A lot of people who were taught how to do SEO (or learned on their own) and are using what they learned either on their own site, or on sites that they are handling, often use methods that have been used by many for years now. The basics of SEO have not changed much really through the years. Keyword research is still important as is the use of meta-descriptions, title tags, and alt tags.
The basics are still important when it comes to your SEO work, and these need to be part of your strategy when optimizing a site, whether it be yours or a client’s. The basics that have not changed much over the years are the following:
Keyword research – yes, finding the right keywords to use for your site is still essential when it comes to SEO. This is because people still use specific words and phrases to find what you are offering. In order to get the right audience to come to your site, you need to find the right keywords first, therefore it is still an integral part of SEO.
Meta descriptions, headers, and sub-headers – also part of basic SEO that is still important these days is the use of meta-descriptions that help people find out in summary form on SERPs what a page is all about. Headers and sub-headers, on the other hand, let them know what a paragraph or group of paragraphs are all about and also help cut a wall-of-text post into smaller, easier to digest parts.
Links – yes, yes, yes, people keep on saying linking is no longer essential to SEO, but hear me out. Linking is still needed by your site for many different reasons. For starters, internal links help piece together your pages, making search engines see your site as a cohesive website. External links, on the other hand, help establish you as an authority on the subject you are covering. Of course, you cannot just use any external link that you choose. These have to be relevant to what your site is about and should have a high enough authority in order for your site to benefit from it.
Despite the fact that the basics have remained somewhat unchanged, there are actually few things that have been tweaked in the past decade or so when it comes to basic SEO. For example, there is now more focus on long-tail keywords or phrases instead of single word options (too many competitors for the use of a single keyword to be effective for your site).
Other changes that have occurred over the years when it comes to SEO include the number of times that you can use a keyword in your copy (does keyword stuffing ring a bell?), the use of exact keywords to link back to another page, and even the length of the content that you post. These changes came about as trends and were soon integrated into regular SEO practice when it was found that search engines actually consider these things when indexing and ranking pages.
If you are an SEO specialist and you want to keep abreast with all these changes, you should always research updates and trends for Search Engine Optimization at the start of every year, and every couple of months after that. This will help you continue to hone and improve your craft while at the same time ensuring that your site/s don’t get lost in the quagmire that is the World Wide Web.
Is it Important to Keep Yourself Updated on SEO Trends?
Keeping you in-the-know when it comes to what to do and not to do when it comes to optimizing a site can be rather tedious. This is because you will need to constantly scour the web for updates, news, and even rumors about algorithm changes, new best practices, and so on. It is however important that you do, particularly if this is how you make a living.
Updating yourself is crucial to the success of the sites that you are handling, and by extension, your success. How can you bag more clients (or keep the ones that you currently have, for that matter) if the sites that you are handling start to lose their footing in the ranks race simply because you chose not to update your SEO skills? Knowing what to do and what to avoid when you optimize sites will help your career as an SEO specialist and will also help the sites that you handle stay relevant in the eyes of these search engines.
Of course, you will still need to know whether or not the trends that you are reading are indeed worth implementing on your pages. This is where authority sites come in. Get your information from sites that most people in the industry depend on, like Search Engine Journal (SEJ), MOZ, and other similar sites that digital marketers depend on. This way, you can get it from the authorities in the industry and not be left behind in the dust of your competitors.
