SEO in 2024: google is changing, so should you.
Remember the days when we used to rank by adding 4 pages of content and the default “twenty twenty” wordpress theme?
If you’ve ranked a site in 2015 or earlier, you know how primitive google search algorithms used to be. Exact match anchors, over stuffing of keywords and even translated content from foreign language blogs. Does all this sound familiar?
Unfortunately, those strategies don’t work anymore! Yes, they were partially working 5 years back but going into 2024, the whole SEO game has changed. Either you’ve evolved with the changing algorithms or your websites are no longer ranking. If you belong in the latter category, this article is for you!
We have been ranking websites for the past 13 years and have seen all the changes Google’s search team has come up with to eradicate low quality players and spammers.
Coming back to the point, here are the 7 things you can do differently in 2024 to up your SEO game and really rank.
QUALITY CONTENT, NO AI BS
Isn’t this obvious? Well, no. With the advent of AI, and 100 kinds of software to automate content, bloggers and SEOs have been taking this route not knowing that Google is smarter now. They penalise sites based on low quality and automated content left and right. It’s like going into a casino and hoping you will win. Being an ex-gambler myself, I know that only one out of 100 people come out happy. If your content is not manually researched, and written with a certain degree of depth and 100% originality, forget about sustainable rankings.
ATTENTION TO DESIGN
As I mentioned earlier, you can’t get away with a boring theme and a bad looking website anymore. Google observes all the on-page parameters like how much time your visitor is spending on your blog, how fast they’re bouncing back, what’s the dwell time etc. And a bad design can impact all these factors negatively.
ANCHOR TEXTS, NOT SO EXACT
What was the first link building penalty which google came up with? You guessed it correctly. It was related to heavy anchor text spams. Bloggers would just add their exact keywords in all incoming links and rank higher. Although it still works in BING (which constitutes a fraction of total traffic and is known to de-index sites without reason)- you can just forget about it if you want to make an impact in Google. Use naked urls, generic anchor texts, image links and branded anchors if you want to rank for a very long time.
LINKS FROM IRRELEVANT, LOW TRAFFIC, PENALISED PAGES
What if I tell you, I am going to publicly endorse you for the position of ICC (international cricket council) president but I don’t know the rules of cricket? Quite eww, right? A site should hold a position of authority if you want the backlink (the “vote”) to be impactful. Authority in google means traffic and relevance. Next time you go on creating a backlink, see if the site is not penalised (check out the traffic graph), and it should be relevant with at least a few hundred visitors a month.
TRAFFIC FROM VARIETY OF SOURCES
A brand is not dependent on one source for their audience.
They are everywhere- youtube, social media, reddit, google etc. These factors heavily influence your brand image in google and hence your rankings.
TIERED LINK BUILDING
Strengthen your money site but also strengthen your primary backlinks. So if you’re doing a big guest post, add its link to your smaller guest posts. It will pass the juice to the main link which in turn will boost its overall impact on your site. You can also use this technique to strengthen your PBNs. In my personal experience, it works wonders.
SOMEONE ELSE WILL NOT MAKE YOU RICH
In the end, understand that this is your project. I am not against hiring help for your content or links, but don’t be over dependant. Know about your niche, understand your audience, participate in content’s editing and build your own backlinks. Don’t ever buy links from a vendor, because if their links were so solid, they would have ranked their own websites with those resources, right? It’s your business and you can do it best.
BONUS TIP– The correct expired domain still works, whether you’re using it as a part of your PBN or to redirect it to your money site. You no longer need to hide your PBN though. Design it for users and add quality content on it on a regular basis. Make it your un-fair advantage, or find someone who can.
Redirecting the correct domain is a work of art, so is choosing the right domain for your PBNs, it needs to be an on-point rebranding, I suggest if this is your first time, use an expert’s help, because it can make or BREAK YOUR BRAND. Remember, SEO is not hard. You just need to evolve and up your game every 6 months to make sure you’re 2 steps ahead of Google. In the end, quality wins. Think about your users, don’t spam and you should be good.
