It is still works like how past time its been working. Some algorithms are changed but technique of the seo is the same.
Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
111–120 of 127 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
'I believed the lie "write good content and it will magically rank" ...and paid a content writer for about 9 months.' Is paying a content writer (who's area of expertise is, usually, being a content writer) a more noble attempt at gaming the system, I wonder?
So yeah, SEO has changed the definition of "content writer" to mean a spam artist. However, this was a real writer, the type who went to journalism school and wrote for dead-tree publications, and she just happened to put these writings into my Wordpress interface. Her credentials on the topic were impeccable and she was hired primarily for that. Maybe it's inappropriate to call her a "content writer" if the connotat…
Apologies for the offence and accepting your case may be different.
But, I think it's a valid question since a lot of paid for content borders on being nothing more than an SEO game plan?
Paid content writers will often produce work that's well-structured, easy to read and grammatically correct but is just a rehash of something that's already been written about 100 times before.
I once employed a journalist to do a piece about a particular kind of insurance. She did a fair bit of research and even got quotes from prominent people in the industry.
I've seen the same piece many times in various guises, all well written but, essentially, her article with just enough of the words changed to make it 'unique'. Easy to find too since they use the quotes verbatim.
When challenged the response is always the same - 'we paid someone in good faith...'
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#113SEO works, and always will. However, trying to figure out the latest tricks is a losing game. Even if you do figure out how to make something work today, algorithms will change and you'll be punished for having gamed the system. Instead, write 'honest' content. Write it well. Write it for humans. If you find yourself adding content in hopes the search engine will pick it up, that is a short-term gain for long-term pa…
I'll piggyback off of this with an anecdote of mine that served me well, and was pretty much my grand exit from the SEO game.
I joined a startup in 2010 when SEO was all the rage. I was the second tech hire, and my boss left pretty soon after I joined because he was sick of managing and wanted to be a dev, so I became lead dev with another guy under me.
The tech was still relatively new to me, but I had previous knowledge of SEO from a few internships I had done while at uni. I also freelanced on the side, doing SEO audits for a few local companies. We ran a service in the legal space, offering leads to law firms from customers interested in a particular type of law, so the name of the game was to get as many eyes on the site as possible.
The MD wanted to follow a similar technique to our parent company, which was working well for them. This was essentially paid-for spam, and I felt really uneasy with this approach, so I suggested that we ignore a lot of the current SEO tactics and respect Google for what it is - a very smart search engine built by people that are smart enough to fix the common SEO tactics of the day. Thankfully, the MD listened to the dev team, and the focus was on building the best service possible. Instead of getting crappy backlnks, we ran competitor analysis tools to figure out why some people were doing well, and making our service better than theirs. Essentially, instead of playing the game, we wanted to deserve the top spot. We had content writers reviewing content regularly, a marketing manager that (eventually) backed us, and a manager that was happy to have a wildly inexperienced dev team fuck things up in the name of getting better.
Things went well for us, and we made some slow progress. After a while the Panda update happened, and we skyrocketed to the top of a lot of valuable terms, while the parent company (using spammy technqiues) crumbled, losing around 70% of their traffic. I think investment bailed, and we split out on our own. We ended up getting millions of visitors a month, and the company was acquired because of the work that was put into the product.
Since that experience I've almost completely shunned the SEO side of things, favouring organic online marketing. I know that a lot of the techniques that agencies would use worked - I saw them work myself on our competitors, but I also knew that they were a short-term fix with no long-term gain. By focusing on clean markup, good content, a clear architecture of information, and fast loading times, we beat the competition, and those values haven't changed eight years later.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#114SEO works, and always will. However, trying to figure out the latest tricks is a losing game. Even if you do figure out how to make something work today, algorithms will change and you'll be punished for having gamed the system. Instead, write 'honest' content. Write it well. Write it for humans. If you find yourself adding content in hopes the search engine will pick it up, that is a short-term gain for long-term pa…
I'll piggyback off of this with an anecdote of mine that served me well, and was pretty much my grand exit from the SEO game. I joined a startup in 2010 when SEO was all the rage. I was the second tech hire, and my boss left pretty soon after I joined because he was sick of managing and wanted to be a dev, so I became lead dev with another guy under me. The tech was still relatively new to me, but I had previous know…
Except the Panda updates had nothing to do with spammy links
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also do SEO work for lawyers, primarily PI and mass torts type stuff. It does work - to an extent. There are certain technical things you need to get right and that alone can rank you decently, especially locally. There is low hanging fruit that can put you miles ahead of the competition and I've done this time and time again. The problem with SEO and why I have a grudge against the industry is past success by gami…
I decided to stop pitching SEO and instead pitch "growing your business." SEO alone is not going to cut it and it is dangerous for any business to rely on one source of leads. Also thinking about Growing a business allows me to keep looking for sources of revenue and improving conversion rates. Haven't had success with Adwords (Family Law), you should email me so that I have your contact (email in profile).
