Year in and year out, webmasters have been trying to figure out what tactics are going to help them rank the best. In the beginning, it was easy enough to rank. All you had to do was be the site with the most keywords matching a search.
It wasn’t long, though, before the search engines started to realize that this system was counter-productive. While in theory, it made sense to match keywords, the reality was that it made it a lot easier for spammy sites to rank well.
As a result, the search engines started looking for a better way to do things. Over time, they’ve tweaked the algorithms to include a lot more factors so that they can get a more accurate read of the value of a site.
But it’s really in the last few years that we’ve seen truly significant changes. The advance of artificial intelligence and its inclusion in ranking sites has made it possible for SERPs to be determined with greater precision.
This makes search results more accurate, which is good for the searcher, but it does make it harder for webmasters to rank their content well. With advances in search engines and technology, it’s only going to become harder.
Is SEO Going to Survive the Changing Digital Environment?
It’s even come to the point where there are those who believe that SEO is a dying art and that the practice will become obsolete in the next decade or so. We find that difficult to believe. After all, as long as sites are competing to rank well, people are going to look for ways to hack the system.
SEO practices are changing, most certainly, and will no doubt be very different ten years from now. But completely obsolete? That’s highly doubtful.
The SEO of the Future
If we look at the way that search engines are changing, it’s clear that to have a decent chance of ranking in the future, you’ll need to take a more visitor-centric approach. As Google gets better at sorting out good content from bad, we’re moving into a phase where content will need to be carefully planned out.
It won’t be enough just to run off a few lines of content here and there and post them as you like. Your content will need to have some substance to it and be a valuable resource. You’ll need to link to actual credible sites and studies to back up claims as well.
You’ll have to pay more attention to the layout of the content and ensure that it reads well for both humans and search engines.
What All That Means for Your Business Now
We’re not quite at the point where Google et al. can make the finer distinctions between optimized content that is good and that which is not. But that time is not too far in the future. You can get yourself in ahead of the rush by starting to focus more on stellar content now.
The better your content is, the better it will perform organically, so consider this an investment in the future of your business. And, if you need some help with that, call our SEO agency in Cincinnati. We’re always happy to assist.
