Since the creation of search engines the ranking game has never failed to remain in flux. The internet is a change medium, and I expect this to occur for at least the next 10 years.
Henry Ford didn’t invent the car, but he figured out how to let everyone have access to one. When the automotive industry first blossomed in the early 20th century, many styles and manufacturers flourished and it wasn’t until the 1940’s and 50’s that industry consolidation occurred and several large manufacturers took over the car making business.
The same will likely happen to web companies.
When I began as a web designer in the late 1990’s, our philosophy was I used to think build it and they will come. We created websites with a reverse L design (logo on top left, open header and navigation on the left column) and hoped visitors would come and buy. To our joy, they did.
Next we learned about search engine optimization and how to get more traffic from the major search engines. We believed that all we needed to do was get a large enough volume of traffic and business would be good. Happily it was.
Now competition is fierce and options are wide open so just driving traffic is not enough to ensure success. Internet users are more patient and will spend more time searching before making a purchasing decision. Our task is to optimize pages for users and create landing pages that are focused on providing targeted quality information that offers superior benefits that users are looking for. Internet marketing must be tweaked and tested to bring conversions.
This is the period of visitor optimization and creating conversion oriented websites.
The Current Ranking Factors
- Long content pages
- Information hubs
- EAT – Expertise, Authority, Trust
- Relevant links with high domain authority
- Updated content
- Text plus: images, videos, graphics
What have you noticed during the past 10+ years online?
6 Responses
Online marketing by a Certified seo is like fishing with dynamite.
If you’re still on the fence about SEO: grab your favorite link checking tool and run through your competitors.
Picked up on the progress of SEO, its easier for someone who has been studying it since 1995.
We are still learning SEO, this graphic is helpful.
I could use some more good descriptions of SEO like this.
I can see that you are an expert in the SEO field. I’m launching a website soon, and your information will be incredibly useful for me. Without traffic we will expire.