Definitely agree. I tell most clients the same thing, you shouldn't rely on one source of leads forever, especially not SEO. I'm open to any medium. Radio, newspaper, tv (I wish I had the budget for tv commercials or could convince some to try it), whatever yields the best cost per acquisition.
I haven't touched Family Law but it might be similar to PI. PI on Adwords is brutally expensive and that's why hyperlocal SEO works well in that regard.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
So yeah, SEO has changed the definition of "content writer" to mean a spam artist. However, this was a real writer, the type who went to journalism school and wrote for dead-tree publications, and she just happened to put these writings into my Wordpress interface. Her credentials on the topic were impeccable and she was hired primarily for that. Maybe it's inappropriate to call her a "content writer" if the connotat…
Apologies for the offence and accepting your case may be different. But, I think it's a valid question since a lot of paid for content borders on being nothing more than an SEO game plan? Paid content writers will often produce work that's well-structured, easy to read and grammatically correct but is just a rehash of something that's already been written about 100 times before. I once employed a journalist to do a p…
I also think he is talking about a different type of SEO than the rest of the audience here.
For most people, they run a business, and their web presence is a tool to improve that business, and SEO is a tool to improve its effectiveness.
But cookiecaper seems to be talking about a totally different kind of SEO, in which the base goal is to generate traffic and monetize it, so SEO becomes the primary tool by which you look for easy keywords to target, and write content specifically for the search engines, not for a human audience supporting a pre-existing business.
That entire scenario is fundamentally based on gaming SEO. It is a short-term play for cash, and some people do well with it. But we're comparing apples to oranges when trying to match that up with the way an actual business would approach SEO.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#117I firmly believe that one cannot be a webmaster and ignore how search engines work.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll piggyback off of this with an anecdote of mine that served me well, and was pretty much my grand exit from the SEO game. I joined a startup in 2010 when SEO was all the rage. I was the second tech hire, and my boss left pretty soon after I joined because he was sick of managing and wanted to be a dev, so I became lead dev with another guy under me. The tech was still relatively new to me, but I had previous know…
Except the Panda updates had nothing to do with spammy links
I think when (s)he said "paid for spam" which could be low quality out-sourced content. I assumed links to begin with too, but not no mention of links.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll piggyback off of this with an anecdote of mine that served me well, and was pretty much my grand exit from the SEO game. I joined a startup in 2010 when SEO was all the rage. I was the second tech hire, and my boss left pretty soon after I joined because he was sick of managing and wanted to be a dev, so I became lead dev with another guy under me. The tech was still relatively new to me, but I had previous know…
Except the Panda updates had nothing to do with spammy links
Yep, you're right, but the way that the parent company was directing traffic was down to setting up a bunch of unrelated pages on the site with spammy links that direct to their main content.
The company handled data on investing, but their CMS was full of pages relating to totally unrelated things like Nokia phone repairs. It was the standard long tail approach, where a thousand pages of spam getting 10 visitors a day was enough to give them a legit boost on their main pages.
When the Panda update hit, these pages killed the site, and the spammy links propping these pages up were next to worthless.
Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except the Panda updates had nothing to do with spammy links
I think when (s)he said "paid for spam" which could be low quality out-sourced content. I assumed links to begin with too, but not no mention of links.
A mixture of both. The site had a ton of long tail pages for unrelated content with outsourced content and spam links set up from things like forum posts, and hijacked academic pages.