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Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#121

Post by treycopeland »

everdev wrote: post #70
debaserab2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do things like meta description tags and site map submissions still matter? Just curious.

Description tags matter in terms of converting a search to a click. So, while Google says there isn't a body for putting keywords in the description, I still do because it gives the searcher confidence that the content on the page will match their search query. For site maps, it helps Google find updated content if you have a large site. It's not required, but it won't hurt if you submit one.

Which in my opinion, those user engaged clicks signal to Google that the link is relevant to that user for that query, especially if they stay and interact on the site. I believe that gives that site a ranking boost for that query. Those are just my opinions and cannot 100% confirm.

Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#122

Post by cookiecaper »

codingdave wrote: post #116
dazc wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Our traffic wasn't "monetized" directly -- we never had ads of any kind on the site. We offered a service that people who were interested in the topic we blogged about generally found desirable, so our content was generated to bring people in to the site and expose them to this service, hoping they'd decide to pay for it. That sounds like an "actual business" to me.

Most of the aggressive SEO players I know about are supporting "actual businesses", not content farms that survive on ads. Our aggressive competitor had no content to monetize directly and no ads, they were competing with our service.

Note well that suggesting Google may not be all-knowing draws out the lackeys accusing anyone who may speak this heresy of not running an "actual business". Implying, yet again, that the only reason someone would speak ill of Google is because they're too perfect. Give me a break.

All of this misses the point regardless, because it's not "gaming" the system when you're playing by the rules. Google wants you to believe that its algorithm is perfect, so it says the best way to rank is to write good content, which they will magically identify and publicize. So you pay someone to write good content for your site and, as long as this content is actually original and useful, you're doing exactly as Google directs. That's not what "gaming" is.

SEO is still a thing because people come in naive enough to believe that good content will stand on its own merits, like I did, and then quickly learn it doesn't actually play out that way in real life.

Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#124

Post by rajacombinator »

If you can SEO yourself to top rankings for tons of keywords, probably. But you probably can’t do that through pure SEO without strong existing organic ranking. Also highly product dependent if SEO is a viable channel. Probably best to cover the basics, optimize page load, and forget the rest.

-t. my impression from dabbling briefly with it.

Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#125

Post by uday11 »

Yes, seo still works.

All you need to do is find out your competitors, do similar on page optimization, replicate their backlinks and keep improving this.

And there are ton's of other things to do, but first and foremost step is to make sure the site is technically ready.

Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#126

Post by deadcoder0904 »

orliesaurus wrote: post #10
deadcoder0904 wrote: post #3

Yes. For SEO related content, I always check Backlinko - https://backlinko.com The guy Brian Dean has many years of experience about SEO

Funnily enough reading studf from this site's (i.e. rank brain 2018 guide) on mobile makes my phone lag hard (octa core from last summer). I think the 5000+ heavy images content needs some mobile optimizing... Here's a little audit with Chrome's own tools: https://i.snag.gy/eX7IB1.jpg

Jesus Christ didn't knew that. Someone told me few months ago that's the SEO guy & the way he talks & all is solid content. Didn't knew it has so bad LightHouse perf.

Re: Ask HN: Does SEO still work in 2018?

#127

Post by gcuofano »

Disclaimer: I work for WordLift.io, which focuses on Semantic SEO and on-page SEO automation. Thus my opinion might be biased.

The answer is SEO matters a lot. Yet SEO today means something entirely different from what it meant a few years back.

Back in 2015 when I started my blog, I was writing what would be defined quality content. It was very in-depth, researched (at times it would take me weeks to write a piece of over three thousand words). However, when I hit the publish button I wasn't getting any traffic (at the time a few dozens visits per month!). True, quality content is the baseline, but if you don't have an idea of how search engines work, you might gain traction over a few years time, but the process is quite long and not guaranteed to succeed!

However, what SEO means today is different from what it meant a few years back. In the past keywords and backlinks were all that mattered. They still count. However, it will come a day when they will stop working. Why?

Since 2012, Google has been building a giant knowledge graph, which main aim is to gather information on the web, structure it in the form of nodes and edges to construct this massive graph. Thus, getting featured within Google's so-called knowledge vault becomes critical for an effective SEO strategy.

Thus, if in the past you might be targeting keywords to be positioned on the SERP. Today you might want to be more focused on long-tail keywords that can bring you in featured snippets or inside a knowledge panel. In fact, those are also the avenues to get into the Google assistant, thus voice search.

In short, while in the past it made sense to use backlinks and keywords because Google lacked the power to use more sophisticated methods to index and rank the web pages. Now you have to switch from a keyword centered content model. To an entity-based content model.

This kind of approach is more holistic and targets not only the SERP, but it allows you to get ready for voice search. What are some practical examples of having this approach?

- an internal glossary that targets specific questions your readers/potential customers might have - structured data in the form of Schema injected as JSON-LD (in this way you're giving better data that does not affect the performance of the page) - use a better internal linking strategy, that connects articles to topical pages (like the glossary pages) and back

There are more strategies to adopt, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

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