. Make sure that you collect and curate content from different, high-authority sources and display it for your users to see and to build your authority.

6. Local SEO is More Important Than Ever

As a business, you have to let Google know where you are located and what you are offering, so that your chances of showing up on pages, especially in front of the relevant audience, increase. It is a must to have your local pages, which will include the name of your business, address etc. with Google, Yahoo and Bing. So, be sure to have location specific keywords and personalise content based on your target audiences’ location, to stay ahead of the game.

Conclusion

The reality is that online connectivity is more popular and important than ever. People still depend on the web for entertainment, information, and the ability to conduct business.

As more and more devices and people connect to the Internet to perform more and more searches, SEO isn’t dying, but rather becoming more important each and every day.

With so many devices searching for so much information as fast as possible, the real winners of tomorrow’s Internet are the brands, entrepreneurs, and people able to make the best content available the quickest.

No, SEO isn’t dead!

So don’t worry about it.

Whatever you’re doing to increase your website’s search visibility, you can keep doing it until it stops working.

And then you can find the next effective SEO tactic and use it until it stops working.

SEO evolves. And you need to evolve with it. But it’s not going away anytime soon!