Search engines aren’t nearly as smart as you are. But they’re smart enough to know which web pages are following the trends, and they’ll reward them for the good work.
When SEO practices first started, even keyword stuffing wasn’t the big deal it is today. Do this in 2020 and your efforts won’t be worth your while, because search engines will penalize you for using black-hat tactics. More on this later.
The point is, it pays to take some time to learn about SEO trends and even predictions for the future of SEO. This way, you’re almost guaranteed to stay one step ahead of your competitors. Listed below are just a few reasons to keep up with the trends:
Keeping Up With Trends Can Save Your Rankings
Google’s algorithm changes every year. What’s relevant this year is different from last year’s ranking factors, and so on.
Every indexed website can be negatively impacted or “hit” whenever an algorithm update rolls by. Depending on what’s relevant for that specific update, your website could fall short on rankings. For example, Google’s mobile-first indexing update would favor websites in which mobile navigation is fast, easy, and not very different from their desktop versions. Websites that didn’t follow these guidelines would be penalized with lower rankings.
Staying up to date with current and upcoming algorithm updates will have you prepared in case your site gets hit, and you’ll be able to make the necessary changes to keep or recover your rankings.
It Helps You Avoid Using Black-Hat Tactics Without Knowing
Black-hat SEO is a type of growth hacking that relies on the “fast and easy” way of achieving higher rankings in search results. These practices aren’t illegal, but they’re against search engines’ terms of service. If you’re caught using black-hat tactics, your website can be banned from Google and other search engines. A few examples of these dirty “quick fixes” are:
- Buying links
- Keyword stuffing
- Hidden text
- Duplicated content
Anyone unfamiliar with SEO could fall prey to the tactics above thinking it’ll give their website a boost. It won’t — at least not in the long-run. If you follow SEO trends, you know that rankings are about quality content creation paired with expert content marketing. Relevance is simply the aftermath.
Aside from black-hat tactics, there are other seemingly harmless practices you should keep an eye on. Guest posts (blog posts you write for other sites) could be a powerful technique if you’re getting quality links back to your site. You can check if a link is good or bad by running a backlink analysis.
Before considering writing or accepting guest posts, be sure to check the website’s domain authority (DA) first. Sites with a higher DA offer better SEO results, while sites with a low DA could count as a bad link.
It Helps You With Link-Building
When Google looks at the quality of your site, it factors in whether your site has quality links pointing back to it. That means you should not only have sites with a high domain authority linking to you, but you link back to them, as well.
Still, your link building strategy could fail if you don’t take all the necessary steps. Good link building is essential if you want to rank better organically, and only SEO experts can guarantee positive results. In this case, working with an SEO agency and asking about their link building pricing is your best option.
Don’t settle for cheap solutions if you don’t feel like wasting your time and money. Link building packages come in a variety of prices depending on the level of authority of the publication where you want to be, the level of commitment with the agency, among other factors. Prices could range from $500 for small businesses to $5,000 for enterprise-level services. It’s something to consider.
On a final note, no website will achieve better results overnight. There’s no “fast and easy” when it comes to honest SEO practices. For better organic rankings, make SEO knowledge part of your routine from now on.
To read more on topics like this, check out the Marketing category
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