The SEO Evolution

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The Evolving SEO

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SEO did not just sprout out of thin air. Search engine optimization started as a way to push content up the ranks on search engine result pages. Today SEO is more engaging than the earlier versions which employed black hat and other unethical SEO strategies. The evolution of SEO is not a theory especially because it has happened is ashort time span. As technology in the World Wide Web advanced, search engines shifted their attention to the users and put measures geared towards the elimination of poor content. This has driven webmasters to the use of SEO strategies to stay relevant in the eyes of the users and to search engines.

Initially search engines only paid attention to keywords and nothing more. This is why black hat methods were popular. As the search engines became more user friendly, websites had to look for different ways to optimize their pages or be penalized. Today SEO is something that has to be handled by a professional to provide solid results. What most website owners do not know is that the optimization process never ends and to remain at the top of the game, you need to work with a professional company that will continuously provide high quality SEO services in geared towards Chicago and the surrounding area.

The following article provides information that follows the evolution of SEO

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“A look into the past and present

On-page optimization: When performing on-page optimization in the old days, SEOs would map two to five keywords per URL and optimize the page elements (title, meta description, headings, body content and so on) for these keywords.

But things have changed. Now, with advances in semantic search and machine learning, a page can rank for a lot of related keywords, not just the keywords for which you optimize the page. This is a better way of doing things, as having content that fulfills the needs of what users are looking for (rather than just being the best match for a given keyword string) is a better experience.

Modern-day SEOs should have a solid understanding of not just content creation, but also content promotion. Whereas previously it was all about optimizing existing landing pages based on search volume and striking distance, SEO today is a mixture of optimizing existing content and creating, optimizing and amplifying new content that meets end-users’ needs to enforce your brand and capture social signals and links to rank higher in the SERPs.

Devices: Back in the day, it was all about optimizing for desktops because that was the primary device used to surf the web.

Today, mobile devices have quickly become the way that people consume content. While the desktop is still relevant, digital media consumption on mobile devices has skyrocketed in the past several years and will continue to grow. According to comScore, mobile now consists of 65 percent of digital media time. Additionally, in 2015, mobile officially surpassed desktop in terms of Google searches performed.

SEOs must focus on optimizing the mobile experience, particularly apps, and making sure that mobile pages load within two seconds.

Local: Google has changed its local results so many times during the past several years — from the 10-pack to 7-packs, and now the 3-pack. In the old days of local SEO, it was easy to spam the listings by incorporating keywords into the business name, getting links from spammy directories, fudging the exact location of the business and so forth.

Now, local is all about positive reviews and (thanks to the Pigeon update) some of the more traditional ranking signals like relevance and page content.

Social: Before the days of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, online social sharing largely took place via email and instant messaging — places that fell largely outside of the scope of SEO campaigns.

Today, social media is ubiquitous, and digital marketers who neglect this channel do so at their peril. Social media and SEO must work hand-in-hand to increase brand exposure, connect businesses with their audience and drive consumer engagement. The modern-day SEO must utilize social networks to promote content to earn both shares and links for maximum exposure.

Links: Links have always been a significant factor in determining search engine rankings, but link building as a discipline has changed dramatically over the years.

In the early days of SEO, it was all about link quantity — the more links to your site, the better. Anchor text was also more heavily weighted, meaning that links with keyword-rich anchor text could help a site rank better for those keywords. It was easy to get links from sites of questionable repute, and so many SEOs secured links with keyword-rich anchor text from sites with high PageRank through link exchanges, direct requests or purchasing links.

Today, it’s not just about quantity, but about quality. Links from authoritative sites and sites relevant to your own are more heavily weighted, and links from spammy websites are discounted (at best) or grounds for a ranking penalty (at worst). Additionally, search engines like to see a “natural” link profile with a good mix of link types: follow and nofollow, keyword-rich anchor text and branded anchor text and so on.

SEOs today must focus on creating high-quality content and pursuing relevant links that are of value to users. They must also monitor their backlinks for any toxic links and remove low-quality links to maintain a healthy link portfolio.

Technical SEO: Technical SEO has not really changed much in the last few years, and the basic principles of technical audits still apply. However, SEOs must make sure their clients’ sites are built in a mobile-friendly manner and load as quickly as possible. Technical SEO is now very much a requirement for web developers.”

The following video has a short presentation of how the SEO evolution happened and why your business needs to move along with the new optimization rules.

Are you looking for professional SEO in Chicago are? If you are, then you have come to the right place. Our experts will help your website to move up the ranks without breaking any search engine rules and this will translate to more traffic and sale.

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