Adaptation is the key to success with any marketing channel. What worked well a few years ago probably no longer works as well or at all across a variety of avenues such as email, social media, SEM, branding, and of course SEO. There is a possibility.
There are many misconceptions about search engine optimization, but perhaps the biggest one is that SEO is dying. Don't be fooled: SEO isn't dead, but it is dying. Evolve We're doing a lot more than we were a few years ago. If you're considering whether to invest in SEO for your business, keep reading to understand why SEO isn't dying and is actually thriving.
SEO is dead, say the naysayers.
It pains me to say this, but there are many marketers who truly believe that SEO is dead. I don't know if it was too difficult, or there were too many changes, or they just couldn't get it to rank higher in Google, but they no longer believed that his SEO was a profitable marketing channel. yeah. Ben Hirons of SmartCompany thinks SEO is dead because he thinks it's confusing, lacks standards, lazy marketing, and doesn't work.
You are not the only one reading this who has heard these superstitions.a Search Engine Journal Twitter Poll — All the way back in 2017 — the most common SEO myth marketers heard was that SEO is dead (41%). Four years later, the topic is still This tells you everything you need to know about whether the claim was true at the time. Recently, SEO Book shared an infographic with various marketers claiming that for some reason his SEO is obsolete and why they are wrong. The Medium Well claims that local SEO is dead, in favor of integrated regional positioning (which sounds a lot like SEO to me). Finally, “SEO is dead,” he says when you search on Google, millions of results pop up.
Apparently, there are no shortage of experts and hacks who claim that SEO is dead. Fortunately, we have the data and experience to prove that his SEO is not dead, but thriving.
Why SEO is not dead
Let's get back to reality. SEO isn’t dead and it’s not going away anytime soon. As SEO continues to evolve, it and the businesses that rely on it must adapt as well. Here's why:
4 reasons why SEO is not finished
- SEO is changing.
- SEO requires more effort.
- SEO is even more complex.
- SEO jobs and salaries are on the rise.
Many people, myself included, are afraid of change. After all, if it ain't broke, why fix it?Well, the old way of SEO was broken. Perhaps by 2005 at the latest, websites will be able to escape blackhat SEO tactics. These fraudulent, Googlebot-centric tasks have no users in mind and are simply trying to trick the system. These blackhat tactics include keyword stuffing (pushing as many keywords as possible onto a page), cloaking (showing one version of your content to Googlebot and a different version to the user), and link buying. (Paying a site to return a link) were included. , and more.
In the early 2000s, all of these tactics worked. Fortunately, Google has adapted and tightened its standards. Not only will these not help you increase organic traffic, but they can also result in a Google penalty, which will significantly reduce your traffic until everything is fixed.
Instead of manipulating the system using black hat techniques, today it's all about white hat strategies such as providing the best user experience, answering user questions, creating fast websites, and providing a healthy site architecture. , is not only the top trend in SEO, but also the fastest way to succeed with SEO.
SEO is not easy. The black hat tactics described above were simple. The site allows you to enter literally hundreds of relevant keywords, wrap them in white text, and place them behind specific pages. Voila: Keyword stuffing and cloaking at the highest level. Our SEO traffic has definitely increased as well.
No more. Today, you need to produce quality content from start to finish that your audience actually wants to read. You want to create a fast site that loads in under 3 seconds. You'll need to focus on content and technical SEO, including creating proper title tags and meta, designing a cohesive page layout, updating your XML sitemap, and making sure Google can render your content.
If the latter sounds harder, that's because it is. His SEO today requires much more work than it did in 2000. SEO won't help you if you're not ready to get into the weeds and actually provide the best possible experience for your users and Googlebot.
Whether you started with content SEO or technical SEO, SEO work is probably much more complex now than when you first got into the game. What worked before often doesn't work now. To be successful with content SEO, you need to provide smart page layouts with logical headers, body content, hyperlinks, images, videos, and transitions. This can be difficult for those without writing experience or a dedicated content team.
On the technical side, SEO was all about updated XML sitemaps. robot.txt Files and HTML. Today, teamwork, site architecture, client-side rendering, JavaScript, dynamic rendering, pre-rendering, max content paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shifts are all topics that SEOs must know.
Regardless of your content or technical rank, there's a good chance you've had to learn some new aspects of the modern web that may seem confusing at first. With education and real-world practice, the most successful he SEOs master these once elusive strategies and learn to implement them as intended.
If SEO is dead, why are more companies hiring SEOs and paying them higher salaries? Well, because SEO isn't really dead.
According to Conductor's 2020 Job Trends and Salary Guide, SEO jobs nearly doubled year-over-year in 2019 and increased by 8% in 2020. 8% doesn't seem like a high number, but his content marketing job is Diminished These numbers demonstrate the growing interest in SEO, but they also prove that more companies are bringing SEO in-house.
In terms of compensation, the average SEO salary has increased by 8% since 2019 (from $68,150 to $73,167). Salaries for SEO specialists, analysts, and managers all increased from 2019 to 2020. Additionally, the average salary for his SEO director, which Conductor tracked for the first time in 2020, was $117,100.
While many industries and professions were down in 2020 due to COVID-19, SEO careers continue to thrive despite naysayers claiming SEO is dead. There is.
Why you should invest in SEO
Considering the above trends, the return on investment for those who do well with SEO, and the following statistics released by Google for 2021, it's a no-brainer to stay invested.
- On average, local search results help businesses gain more than 4 billion connections each month.
- This includes more than 2 billion visits to websites, as well as connections such as calls, directions, food orders, reservations, and more.
- Every month, Google Search connects people with more than 120 million businesses that don't have a website.
- Google sends billions of visitors to websites every day, and the traffic it sends to the open web has increased every year since Google Search was first created.
- Google search results pages used to show 10 blue links, but now a single search results page on mobile now shows an average of 26 links to websites (as users (more opportunities to click).
Change is scary, but those who pivot and adapt can reap the benefits the dinosaurs are missing out on. And while we see a lot of changes at Google every year, remember that SEO ultimately comes down to one fundamental principle: helping Google answer user queries. How you do it is up to you, but as long as you're giving your audience the answers they want, when they want, and how they want, you'll be successful with SEO.