No field of knowledge is steady and inert. All fields keep growing and moving their focus and opinion on how the knowledge is accumulated. In a field like online marketing, this is especially true because the internet has radically changed since the time it first started. The way we use and view the internet has changed in similar drastic ways. With this in mind, it only makes sense for marketing on the business to change accordingly to keep up and not be left behind.
However, the shift in focus isn’t the same across all forms of online marketing. This year, some forms of online marketing have not been given any attention, while others have thrived just because of the insane circumstances. One of the latter ones in the case of 2020 is search engine optimization (SEO). As more and more people shopped online for almost everything, businesses could think about ensuring only one thing: to be present at the top on search engine results. After all, that is where everyone was looking for them.
In such a case, it is highly important to keep in mind that search engines just don’t decide on a website’s ranking out of nowhere. The algorithm behind ranking is a complex one that all major search engines improve and release routinely in the form of patches and updates. If we were to focus on just the most popular search engine, we could clearly see how much this algorithm and updates matter how we think about SEO and online marketing in general.
Google’s updates to its search engines have especially seemed to move away from strong backlinks and towards having relevant and informative website content. Moreover, it also ensured that competition was being fair among websites by allowing smaller websites to rank better for competitive keywords. This way, it has shown a preference for the right website content and not overstuffing it with keywords and links.
However, at the same time, these updates also shook the ranking for some websites that must have been hard-earned. Many SEO professionals showed unhappiness over how volatile these updates can be for websites with hard-earned rankings. With that in place, these recent updates meant that websites now had to focus on different elements such as better load time, mobile optimization, and avoiding keyword stuffing when producing new content.
No matter how the following year turns out to be, one thing is for sure: Google’s search engine updates are going to require a shift in our perspective about online marketing. However, SEO services and digital marketing companies have already started catching up, and our search results will soon be as effective as ever.