We are working on an individual website project this quarter that had originally been scoped and kicked off over a year ago. As can happen, the client became busy with a corporate priority and had to pause the project. At that point in time, we had already made progress on both keyword research and copywriting for the client when they requested the halt. Long story short, a year later the project resumed, and we were ready to pick back up where we left off. However, there was one problem…
We quickly realized the process we had performed a year before finding impactful keywords with little competition was no longer relevant. This is because tool we had used just a year prior was now obsolete, and the data was irrelevant. This lead us to this post’s realization:
You need to stay on your toes when it comes to your website’s SEO.
Here’s why:
Consider the Evolution of SEO
Ever since the dawn of SEO, people have gone to extreme measures to make sure their site ranks well. While there have been many black hat tricks that have been penalized by Google algorithms, such as keyword stuffing and duplicated content, they’re always striving to bring better results to improve the user experience.
With that said, staying on top of Google’s algorithm updates and the latest SEO trends is very important to make sure your efforts are impactful.
Tools Become Obsolete
In the story shared above, we were using Google Keyword Planner to reach the right customers with the right keywords. This tool is intended to find keywords to help build your Google AdWord campaigns. While there were plenty of metrics displayed for each keyword, the primary metrics we used to determine the validity of the keyword were the average monthly search number (exact match only) and the competition.
Last year, Google started restricting the metrics that non-advertisers could see in Keyword Planner. This lead to SEO specialists having to ditch this as a reliable resource for organic SEO. In hindsight, this was perfect for us because it allowed our team to get more involved with Moz, which has served our clients well. It also enabled us to gather more concrete data on organic search terms rather than relying on data from AdWord campaigns.
Tying this back into the situation above: The keywords we had originally uncovered for our client now had metrics that did not match today’s organic SEO caliber. This then led us to plug these keywords into our new software and make changes wherever needed.
Keeping up with the latest and most useful SEO tools is crucial, and if you stick with a tool that is now obsolete, you may be setting yourself up for failure.
What You Can Do to Stay On Top
SEO has never been a “set it and forget it” tactic, and there are a few things you can do to make sure you’re always aware of the latest SEO trends:
- Follow the right blogs from SEO leaders. Moz, HubSpot and Search Engine Land are great resources for SEO trends. However, there are plenty of industry experts out there with knowledge-packed blogs about SEO. If they’re doing their jobs right, you should be able to find them pretty quickly (see what we did there?).
- Attend the right Meetups and conferences. No matter where you live, there should be a handful of local networking opportunities to meet industry professionals and learn more about SEO. If you are in the Atlanta area, A Brighter Web Meetup is a great place to start. Recently, one of our team members attended Digital Summit Atlanta and learned some pretty big SEO takeaways.
- Meet with an SEO specialist. If you’re seeking for more tailored advice about SEO, we recommend meeting with someone who is an expert in all things SEO.
If you have any questions about SEO, please contact us today!
