Is SEO Dead?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines through organic or unpaid search results.

In recent years, there has been much debate about whether or not SEO is still relevant in today’s digital landscape.

Some argue that SEO is no longer necessary, while others believe that it is still a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy.

The topic “Is SEO dead?” is a controversial one that is frequently discussed in the digital marketing industry.

Is SEO dead – What do you mean?

That is a very serious question.

I searched for “Is SEO Dead” on Google and found many articles about it, but still not all of them are good enough to understand something from it.

Do you know what?

If an article is presented as a list without a general idea, or if the authors talk about their own experience instead of the community, it is not good for someone who wants to get an answer.

If you search on Quora for “is SEO dead” or something like that, you will find many good answers too, but also some that are not very useful.

I found one with a list containing all major Search engine algorithm updates and another one that only gives a list of 10 SEO things to do in 2023.

It is not very much for me.

As I said, you have to read the whole article and check if its author has enough knowledge about his topic.

Or he just copy-pastes some stuff from other articles without changing anything.

I started with this subject because when someone asks me “is SEO dead” I want to be able to tell him an exact answer, but I cannot if some basic knowledge is still missing.

If you are reading this article then you probably know what SEO means and why it is important for your website. If not, I will help you right now.

I assume that all of you know SEO is the process of getting traffic from search engines,

by creating your website in such a way that bots can understand it and rank it high for specific keywords.

What do most beginners do wrong?

I see many beginners who make something like this: “Hey! I need SEO.

How much will it cost me? Well, if you want to rank on the first page you have to spend a lot per month. If not, it will take more time and patience.”

They copy this formula from SEO companies’ websites or offline advertisements, but they don’t know that it is completely wrong.

These people treat SEO like a lottery; buy one ticket each day and wait for your number to be called.

I know that many SEO companies do exactly this and that is why it is so easy to find them online.

You should not waste your time with such people as they don’t know what they are doing, but you can learn from their mistakes and avoid them yourself.

Search engine optimization is NOT a lottery! You will never win if you want to rank high.

You will get traffic from the search engines only if you make your website in such a way that it can be easily understood by search engine bots and humans too.

When someone comes to your website, what should he see?

Of course, it is nice or even better if he sees your awesome content filled with amazing images and videos.

But the most important thing is that your website should be easily understandable by search engine bots.

If you want to rank high on Google (or any other major search engine) for specific keywords, make sure bots can understand your content without any problem.

How?

Well, there are several SEO things that you need to do to make your website easily understandable by search engines.

Let’s talk about them one by one.

Best SEO techniques to rank high!

1. Good SEO title

When you open any article on this blog, what do you see in the address bar?

Well, of course, you see the page name and some other things too, but there is something called SEO title which can be seen in search engine result pages too.

Unlike the page name, which can be changed by you, this title stays as it is and is decided according to what you write in the content.

If you create your post or article with a good SEO title then it will be easier for Google spiders to understand what your website or blog post is about.

So make a good title first before doing anything else.

-Use your keyword in the title

Your first priority should be to write a good SEO title after which you can use your target keyword (the one that you want to rank for) in the article.

Please note that if your keyword is “what is SEO” then do not write it as “what is SEO”, because Google bots will not understand this sentence properly.

-Keep it under 70 characters

If your article is about “how to study” then you should write this as the SEO title: “How to Study Effectively – Best Tips for Students”.

You can do this easily by using any online page title generator.

The reason why you should keep your title under 70 characters is that Google usually displays 70 characters in its search engine result pages (SERPs).

Moreover, it does not like very long titles because they look dull and boring to users.

-Try to include words of your keyword phrase one by one

The more keywords you use in the SEO title the better.

For example, if you want to rank for ‘study tips’ then write your SEO title as ‘Study Guide for Students: Top 15 Study Tips.

You should never use only one word of your keyword phrase in the title because bots will not be able to find out what your website is about.

For example, if you write something like “SEO guide” then Google will think that this article contains useful information for people searching for “SEO guide”.

