Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around almost as long as the internet itself. Search engines such as Google or Bing search the internet for a set of keywords entered by someone searching for information. In the beginning, these searches were very flawed. The information retrieved by the search engines was random at best.
With SEO, internet marketers can seed their web space with keywords that will catch the search engines attention and put a web page at the top of the list of searched keywords. Some marketers would cheat the search engines by seeding keywords unnaturally in websites. This is done either with code installed in the HTML of a site or by the wording. It was simple to rank a site for any keyword combination. Now, the algorithm, how the search engines read the SEO on a web page is more complicated.
What is Happening and What is in Store for SEO
SEO as we now know it has become a staple of every good website design. Companies and independent web builders can easily find information about the current state of how to use SEO to influence search engines. Since 2010, Google and other search engines have been adjusting algorithms to make “cheating” less possible. Many sites suffered a death of ranking with the 2011 and 2012 Panda and Penguin updates. Sites that once ranked high for certain keywords, now are not showing at all when searched.
Current updates in algorithm now “look” for relevant and natural linking and natural keyword insertion. No longer is “keyword stuffing” an option for ranking SEO. As search engines become more “intelligent” and crafty, SEO must keep up.
Social Media and SEO
Social media now triggers search engines. Marketers use these techniques to boost activity on their sites. The more a site or post on a site is Tweeted, liked and shared, the more effect it will have for ranking in searches. Future updates to search engine algorithms will make it harder for site engineers to cheat the search results.
Content is Still King
As the search engines advance their ranking, SEO becomes more complicated. No longer will web developers gain ranking by writing sub-standard content. Advances in how search engines see web content will penalize sites with bad content. It will no longer be possible to stuff a site with keywords and back links that have nothing to do with the general theme of the site. For example, if a website theme is sporting goods, subject matter for house cleaning products will be flagged by search engines and the site will get bad rank for both the theme and the off theme topics.
Original content will rank better as well. Sites with copied content from other sites and do not re-write or make the content original, will suffer negative ranking in search results. Content is still king. However, it must be original. Keywords contained in the content must be natural as algorithms are taught to detect keyword stuffing. SEO content for search engine ranks is not dying it is evolving. The intent is to create original, relevant content rather than random information for the sake of keyword ranking.
