Google is doing a sparkling job of approaching people away from tactical SEO behavior and toward a more strategic approach.
You could argue that "tactical SEO is dead", but that's not reasonably right. And don't run around saying "SEO is dead" because that is far from the truth, and I might just bawl at you.
Instead, let's take a few steps back and appreciate the big picture. Here's a look at the major developments, some of Google's initiatives driving this change, and the overall crash these changes will have on SEO.
1. '(Not Provided)'
Google made the move to make all organic searches secure starting September 23. This means we've lost the capability to get keyword data for users arriving to our websites from Google search.
Losing Google keyword data is sad for a number of reasons. These impacts publishers in many ways, including losing a precious tool for understanding what the intent of customers that come to their site, for conversion optimization, and much more.
For tactical SEO efforts, it just means that keywords data is harder to come by. There are ways to work around this, for now, but it just won't be fairly as simple as it used to be.
2. No PageRank Update since February
Previously, Google has updated the PageRank numbers shown in the Google Toolbar every 3 months ago or so, but those numbers haven't been updated since February. This means 8 months have gone by, or two updates have been skipped.
In addition, Google's famous Engineer Matt Cutts has said Toolbar PageRank won't be updated again this year, leading many to consider that PageRank is going away. I won't miss it because I don't look at PageRank often and I usually don't have a Google toolbar in my browser.
However, a lot of people still use it as a basic measurement of a site's prominence.
For sites with a home page that has PageRank 7 or higher, it may in fact be logical to assume that the site has some chops. Correspondingly, sites with a home page that has a PageRank of 3 or lower, it is either new, or probably a low quality experience. Stuff in the middle, you just don't know.
3. Hummingbird
There are a few fundamentals to Google's Hummingbird algorithm, announced in time for Google's official birthday, but like Caffeine before it, this is really a main platform change. Google has built a capability to understand conversational search queries much better than before.
:Hummingbird really changes the keyword game quite a bit. Over time, exact keyword matches will no longer be such a big contract.
The impact of this algorithm is likely to be quite large over the next 2 or so years. Net-net, they have radically reduced access to the raw data, and are rolling out technology that changes the way it all works at the same time!
4. Google+
Google launched Google+ June 28, 2011.
While it seemed to get off to a slow start primarily, many argue that it has developed a lot of thrust, and is growing rapidly. The data on Google+'s market share is pretty hard to parse, but there are some clear impacts on search, such as the display of modified results:
Hummingbird really changes the keyword game quite a bit. Over time, exact keyword matches will no longer be such a big deal.
The impact of this algorithm is likely to be quite large over the next 2 or so years. Net-net, they have radically reduced access to the raw data, and are rolling out technology that changes the way it all works at the same time.
5. Authorship
OK, authorship also isn't new but it is a part of a bigger picture. Google can use this to associate new pieces of content with the one who wrote it.
Over time, this data can be potentially used to measure which authors write stuff that draw a very sturdy response and give them a higher "Author Rank" .
We won't delve into the particulars of how Author Rank might work now, but you can read "Want to Rank in Google? Build Your Author Rank Now" for my thoughts on ways they could look at that.
That said, in the potential you can imagine that Google could use this as a ranking signal for queries where more comprehensive articles are likely to be a good response. Bottom line: your personal authority matters.
I also should mention Publisher Rank, the concept of building a site's authority, which is arguably more important. Getting this payoff depends on a holistic approach to building your authority.
6. In-Depth Articles
Google announced a new feature, in-depth articles August 6.
This increases the payoff from Author Rank and Publisher Rank – there is a lot to be gained by developing both of these, assuming that Google actually does create it a ranking factor at some point. Note that I wrote some thoughts on how the role of in-depth articles could evolve.
Is There a Pattern Here?
Yes, there is. The data they have taken away has been in history used by publishers to optimize their SEO efforts in a very tactical manner.
How do I get higher PageRank? What are the keywords I should optimize for? Taking these things out of the picture will reduce the focus on these types of goals.
On the other side of the coin, the six major Google changes listed above are all moves that support more strategic behavior. Note that I didn't bring up Google Now, which is also a really big deal too, and it's another big piece of the Google plan, just not a major driver of the point I'm trying to make today.
All of these new pieces play a role in receiving people to focus on their authority, semantic relevance, and the user knowledge. Again, this is what Google wants.
The focus now is on accepting your target users, producing great content, establishing your authority and visibility, and providing a huge experience for the users of your site. Properly architecting your site so that the search engines can appreciate it, including using schema and related markup, addressing local search, and work of this type still matters, too.
But, the obsession with tactical items like PageRank and keywords is going to fade away. As Google tweaks the way their service operates, and look for ways to capture new signals, they do things that naturally push you in that direction. It isn't going to stop. Wait for more of the same going forward!
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