SEO: Then and Now- What has Changed in Last 5 years

We are living in time where evolution is the most important part of our day to day lives. Google has been updating its algorithms constantly and the SEO strategies are also changing every day.

Here we will cover all the key SEO strategies which have been changed in the last 5 years.

If you have a business website then search engine plays a vital role in getting the targeted traffic to it. You need to optimize your site according to the search queries or keywords.

Why SEO is important?

Suppose you are a shoes selling website then you have to optimize your website as per the keyword to ‘reach out to the potential customers’. There must be several others selling the same product and to get noticed it is necessary that your webpage should rank on top on Google. So, Search Engine Marketing is an important aspect.

• 39% of customers come to your website through search engine like Google.
• Google generates two types of results for your query that is Organic and Inorganic. 70% of the link search users are organic.
• Almost 70-80% of users ignore the paid ads and focuses on the organic search
• 75% of users never scroll past the 1^st page of search results.
• And 93% of online experience begins with Search Engine.

If you want your webpage to rank 1^st on Google then you need to optimize it according to the Google Algorithms. Algorithm is the parameter on the basis of which your page is ranked. They are constantly changed and updated to provide the users with enhanced search experience.

In last 5 years, SEO has changed a lot. The seven most important changes in it are listed below:

1. Keyword stuffing:

In earlier times, it ensures that the page will rank at top if it had multiple numbers of keywords. For example, if there is content written on ‘weekend getaways’ and has keyword stuffing then it used to rank on top on the Google. But this criterion is no more applicable for ranking your page.

Nowadays, relevant content that provides value to visitors rank better on Google instead of keyword stuffing. Valuable and informative content is more important than keyword stuffing. Keyword relevancy of content plays a key role.

2. Backlinks:

If we look past five years then backlinks, Backlinks and some more backlinks were required. No matter they are of low quality or spammy, the more number of backlinks the higher your page will rank on Search Engines.

But after the Penguin Update launched by Google, the quality of backlinks from relevant webpage is considered essential for your webpage to be on the top. To have quality backlink is more important than focusing on the quantity. A single quality link from a reputed website is always better than 1000’s.

3. Page Rank:

The ranking of page played a significant role over the years. It was the single most criteria on the basis of which Google Algorithm decided which page will rank on which position.

But page ranking is no more considered essential by Google algorithm. It is no more given much weightage as long ago Google stopped updating it.

Nowadays, Page Authority is considered essential to keep your webpage on the peak. It matters how powerful a domain or website is. If a domain is having high quality backlinks and content in it then it will rank higher.

Suppose there are two sites ‘Facebook/ABC.com’ and ‘ABC/123.com’. Both have similar content but the site with more brand power will rank higher that is Facebook.

4. No. of Words in the Content:

Earlier, content with 500 to 800 words used to get a good rank on search engine. Although, the content used to be of low quality and did not have enough matter.

After the Web panda update, average number of words on webpage that rank on top of SERP (Search Engine Result Page) should be 2416. Only those web pages which have good quality content with at least 2416 words will be on the top.

5. Anchor text:

It is a text on which a link is inserted to any XYZ webpage. Before, primary keyword was focused to be the anchor text. For example, there is a travel blog and they have a primary keyword ‘weekend getaways’ then the anchor text used to be the same primary keyword.

But this criterion doesn’t work anymore as anchor text is not relevant when it comes to page ranking. Make sure that you don’t repeat the same anchor text twice in your content.

6. Mobile SERP and Desktop SERP:

Previously, SERPs for both mobile and desktop used to be same.

Now, only mobile optimized pages will rank for Mobile SERP that means only mobile optimize page ranks better on mobile devices. Suppose, if a site is ranking high on Desktop SERP but it is not optimized for mobile then it will not rank same on Mobile SERP.

7. Local SEO:

Before, Local SEO was considered very important. These days it is the core part of Search Engine Optimization.

Local SEO is a part of process and needs to be done. And it is even more essential for mobile devices.

For example, if you are looking for a ‘Chinese Cuisine Restaurant’ in ‘Connaught Place’ then the results will be dominated by the nearby local restaurants on mobile.

It is an important part of SEO if you are trying to rank higher.

These are the 7 essential SEO strategies which have been changed in past 5 years. If you have not updated these tactics so far, then do it now to make your website appear on top of Google search results.