SEO should not be adversely affected by constant change. Learn how to do a sustainable SEO in Lahore, while minimising risk and focusing on priorities.
In practical terms, SEO does not need to be distracted by new ranking factors, algorithm updates or permanent changes. There is a way to do it sustainably while minimising risk and focusing on priorities.
1. Quality content
This may seem obvious that the quality content will remain there and won’t be going anywhere soon. Google and other search engines have brought it to the forefront of many of the algorithm updates they have published over the years.
Whether filtering out poor content, filtering results to reduce duplicate content, or other factors that are top of mind for search users, quality has been the ultimate goal.
The debate on whether AI can deliver the standards required for search engines will continue. Google’s and Bing’s own use of AI could lead to its wider use.
This is not a problem as long as a quality standard is achieved that offers the searcher unique, rich, and engaging content relevant to their search and site visit objectives.
2. Site performance
We still remember a time when site speed, page load time, and key web vitals were not yet ranking factors. Back then, we already had performance reports available in Google Analytics. We knew that slow-loading pages had a higher bounce rate and were able to do basic analysis and correlations.
Overall, a better UI and UX meant better traffic performance. This aspect has not changed, although performance metrics are now explicitly included in the search algorithms and the expected experience. It is not going away, and it has been and will continue to be a core element of SEO.
3. On Page elements
Beyond content, there are still core principles that are unlikely to change. Yes, Google will adjust the impact of certain on-page tags up or down, or choose to ignore them altogether if they are duplicated or poorly written.
However, with the exception of the meta keyword tag, which Google has long ignored, there are only minor changes to best practice, such as the number of characters or debatable elements such as the impact of title tags (H1, H2, etc.).
In general, the structure of an optimized page still includes consistent use of subject and keywords, together with all the tags and elements on the page that we can control.
Pay attention:
- Alignment and context with the page theme.
- Links to a broader level and sub-level content based on the section in which the page is located.
Yes, this can involve pure code and content overlap. However, it is important to point this out as aspects of the page have been a constant must for SEO. DMT has helped numerous businesses across Pakistan rank higher in the top ten positions in SERPs through its exceptional services.
4. Clean code
The days of static, lightweight HTML and CSS websites are (for most) long gone. Now we can push the boundaries of UI and UX design and functionality. In many cases, search engines see this.
In some cases, we have seen headless applications and websites return to simpler code output. What hasn’t changed is that the cleaner our code is, the greater our confidence that it will be found, indexed, and ranked in search engines.
Whether your content is long-form, interactive, or visually intensive, it’s essential that it’s easy to understand and render for search engines. This is as important today as when search engines first started crawling the web.
5. Security
We don’t want our target audience to see broken sites or confusing marketing messages on their homepage. Any apparent security issues can damage trust, revenue, and overall credibility.
Even a behind-the-scenes security problem flagged by search engines can cost you dollars or time. More importantly, it can lose your trust in Google and cause a drop in rankings or visibility.
Develop a security and monitoring plan. Use the tools at your disposal through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
6. Competitive focus
So far the discussion is focused on internal needs (i.e., our own technical set-up and internal pages). Most of this fall into best practices and checklists or audits of some kind. Here’s another problem search results may vary depending on the query and the keywords we use to fetch the relevant results.
While the best practice may say that a page needs a certain number of words and that certain actions need to be taken to get a high-quality, fully optimized page, these can all be thrown out the window if all the high-ranking pages skew the norm.
Whether all pages have only a few words, a few thousand words, or a very large number of words and are greatly increased by external factors (more on that in a moment), it is very important to keep an eye on competitors and their performance.
Often these are not necessarily traditional competitors, but those who are at the top of the search results page for terms for which you are the authority. Create your own checklist and best practices, but don’t ignore the competitive environment. This has always been important and will continue to be important.
7. Content quantity
More content is usually better, but it should be noted here that it must be quality content, as indicated above. If your funnel or customer journey has educational or nurturing content, you will need some depth.
Yes, you can rank for terms that you are not directly targeting because search engines have context and related terms associated with your pages and website in general. However, if your target audience needs a lot of help, you will need it.
We still do a lot of gap analysis work to find areas where clients want to rank for topics, but they lack much if any content to support their authority position on that topic.
8. External credibility
Over the years, whether we will ever see the end of the importance of inbound or backlinks. While this is very possible, it has not yet happened.
Inbound links are important and still send “votes” or give the site credibility from external sources. Yes, we no longer have the visibility of PageRank that we used to, but we know that links are still important in a balanced SEO strategy and approach.
The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same in this category.
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DMT’s Editorial Team prides itself on bringing you the latest SEO and digital marketing articles.
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