The practice of SEO as a digital marketing method has seen rapid changes over the last 10 years or so. While at one point of time SEO simply indicated the process of overstuffing some content with a lot of keywords and making use of shady methods to get backlinks, the effective steps taken by Google has made it possible to enhance the level of SEO and make sure that the end users have a positive online experience when they look for the things that matter to them.
Here are some of the ways in which SEO has changed over the years, as researched and stated by a leading SEO agency in Bangalore.
The advent of good content
There was a time when the content used in websites were of poor and meager quality. However, companies soon realized the value of high quality content, thanks to Google. Now they make use of effective content marketing strategies to appeal to their target users. The definition of what makes a content really good has changed over the years. Most of the spam content and unnecessary keyword stuffing got a death blow in 2011 with the introduction of the Google Panda update. Nowadays business owners take special precaution to make sure that the content that they come up with is of good quality and is useful to the site visitors.
Enhancement of local search options
Prior to 2006, the prospects of local SEO were really gloomy. Most of the SEO companies focused on clients that looked for nation-based or international SEO services. This made it rather difficult for local and small business owners to benefit in any way from SEO. However, the Pigeon update that was launched in 2014 changed all of that and now local businesses have plenty of ways in which they can benefit from SEO. By making use of traditional web ranking methods into the algorithm, Google made it possible for strongly optimized sites to have an edge when it comes to local search results. The introduction of smartphones in the recent years and their use of GPS systems have made location-specific searches trendier than ever before.
The end of link schemes
Link schemes basically means making use of illegal or nefarious practices of improving online ranking with links that are not-so-genuine. At one point of time, many SEO professionals used a wide range of methods to derive fake links from various sources which they then used for improving the online ranking of various sites. However, over the years Google have come up with various methods for ending these link schemes. Google had strived to get rid of most of the spam-based and black-hat link-building methods by late 2000s, effectively penalizing all those involved in paid linkers and link wheels. In 2012, Google introduced the Penguin update which in turn revolutionized modern link building as we know it today. Nowadays, only valuable link building strategies and natural link attraction methods like guest posting are used for improving the ranking of a website.
Prioritization of mobile SEO
For the last ten years or so, there has been a rapid rise and expansion of the mobile industry. This has led Google to come up with steps to make sure that every site is perfectly optimized for delivering optimum user experience to smartphone users. In fact, Google also penalizes sites that are not optimized for the mobile audience. As more people choose to use mobiles for their day to day needs, optimizing a site for the mobile has become a necessity these days. Google has also rolled mobile-friendly updates to make sure that more is done to this effect.