-Try to make it naturally readable

If your SEO title looks like what you copied from some website then nothing will work.

You should try to write naturally readable titles by yourself so that readers can easily understand what the webpage or post is all about.

If a good SEO title can help users and Google bots to understand what your website is about, then a bad SEO title can hurt both of them.

-Do not try to stuff keywords in the title

When you take help from some other website to get ideas for writing good titles,

do not take an idea that says “Do Not Read This” because Google hates such things.

Google bots scan web pages to determine what the website is all about.

If you give some strange or weird titles then Google may decide that your page or post contains useless information and remove it from its index.

-Try to make keyword phrases separated by commas

If you are using long-tail keyword phrases in your title then separate them by using commas.

For example, if your title is “SEO Guide for Beginners: Best SEO Tips for Students” then it is perfectly fine because Google can easily find keywords within this title.

-Use broad-tail keywords at the beginning of the title

If you are writing about some topic on your website or blog then try to write broad-tail keywords at the beginning of your title because Google loves those keywords.

It is a good idea to limit your keyword phrase as much as possible and put broad terms in the first place.

-Try to use different types of titles

There is more than one way to find out what your post or article is about.

You can use 20 different types of titles and each type of title will attract a specific audience.

-Use keywords as phrases, not as words

It is better to use keywords as phrases with commas to separate them.

Moreover, if your keyword phrase is “SEO guide” then do not write it as “SEO” or “guide”.

-Do not copy titles from other websites

If you are using keywords that do not suit your content then Google will think that you are building links for SEO purposes.

This is against the rules of Google so you should never copy titles from other websites or blogs, whether they are good or bad.

-Try to keep the same structure

If you are writing about the same topic on your website or blog then stick to the same structure and use similar titles.

Google bots will see that you have the same theme and index all of your pages, just like it does with websites that use breadcrumbs or other types of internal navigation.

2. On-page SEO

The following steps should be taken to optimize your web pages without off-page SEO:

-Optimize content for users and Google bots

Your content should be perfect if you want Google to rank it.

You should use interesting keywords but in the right place so that both your human readers and bots can understand what your article is about.

If your content looks good for both of them, then you will see a noticeable change in your rankings.

-Use long articles

Try to use long articles because Google loves those.

Moreover, it is also beneficial for you because users are more likely to read something that takes some time to finish reading.

Longer articles are not only good for SEO purposes but also for user engagement purposes.

-Use H1, H2 and other heading tags

Heading tags are used to highlight important keywords in your article.

Write a full detailed article on the topic at hand and use more than one heading tag to make it more interesting.

You can use up to three heading tags for adding a touch of difference to your article.

-Use images and videos

Adding images and videos to the text of your article will make it more interesting for both users and Google bots.

Moreover, it will also improve user engagement because many people like such things on the web page or blog they are reading.

Do not use copyrighted images that you found while browsing on Google; it can be a bad idea because you could get banned or penalized by Google.

-Add internal and external links

Including the right type of links in your post may give it a push from where it should have been if you add just any link without thinking about its target audience.

Do not add a random link to other websites or blogs, use links that are related to your target audience.

-Optimize your images

If you are using images in your post then optimize them by adding some keywords as ALT tags.

The first keyword should be the same as the one you have used for the H1 tag of that article or blog.

The second one should be different but more targeted towards what the article is about.

–Use keywords as anchor texts

It is a good idea to use keywords as anchor text because it will help you rank higher for those keywords without having to do anything extra.

If your target audience likes reading articles that are full of links then by keeping the same structure and using some internal links too, you can see improvement in rankings.

-Add your keyword to the TITLE tag and meta description

Your title should be between 50-60 characters because it is a highly important part of Google search results.

Write a few words about the main topic of the article before mentioning your targeted phrase at least twice in your article, thanks to using it as H1 and other heading tags.

-Add targeted keywords to the URL

Including the right keywords as a part of your URL is very important because it will tell Google bots about what that web page or blog post is all about.

