SEO Basics Never Change

Written by Nick Stamoulis

When it comes to search engine optimization, things change constantly. SEO strategies that worked five years ago may not work today, or worse – they can cause penalties. It gets especially sticky when Google rolls out another algorithm change. SEO strategists and web developers often scramble to accommodate the latest changes. When working in the field, it’s important to stay current on industry trends or else your strategies could be ineffective, obsolete, or even harmful to the websites you’re working on.

However, even though it seems as if the industry is defined by its changes, the basics always stay the same. These basics should form the core of your overall SEO strategy so that you can weather any industry changes with ease. Not only that, but by sticking to the basics, you’ll maximize your results over the long term.

Technical SEO Will Always Be Important

No matter how SEO has changed over the years, the technical elements of SEO will always stay the same. Performing a technical SEO audit to look for things like broken links, page load time, anchor text, crawl errors, and responsive design are all things that can affect the performance of your website in the search engines. Not only that, but when any technical issues are addressed, the site performs optimally for users, as well.

Keywords Will Always Matter

No matter how the industry changes, keywords will always matter. Without keywords, there would be nothing to optimize! Over the years, the details may have changed. For example, several years ago keyword density within the text was an important part of SEO. Today, the opposite is true. Content is penalized if it’s optimized too aggressively because it needs to read naturally. However, the keywords themselves will always be a relevant aspect of any SEO campaign.

You’ll Always Consider the Competition

It stands to reason that no matter what is considered best practice concerning SEO, you’ll always want to consider the competition. Before setting out to rank for certain keywords, you’ll want to see what your competition is doing. Make a list of as many companies as you can who regularly rank for keywords you’re interested in targeting. This doesn’t need to be overly technical and can be based on your observations while searching for keywords manually. You’ll want to do enough research so you can get an idea of which keywords your company can rank for compared to your competition. Competitive analysis is one of those things that will always be done!

Good Content Will Always Matter

It doesn’t matter how much SEO strategies have changed over the years, writing great content is just as relevant as it ever was. In fact, having a good content marketing plan in place drives more than just your SEO – it’s the life-blood of your online marketing campaign. Content is what attracts customers to both your website and social media accounts. While it may take several months for your content to gain ground in the search engines, consistently writing great articles and posting them on your site will eventually get you noticed.

As you can see, SEO strategies can change pretty rapidly, especially if Google releases another update. However, there are some basics that will never change.

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