04 Nov Six Ways That Nashville SEO Has Changed In Recent Years
Tying in to my previous article on how marketing has changed, Nashville SEO or search engine optimization has remarkably changed in the past few years. Google and the other search engines including Bing and Yahoo have modernized their algorithms to the point that the abuses of the past are no longer possible.
Linking schemes, keyword stuffing, and useless content can no longer be the norm. As digital marketers and web design agencies we are finally able to embrace good content and a somewhat normal digital marketing environment as the New World Order. Personally, I am glad that the search engines are now able to tell when you buy your links or buy false reputation from a distant country. It’s a bit refreshing to be able to generate useful, remarkable content and have it naturally attract an audience for yourself or your client.
Content, Content, Content
Google’s quest to find the detection and definition of good content made a major change in 2011 with introduction of Panda. After that change and with further modifications in the past 5 years it is no longer possible to load websites with huge amounts of content that are completely useless to normal users. Instead we focus on useful content that our particular audience is actively searching for and would get great value from.
Some great ideas would include an FAQ or resource section on your website. Are you selling printers? Introduce articles on how to make ink last longer or how paper weight influences print quality in inkjets. Marketing for a travel company that sells two families? Talk about bringing families together in adventure travel.
Ranking Signals and Local Search
Over the past few years the search engines have made major changes not only to the appearance of local search with the addition of 3 pack local and a carousel but also to the basic way that they arranged or rank local businesses. Google has gradually introduced the concept of using their other ranking signals to also rank local search.
Websites that are well optimized and also deliver the useful authoritative content that we previously talked about will receive huge bonuses and local search.Google has also boosted High Authority web directories to the top when it comes to local search.
Knowledge Graph
Another big change in search engine optimization was the introduction in 2012 of the knowledge graph by Google. Knowledge Graph attempts to give searchers direct, concise answers in a box to their search. While this is a great way to get information to users it often supersedes organic search results by delivering the information that could be derived from your website.
The only real way to avoid this is by avoiding optimization for more general keywords. More specificity in your web design content will often result in the Knowledge Graph not being used by Google. We can also use schema.org micro-formatting so that Google delivers your website content within the Knowledge Graph.
Required SEO Optimization For Mobile
The iPhone was first released back in 2007 and a steady increase in mobile usage finally came to a head when mobile usage surpassed desktop usage last year. now it is a requirement to fully optimized your web design and content for mobile devices. Avoiding that issue may also hurt desktop searches and will definitely alienate the higher percentage of mobile users.
One of the biggest items to work on is Page Speed for Mobile Devices. It has to be streamlined and fast to work on those slower connections and if this step is skipped your visitors will leave before the page loads. And of course, this has a cascade effect where Google sees a high bounce rate and downgrades your overall rankings.
No More Keyword Stuffing
I am sure that over the years you’ve bumped into web content that just didn’t read like a human being wrote it. More than likely this was the result of keyword stuffing or the practice of creating content specifically to rank for search engines. Thankfully the search engines have gotten much better at recognizing the mechanical nature of this content. This leads to a better quality of content online and the opportunity to actually think about the contact and relationship between your company and your online audience.
As digital marketers and search engine optimization companies, we can finally think about what the audience wants and how we can deliver value to those prospective customers. One of the biggest changes from Google was in 2013 with the introduction of Hummingbird. Hummingbird was introduced to change search ranking from a mapping of keywords and phrases to a understanding of user intent and usage. Search engine algorithms today attempt to understand the meaning of words and phrases rather than just a structure.
Link Schemes
This one is pretty simple. Any attempt to influence your search engine ranking with links could be interpreted by Google as a link scheme.
After 2012 With the Penguin update, you have to focus on natural patterns of link building using guest blogging, directories, and other methods that have no relationship to the mass paid link building of the past decade.
The number one thing to keep in mind is that you really need to review your links and their toxicity using online tools. If the link is going to bring you down, you need to immediately disavow that link and request that the owner remove it from their website.
Conclusion
While there have been massive changes in the past few years to search engine optimization, I believe that the changes are very beneficial both to your prospective customers and to digital marketing overall.
They allow us to focus on natural techniques and on actually delivering value to those prospective clients. this gives us the benefit becoming an authoritative figure within your business focus, which attracts more and more of an audience over time.