Ranking in the Constantly Moving World of Search and Modern SEO

There are days when I feel like search engine optimization is moving faster than I can digest and I'll never be able to stay up with modern SEO techniques and the constant changes brought forth by Google. We've experienced so many shifts in search that I know I'm not alone and many people feel overwhelmed as website owners and marketers.

I've been working in internet marketing for over fifteen years. When I started with SEO it was common practice for webmasters to hide keywords in white text on white backgrounds, create link networks, and buy tons of bad inbound links to inflate their Google Page Rank. Back then those crazy SEO tactics actually worked or they were effective at driving short-term success. Oh those were the days.

Those days of cowboy SEO have come and gone and search became a different place in 2017. The search engines and their algorithms are much more sophisticated, more complicated, and excelling in SEO takes a lot more skill-set than it did a decade ago.

This shift has caused a lot of frustration, confusion, and avoidance of SEO. While I still love SEO and can't imagine running a business without it, I do know many website owners and marketers who would prefer to put their time and money towards PPC ads and boosting Facebook posts.

Is Today's SEO All Doom and Gloom?

SEO is far from doom and gloom! Modern SEO offers a world of unlimited opportunities and marketers are only just beginning to experience the magic of advanced search engine optimization.

Today's search environment is an exciting time for website owners.

Years ago we were limited to basic text, simplistic keywords, and a few simple tricks that allows us to manipulate ranking. In recent years we've been given an abundant amount of tools and enhancements that let us optimize our websites for search engines and users alike.

We've moved away from unsophisticated black hat SEO tricks like link farms, cloaking, and doorway pages and replaced them with more advanced techniques like localized search, structured data, and AMP.

Google's Movements Offer a Wealth of Insights

If we look closely at the recent changes Google has implemented, trends start to emerge. The once feared search engines become much less scary when you view their updates from the user's perspective.

Recent SEO Shifts We've ExperiencedMobile and responsive websitesSSL and HTTPS based websitesAMP usageThe Google Knowledge GraphVoice searchIncreased usage of topic based search and less emphasis on exact match phrasesIncreased focus on the user experienceThe looming presence of mobile first indexing

When viewed individually these shifts in modern SEO can seem insignificant, but when viewed together they show Google has two very important objectives:

Understand and adapt to existing users' changing behaviorsReach all users regardless of location, bandwidth, or device

While existing internet users continue to migrate to a mobile dominated experience, brand new internet users are arriving each day. Many countries have yet to come online and Google has yet to see it's full demographic of customers.

As these new users acquire internet access, Google must adapt search to provide an optimal experience that can effortlessly exist within a world of mobile devices, slower bandwidth, and limited data plans.

Responsive design, AMP, and voice search are all designed to accommodate this new frontier of internet users and search. And, all of it is done with an effort to create the best possible experience for these newly acquired customers.