What is SEO in 2020?

[stema]

I used to be an SEO 10 years ago, during the Matt Cutts era when "great" SEOs were determined by their ability to quote him left, right and centre.
I've since moved on to PPC and I'm not much up-to-date anymore on SEO. But I do know that it is still not dead!

In the 90s and 00s, it was all about keyword stuffing. In the early 2010s, it was all about links, especially guest posting for links. Then Google blacklisted guest posting and killed an industry. There were a few bird updates and I moved away about this time.

So could anyone briefly point out what's hot in SEO these days? Let's skip with the basics, because that will never change much (good content, site structure, bla bla).

[JesterMagic]

As since the start Google still relies mostly on links. Since Matt Cutts left Google has not nearly been as open about what is happening under the hood (not that they ever really were). They talk a lot about the "AI" but in reality it doesn't appear to do much with all the garbage you still see in the serps.

[goodroi]

The simple answer is that its much more complicated.

A big SEO change that is overlooked by many is the expansion of PPC. Google has added so many adwords listings on top and expanded the info they display that some serps have virtually no SEO listings appearing above the fold. Even if you do rank #1 for those terms, the SEO traffic is an empty shell for what it used to be.

As for rankings, links are still a big influence but Google has become much better at judging links. Gaining valuable links is much harder as most people are now aware of their value and try to hoard it. Love to focus on building traffic generating backlinks so you don't need Google. They will bend over backwards to send you traffic. Google acts so much like a jealous ex boyfriend trying to win his girlfriend back.

Another big concept is the splintering of ranking factors.There are many more ingredients in Google's secret ranking formula compared to 10 or 20 years ago. Now you need to make sure your site is technically OK with things like https, speed, etc. These additional factors are less of a magic solution to ranking #1 & more a potential vulnerability. They also can turn into a distraction with some webmasters focusing too much on these and at the expense of their content and links..

Usability is also a growing issue. Bing has admitted to monitoring and penalizing sites with "pogoing" (search engine user immediately bailing and jumping back to SERPs). Google has tried to say they don't do this but it would make sense for them to do it. Personally I see usability more as a powerful secondary issue that skews the primary ranking factors. For example an ugly site tends to have a much harder building good backlinks. Usability is a much tougher nut to crack with users split between desktop/tablet/phone screens.

PS It is surprising how many 10 year SEO tricks still work today.

[Wilburforce]

Welcome to Webmaster World.

It was all about links long before 2010, and to a significant extent it still is.

What counts as "basics" is actually quite a long list, but a lot of what was good practice ten or twenty years ago is still good practice now. Apart from links, I would say the priorities are

1. Focus on the user, and
2. Make sure your hat is whiter than white.

With ads dominating above-the-fold space for most highly competitive searches, and SEO becoming ever more costly in terms of time and effort, you may find PPC to be better value.

[JesterMagic]

Agree with goodroi (good summary) and Wilburforce. Google has been better at determining quality links and busting link farms. They have split ranking factors up a lot more but IMO it hasn't resulted in approved SERPs but just mudded the waters.

I also find that if your site is falling in the SERPs and if you apply a number of changes to your website to try to fix the issue you don't see changes in the SERPs for a long while. You usually have to wait until the next Google update to determine if the problem is fixed. Google is very slow to react now. Unless for example you have a manual penalty and your site virtually disappears from the SERP. "IF" you fix this issue your site will come back quickly.

[stema]

Yes, Google has always been about links from the start, but in the beginning, it was easy to rank by keyword stuffing.
I can't remember any particular on-page technique from 2010 that worked well, so that'w why I mentioned links dominating. Duplicate content was an issue but it was mostly to generate more content quickly - article spinning and the like.
Site speed, https, usability: these are what I would call the basics. Irrespective of SEO & Google focusing on them, wouldn't you want your site to offer all these for a good user experience? These factors still apply in PPC (and other channels), and perhaps more since you are paying big bucks for the traffic. You wouldn't want to lose expensive traffic because of any of these reasons.

Yes, I've noticed how PPC ads dominate the page, as well as other results like maps, etc so indeed, SEO is less rewarding today. I had, and still have, some personal sites. I used to focus on SEO to get traffic then. Today I wouldn't bother.

I do find these PPC ads useful though. I use Duckduckgo as my main SE because I'm logged into Google all day long and I do miss the ads when doing commercial searches. I now always go to Google when I want to run a commercial query to buy something. I find the ads provide better results than the organic results below on Google. But that's a different topic.

[RedBar]

Let's skip with the basics, because that will never change much (good content, site structure, bla bla).

This can be the most overlooked and generalised part of SEO and which is not really specified anywhere, well, I've never seen it in 27 years, suggestions definitely but not a complete list that needs to be done for each and every page as I do and no, I shall not list them:-)

The three "As" are extremely important, Accuracy, Authoritativeness and Approval ... will the information and images shown satisfy widget trade / professionals / universities / etc?

And when considering SEO examine what the top ranked sites are actually doing and including. This may seem to be obvious however so many overlook this and then wonder why they can't beat the competition.

Lastly, do not expect immediate changes to rankings. All SEs update and up/downrank much more slowly these days, 3-4 months is completely normal

[Gary_B]

Does anyone have any proven evidence of the user experience update as yet?

If so, what are the main factors to improve user experience focused SEO? Time on site, site speed, load time, reduced bounce rate or exit rate?

Appreciate any feedback on this.

Thanks
Gary B

[stema]

How do you/Google determine website authority? Is it via links once again?

[RedBar]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Gary_B

Does anyone have any proven evidence of the user experience update as yet?

To be blunt and honest, I really don't give a damn what Google thinks or says!

I've been in my widget industry more than 52 years, I learn new widget stuff every day and I am regarded as one of the world's top authorities for my widgets and my sites reflect that information freely given.

I present my widget information and images how widget specifiers / purchasers would expect it to be and if G doesn't like that, hard cheddar, that's what my widget industry wants.

In another thread I posted that I stopped jumping G's hoops years ago, don't get suckered into that scenario.

[goodroi]

Google announced the user experience update aka core web vitals will be sometime in 2021.
More info at [webmasters.googleblog.com...]

Different user experience factors (like speed and mobile friendliness) are already impacting the rankings but tend to not influence the rankings as much as other factors (like powerful backlinks). Other user experience signals (like pogosticking) have been admitted by Bing by not by Google.

Even if Google didn't care about user experience, I would still care. Better user experience tends to drive more conversions & profits.

Remember there are many factors in the secret ranking formula. However they aren't all valued the same. Be smart and prioritize everything the best you can to maximize your limited time and effort.