What is currently going on with natural SEO?

On the contrary of traditional advertisement, Internet has the advantage to be accessible to any type of business for any budget. With Search Engine researches totally becoming a habit for consumers, a good ranking in Google is definitely a key of success for businesses.

Here are some facts we can observe about the current evolution of natural SEO and we believe knowing them is the first step towards a better ranking!

• There is more and more competition in SEO

It is now a standard to have a SEO optimized website. Businesses have realized search engine rankings are important and being visible in the first page of Google is now among many businesses’ objectives. This is easy to understand as being visible in Google can bring a lot of traffic, and once this is achieved this traffic can generate leads on a long term basis.

With the boom of e-commerce, competition is rising. Some businesses only operates online and focus on online communication: SEO is a key for their online presence and they are willing to invest a lot to achieve their objectives.

Moreover, Google gives more credit to older websites that have already gained Google’s trust. It is a real challenge to compete against some websites that have had a top ranking for a long time.

Finally, with all the paid ads displayed by Google on the result page, the space for natural SEO is reduced… and so are the possibilities to appear on the first page!

This this why achieving a first page ranking in Google is nowadays harder than it used to be.

• The complexity of SEO is rising

Google often changes its algorithms so criteria for a high ranking are always evolving. Have you heard of Google Penguins? Google Panda? Every time Google releases a new algorithms, it makes noises in the SEO world: it changes the rules of the game!

Google’s recommendations have to be carefully followed to achieve good results. With criteria always changing, it requires time and website audits to make sure the website is optimized and the e-strategy is accurate.

The algorithm updates tend to focus more and more on original and quality content. Great and original content is not enough; it also must be relevant and often updated. Backlinks rules have also changed and now must follow a real process to be done naturally in order not to be disapproved by Google.

• Social is increasingly taken into consideration in SEO

It is becoming very important for a business to be present on social networks, for many reasons, including for Search Engine Optimization. As we wrote earlier, Google’s algorithms are always evolving and social networks now have an influence in it. A website that is shared on social networks appears like a great website for Google, so it may influence its position on search engine results.

Being on social networks is of course not only about opening profile accounts: businesses have a community to build and to animate. This is a real strategy, so SEO is now part of a complete web strategy and cannot be limited to a SEO Strategy.

With our experience in the web at Visual Link, we highly recommend businesses to get involved in social networks and to work on providing relevant and updated content regularly. Search Engine researches will carry on rising and businesses must be aware that having a website is not enough to have online visibility. Having an online strategy is important to get the most out of a website. If you need help with your e-strategy and your SEO, send us an email or give us a call on 02 9565 2884!