The Future of SEO Is Simpler Than You Think

by Amit Raj, Guest Contributor

How quickly times change, and this applies to SEO as well.With the Google Panda and Penguin update, traditional SEO methods quickly became outdated. Black Hat SEO had a certain appeal because the results were quick. But now, if you want to rank high in search engines, you have to abide by Google's rules.​

Google's RankBrain has grown leaps and bounds and changes the way SEO works.

If you take the time to understand the changes, you'll realize that the good guys win in the end. Crawlers are becoming more and more human in the sense that they want to read content like real people do. This means that keyword-stuffed articles are out and over-optimized text that have exactly 2 to 3% of keywords are penalized, and so are anchor texts that are randomly added in.

You won't have to worry about putting in individual keywords, key phrases and inserting them in the first and last paragraph. SEO has become way easier because all you need to do now is to focus on delivering top-quality content and playing nice with your niche community. White Hat SEO is the simple solution to get to the top of search rankings, and stay there!

Great Content Comes First  
How does one create high-quality content? Easy. All you have to do is to visualize your audience, then write as if you're speaking directly to them! Don't think about keywords, keyword density and those statistics. Content is king and it deserves the best treatment. Do not create content that are made for robots. Value should be the first thing that comes into mind. Remember that today, keywords have less power when it comes to reaching #1 in rankings. Informative content will make your site more visible now.

Long-form content often beats out short-form content. Having more words gives you the chance to explain the concepts behind your topics. i.e., including more sub-headings or offering more examples and information. Having a good text layout intersped with quality pics or videos will do better than one that's filled with jargon. Again, don't worry about inserting specific keywords because the text that Google needs to rank your content will come naturally if you write for your audience.

Quality content should be posted on a regular basis. This practice shows Google that you're willing to invest time and effort in your niche. If you can only post one article per week, then that's fine as long as you make sure that it's readable, helpful and informative. Don't post because of posting's sake because this will lower your credibility and overall trust.

Read also: ​List of 1500+ Quality Blogs That Accept Guest Posts

Support With High-Quality Links 
Putting up quality links isn't that hard at all. You should focus on drawing organic links from authority sites. If you do this then you won't have to worry about falling off the top spot anytime soon. 

When we say quality sources, it should be similar websites who rank up on top of your niche. Creating thin content and guest posting it on low-quality sites is a definite no-no. Create only the best content and put it only on the most reputable "authority" sites to get maximum results. 

Keep Anchor Text Natural
Internal links are great if they make sense. Anchored links should add to the content provided and serve as a tangential information or resource. Don't overdo this, or Google will think that you're putting up spam links and penalize you accordingly. 

White hat is really easy. As long as you're writing for your audience, the keywords will come naturally, as is the anchor texts. Over time, authority sites will recognize your efforts and your quality content and they will ask you for a guest post. Gone are the complications that include computing for the best keyword density, inserting anchor text in optimized ratios and analyzing short- and long-tail keywords. 

Voice Search – Marking A Future Trend?
What's more, Google is preparing for the newer way to search- voice activation. The number of voice search queries are rising. They have gone up to more than 35 percent from 2008 to 2016. Instead of voicing out robotic commands, smart phone assistants are now recognizing conversational searches and phrases more intelligently than ever. The future of search will be voice, and content that falls in line with this kind of search will be the wave of SEO's future. Search language is becoming more and more human-like, and this is exactly in line with White Hat practices. 

All in all, we're now looking to a future where search improves the overall content posted on the world wide web. If a site hosts content that has poor spelling and grammar, stuffed with keywords and isn't at all helpful to the reader, Google acts upon it and penalizes the site. What replaces it? A website that has better and more engaging content. It's just the way things are, and it's better this way. 

Do your part and go with White Hat SEO. It's called timeless optimization for a reason! 
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Author bio:

Amit is an SEO consultant in Glasgow who specializes in building high quality links, based around great value content. He can be found at AmitDigitalMarketing.