SEO, or search engine optimization, is still a core part of internet marketing, despite artificial intelligence. It has just changed almost beyond recognition over time, and if you want to stay “in” and not fall behind, you will have to adapt to these changes, understand new technologies, and expand your portfolio of skills.
In this article, you will learn 13 harsh truths about modern SEO, revealing the bare reality that every SEO marketer should respect if they want to stay at the top of their field.
The following lines are intended to make you reconsider your current approach to SEO and think about the strategies you use that may no longer work as well as they used to.
1. In-content SEO is no longer enough
Traditional SEO tactics at the website and content level (keyword optimization, link building, page speed) will no longer have a major impact on success. In the current environment, SEO has three levels, namely:
- content level,
- content creator level,
- website publisher level.
This means that you will continue to fine-tune traditional SEO strategies in content, but you will be making a big mistake if you do not also work on improving the other levels. Now more than ever, search engines care about who is behind the content. They assess their experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (EEAT).
2. Links using DA are just one piece of the puzzle
While links from sites with strong domain authority (DA) are still important, their direct impact on SEO performance is gradually being displaced by other metrics. Google now examines a variety of other trust indicators, such as:
- mentions of the website,
- the relevance of the website entity in relation to the URL,
- relationships between topics and URLs,
- credibility of content creators,
- the reliability of website publishers,
- the page’s connection to others.
If you ignore these factors and continue to rely on a DA-based strategy, you will not achieve the results you have been achieving so far.
3. The number of keywords doesn’t matter
Instead of constantly increasing the france mobile database number of keywords, which won’t help you rank better anyway, pay attention to other important elements:
- user intent,
- dictionary,
- context,
- entities,
- relationships,
- sequence of queries.
Keywords are still an essential and integral part of your strategy, of course, but use them wisely and also focus on rich media content that benefits the customer at different stages of the purchase process. Keep your messaging clear, consistent, and on-brand across all types of content.
4. There is less and less written content
Whether we like it or not, written content on the web is constantly decreasing, as Google and Microsoft increasingly prioritize multimedia forms of content (images, videos, graphics, genAI, etc.) in search results.
As artificial intelligence evaluates and presents digitalization is still a complex process multimedia content more and more perfectly, traditional texts are making room for it in the SERP.
5. The importance of the blue link is decreasing
For years, marketers have placed a strong emphasis on blue link ranking, which they considered the centerpiece of SEO. However, this strategy is based solely on text content, keywords, and links, making it less and less relevant.
Blue links will continue to be a staple of SERPs, but their influence on website rankings and visibility is being eroded by new search engine features and knowledge elements, along with the constant evolution and changes in search. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence, blue links are even less relevant for traffic and visibility.
With the launch of Bing’s Deep Search and Google AI Overviews, blue links are now seen as more of an “implicit” link. This means that the search engine evaluates multiple results for a single query and displays them as a single result. However, this cpa email list happens “behind the scenes” and cannot be controlled or measured.
Bing Deep Search is already implementing a new approach to blue links and represents a modern way of displaying search results.
6. You can’t escape on-SERP SEO
If you haven’t started working on on-SERP SEO (new options and techniques for better visibility in SERPs), it’s high time you started. It SEO vs. Reality may seem like a buzzword to you, but it’s an increasingly important tactic, and without this sophisticated strategy, your websites will have a very difficult time in search.
On-SERP SEO changes the traditional click-through setting and works to maintain the brand, its visibility and story throughout the acquisition. For this level of visibility, it is necessary to tune.