SEO is no longer easy 10 years ago. You may not remember, but at that time, almost all the tricks used in SEO were black hat SEO. But now that the algorithms of search engines, especially Google, have been updated, it can be said that the market for black hat SEO methods is sluggish. The most important algorithms that can be mentioned are: Panda, Penguin, Rank Brin algorithm.
You may be wondering, “Is SEO as thriving as it is today? What changes will there be in the future of SEO? What criteria will search engines pay attention to in ranking websites?” . As SEO has changed a lot from 2 years ago until today, it can be claimed that SEO will not disappear in the future and will continue to be one of the main methods of site optimization. But surely SEO techniques and tricks in the future will be very different from today.
In this content, from the collection of Orangency SEO training articles, we will discuss the future of SEO and site optimization. We suggest that if you are interested in SEO or want to start working on it, do not miss this article.
Table of Contents
SEO, from the past to the present
As the number of websites grows, search engines have begun to complicate their algorithms to ensure that only reputable companies are at the top of search results. Recently, there have been several changes in Google search engine that indicate that search engines are paying attention to the appropriate user interface. In other words, search engines now pay more attention to websites that are more user-friendly.
In addition, Google has taken several important steps to ensure that SEOs can not rank their websites on the first page of search engine results using immoral, vague, or simply black hat SEO techniques.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, SEO has changed dramatically over the past few years, and today it has become almost impossible to bypass search engine algorithms. SEO is now considered as a long-term investment for businesses, and its results are shown gradually over time. Google is getting tougher day by day. For this reason, SEO is considered almost dead by many webmasters and business owners. They believe that SEO is no longer an effective method. However, many experienced and world-renowned experts believe that search engine optimization or SEO is the most effective way to increase traffic, sales and brand popularity online.
Undoubtedly, the SEO process is constantly evolving, but this does not mean that everything we have done in the past is worthless now and will not be of value to our websites in the future. But it can be said that success in SEO, unlike in the past, is not like a formula that anyone can easily solve. SEO has become an art today that not everyone is able to master this art. Here are some of the most important changes in search engines in the future, which will affect the SEO of the site.
The future of link building
Nowadays, link building strategy and backlinks are one of the main factors in Google ranking, most SEO experts believe that one of the best ways to increase website traffic in search engines is link building. The more quality links you create, the more your brand awareness and your search engine rankings will improve. Although link building is still one of the main factors in optimizing a site today, it should not be expected to remain the same.
What is going to happen in the future for SEO link building is that Google wants to differentiate between natural and high quality links that are credible and low quality links. In the future, a link from a reputable but unrelated site may not be as valuable as in previous years. In addition, websites that have gained high credibility through link building strategies, but have mediocre content, will be affected by Google’s algorithms.
So set your link building strategy so that instead of just focusing on domain credentials, try to get links from domains related to your field of activity.
Semantic search optimization
In the past, Google could only provide results for accurate user search terms. But today, Google will pay more attention to the purpose and meaning of search terms with its algorithm updates. Semantics is one of the linguistic concepts that deals with the logic and meaning of words and how they relate to each other in a particular field. For example, the Google BERT algorithm, which is based on artificial intelligence, has been updated to learn and understand natural language or NLP (Natural language processing). Google wants to make sure that the results displayed are relevant to users’ search terms when presenting search results to users.
So be sure to use these two main factors when creating your content: the purpose of the user search and the semantic purpose of the search terms.
How can you optimize for semantic search?
To do this, make sure the content you produce is targeted at your audience instead of search engines. As search engines evolve, content that is specifically targeted to users will become more valuable. Producing this type of content will put you ahead of others now and in the future.
Improve branding
Over time, more and more online users will be looking for brands. In this way, brands become more popular. The best step you can take for your business is to improve your brand. You can do this by researching your target audience. Accurate knowledge of the target audience will give you more insight and provide important information about the audience’s expectations of the brand. When you are known as a brand, it becomes much easier to get powerful links and improve SEO and ranking in Google.
Improve user experience (UX)
User experience, UX, is another important relevant ranking factor now that its impact can be more colorful in the future of SEO. In simple terms, user experience means the satisfaction of your audience with the website. Various factors such as user perception, ease of use of the site, usefulness of the site content for the user, etc. determine the user experience. User experience is measured using various criteria such as retention rate, conversion rate, error rate, heuristic evaluation and so on. Increasing various factors such as loading time, adding rich content images and creating related content that the user needs, will make your pages rank higher in the Google search engine results pages.
Mobile compatible websites
Research shows that the number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet is constantly increasing. As a result, optimizing the website for more mobile compatibility is one of the things that must be considered in the future. Website optimization for mobile will provide you with more audience, which will be a strength over competitors. In addition, mobile compatibility is a big ranking factor for Google. In fact, according to Google, the site you are developing must be compatible with mobile, otherwise sites that are not compatible with mobile will be penalized by Google.
Increase the use of voice search
3% of mobile phone users use voice search on their mobile devices, but this statistic is growing rapidly. Optimizing your site for voice search can help your brand attract more audience, more traffic, and therefore higher conversion rates. Google completes voice search algorithms for English and many other languages around the world. This, combined with the fact that more users choose voice search, can be a great incentive for you to optimize your content for voice search. Doing so puts you far ahead of the competition. Typically, voice searches are longer and more conversational than text searches. Therefore, your website should focus on words with these features. However, with artificial intelligence and more information about the user target, if you can provide complete value and answer your searchers’ questions, your Google ranking can reach the top of the search results.
Content production
If you want to get a lot of traffic to your site, the key is to generate content. You can already fill your content with keywords and expect them to find your site through search engines. When Google made changes to its algorithm with the Panda and Penguin update, it focused on content. When people like your content, a lot of traffic will flow to your site. Website content, in addition to being useful to users, must also be up-to-date. Because search engines are trying to put more emphasis on delivering results that are up to date and relevant to users.
Search Engine Personalization
Google has made significant changes to its personal search in recent months. When you check in when you sign in to your Google Account, the results are set according to your preferences. Google also tracks sites and information you’ve already visited, and may place more emphasis on those sites in future searches. This means that instead of a standard set for everyone, people will have their own personalized search results.
How to prepare for the future of SEO?
The online world is constantly evolving and improving. This cycle of transformation does not seem to be slowing down so soon. The world of search engine optimization will also change. If you want to optimize your website, you should always try to be one step ahead of others and always be aware of the changes that may affect SEO in the future. As mentioned in this article, user understanding will be the key to website SEO success in the future. Also, with the rise of semantic search, voice search and machine learning in search engines, SEO for these sections will become an important challenge for SEO professionals in the future.