Try not to play with words and stuff but use a shorter version of the main topic if possible, otherwise, just go for a different phrase instead.

-Use blog name and post category

Blogs that have a lot of useful information on them usually get a high SERP position.

So it is better to use the blog’s name you are using for your blog along with a relevant category tag.

You can use your blog’s name as META DESCRIPTION if Google is not giving you enough context by showing the first few words of that article.

-Readability

Make sure that people like what they are reading and they will keep on coming back to your blog or website,

so make it interesting for them because plain boring text with no images or videos will not keep people engaged for very long.

3. Off-page SEO

-Build links

Links to your blog or website are very important because no matter how good it is,

if there are not enough people visiting the page then you will never get any rankings.

Do not pay for backlinks when you can build them yourself by just blogging on authoritative websites.

-Competitor backlinks

Competitors’ backlinks will help you see how good they are and thus what kind of strategy there is, so you can do it yourself as well.

However, if your plans include buying links then use an expert for this job because there are plenty of ways to get banned or penalized by Google for buying links.

-Social media shares and likes

There are plenty of ways to get social signals by putting out high-quality content on a regular basis.

So you can focus on creating better content while keeping in mind that some people will share your posts anyway even if the post is not really that good.

In general, more social signals = better rankings.

-Keyword research

You need to study what keywords are popular and which ones are not because you do not want to target phrases that receive little search volume.

You also want to know if the phrase you have targeted is easy or hard to rank for, so that’s why keyword difficulty tools come in handy.

-Guest posts

A lot of authority websites allow guest posts, so you can share your posts on these websites.

And expect some visitors because people who liked that site will see your name and visit your blog or website.

4. Technical SEO

-Make sure you have a sitemap that is easily accessible

Sitemaps tell Google about your blog or website, so if they are not easy to find then the bots will never visit any pages on your blog which means no rankings.

The file name of your sitemap should start with ‘sitemap’ and be well organized so that bots know about every page on your blog.

-Use www and non-www versions of your domain name

It is a good idea to use both www and non-www versions of the same website or blog because www is often indexed slowly by Google.

If there is no redirect from one version to another then search engines will think that your blog or website does not exist.

-Add canonical links to pages with similar content

You should add a canonical link from the page with a high search volume.

Because this will help Google know which version to show in search results and tell users that they can find the same content in another location.

-Redirect old URLs to new ones

If you change blog or website addresses, then you should redirect old URLs to the new ones.

Because this will tell Google that they are still on the correct page even though it has a different URL.

If you do not do this, then your rankings can be affected.

-Create an XML sitemap to let Google know about all your posts

Google will get confused if you only have an RSS feed, so it is vital to create an XML sitemap to get your blog indexed properly.

-Leverage browser caching on your website or blog

Browser caching can really help by allowing Google to update resources.

Like images, scripts and stylesheets from your blog or website to their own cache so that your blog or website will load faster.

-Add pagination links to posts with multiple pages

Pagination links tell Google about all the pages on your blog, so they will know what to show their visitors and how many pages your blog or website has.

-Utilize schema markup on your blog or website

If you add schema markup to your website then search engines like Google can display rich snippets that tell users:

what the webpage is about, when it was created and who owns it.

-Create a robots.txt file

A robots.txt file is basically the same as a sitemap, so Google can use it to know which pages they should or shouldn’t crawl and index.

If you create this file then your website or blog will be more secure because search engine bots won’t go where they are not supposed to go.

-Website loading speed

As google finally confirms that page speed is one of the rank factors, you should really consider this.

Page speed depends on various factors but the main ones are your hosting provider and theme.

That’s why we recommend cloudways to host your site and Themify Ultra for a stable & speedy theme.

Wrapping Up

SEO is not dead because you need to create interesting articles and do keyword research if you want your site or blog to succeed.

If you follow all the steps that I have outlined then your blog or website will start seeing some traffic and it will be indexed well.

This means more people can find it and read your content.

This article was just my opinion on the matter of SEO, so if you have any more to add then do not be afraid to share it with us in the comments section. 

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