It has been claimed by some pundits that the practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been dead, but the truth is that new ways of practicing have emerged, making the old methods obsolete.

When SEO enters the picture in digital marketing it has to be acknowledged by the digital marketers that it undergoes never-ending alterations.

The successful SEO can be established by catching up with the ever-changing practices of SEO. There are many opportunities to learn and master the skills of adapting to upgrading SEO. You have to be flexible to adapt to the dynamics involved in it.

A presentation was given at PeepCon 3.0 in Manila by the founder of Fazillion Media- Cyrus Shepard, who was the Director of SEO at Moz, on the current state of SEO in 2018. Let’s look at some of the points that can certainly help your business this year.

Before we move ahead, do checkout my earlier post: Search Engine Optimisation – How And When It Works

Search Engine Optimization Is Hard To Be Mastered

Whenever SEO professionals come into question, they are known to possess a few symbolic traits- Confidence, Knowledge, trustworthiness, and dedication.

But the reality is quite different than how we look at it. Confidence is owned when a person spends the majority of his time on a particular subject of interest. But most of the SEO professionals have busy schedules and stay pre-occupied with various other work to do, which results in lack of confidence and uncertainty unlike how others perceive them to be.

In reference to this, Shephard declared that he is not an expert in SEO, he just makes it up as he moves along the dynamics of SEO.

There is not a specific or particular way to learn and master Search Engine Optimization. This deprivation has resulted in making SEO professionals very flexible and adaptable to the changes coming their way to successful execution of SEO.

Recommended By Editor: How To Be SEO Friendly

Traffic Cannot Be Guaranteed Through Increased SERP Visibility

For a long time, special consideration has been given and various efforts have been made to increase page rankings and page visibility by the SEO professionals, but these strategies do not ensure an increase in traffic on the site.

The old methods of Search Engine Optimization have become outdated and are not effective anymore.

With the complexities involved in working on SEO, many challenges have arisen for SEO professionals. Some of them are:-

The Outbreak Of SERP Features – In recent years, Google has introduced diverse changes in the features of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) which has resulted in decreased organic search results.  

Lack Of Unique Search Results – Organic search results have been limited in regard to most of the queries. These days the result pages get stuffed with ads, related searches, a knowledge panel, and very few websites to help unlike ten useful links like before.

The Outbreak Of Featured Snippets – Featured snippets holds a fixed place in SERPs decreasing the page visibility of other pages. A data concluded by Ahref shows that 12.29 % of queries include featured snippets on SERPs. There can be an expected growth as an announcement has been made by Google about the renovation of featured snippets along with the implementation of new types.

Lengthy Meta Descriptions – The prescribed limit for meta descriptions of pages has been increased from 150 to 300 characters. Smaller meta descriptions used to be a source of attraction for the visitors and an increase in CRO, but lengthy meta description might end up answering the queries of the people which would effect CRO negatively.

Ads & Google Properties – Ads and Google properties capture a large amount of space on SERPs while surfing on dimensions like shopping, travel, and videos.

Lack Of ‘Clicks’ – Introduction of voice search has caused an uproar in the SEO. There has been a decrease in click-through rate of the websites. In the current scenario, voice search is expected to expand and cover 50 % of the queries.

Recommended Reading: 5 Best Ways To Use Basics To Optimize Your SERP

The Evolution Of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Provides New Opportunities To Be Seized

Even if SEO professionals are being faced with many challenges in SEO, the evolution of SEO makes it the best source of investment. The click-through rate has decreased noticeably but it has not impacted the search volume negatively. In fact, there has been a massive increase in search volume which ensures the necessity of SEO. Google has been the most visited page on the internet and it still holds that position, which portrays the progression of queries. New advantageous opportunities have been discovered in relation to the evolution of SEO. Some of them are –

Featured Snippets – Though a significant decrease in ‘clicks’ on the organic results has been acknowledged because of the selected search result- featured snippets, it also provides an opportunity to attract massive traffic by attaining the required position, as well as enormous opportunities for voice search.

Related Questions Optimization – An addition to display the related questions has been made by- “People also ask.” This feature has provided an opportunity to increase page visibility of similar pages and also to redirect the traffic to other websites.

AMP Implementation – Another way of inducing traffic is by the implementation of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for both the sites of relevance to either news or non-news. AMP also acts as an important ranking factor for the page.

Conclusion

SEO is a mix of many elements which makes it seem like a complex and complicated field, but the basic idea behind its implementation remains to be query satisfaction. The demands and factors of satisfaction keep changing with time. Google studies these factors to work on the relevant factors and to make the features of SEO more satisfactory- this makes SEO an ever-changing process.

The investment should be made in the areas that are underinvested by others like related questions optimization, and AMP implementation.

The key to master the skills of SEO is being flexible, adapting to the ever-changing changes in SEO, facing the challenges, and coming up with solutions to continue working.

There is always a right time to do something, so you should focus on seizing the opportunities at the right time to gain maximum rewards in return.

Looking for cost effective SEO strategies then do checkout my post on: Affordable SEO Strategies