{"id":2888,"date":"2015-10-15T05:38:41","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T00:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rankwatch.com\/blog\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2023-06-01T12:20:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T06:50:57","slug":"future-of-seo-rankwatchchat-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rankwatch.com\/blog\/future-of-seo-rankwatchchat-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of SEO – #RankWatchChat Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, 13th October, we had our very first #RankWatchChat. We wanted to know what the future of SEO would look like according to you. The goal was to surface the winning strategies of SEO by diving into a conversation around the new possibilities, drivers and shifts. We received some amazing insights from the experts in our community which made the discussion even more exciting for us.<\/p>\n

We were extremely happy to welcome Bill Sebald<\/a>, founder of Greenlane Search Marketing, as our Guest Speaker. He has been involved with the SEO world since 1977 and online writing since 2008. Currently, he is helping many big brand enterprise sites, small and local businesses achieve their SEO objectives.\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\"RW-Chat-with-Bill-Sebald\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were really glad to see his enthusiasm while addressing all the questions asked by the participants and sharing his insights on the same.<\/p>\n

The conversation started off with one of the key questions in our field:<\/p>\n

Q1: What is the importance of Rankings today as far as you’re concerned?<\/h2>\n

Most of our participants agreed that rankings provide a basis to measure your progress organically and identify the Ups and Downs for your websites. Additionally, online visibility is important to make sure you reach your users earlier than your competitors and good rankings help ensure that. Another interesting point that our community raised was the shift from organic to social with the increase of social traffic.<\/p>\n

Guest speaker\u2019s insights:<\/h3>\n

Bill Sebald – “@RankWatch A1: I still value them, but as a directional reference. They can signal problems as well as wins. Once you understand the variance between regions, personalization, etc., they can be useful. We still report on them here, but in a mix with many other metrics. I do believe if rank reports are all your analyzing or sending to a client, you’re doing a disservice.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Participants’ tweets:<\/h3>\n
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A1 see a lot of people that ignore them – not adding them to their content – still using graphics instead of words etc #RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Pam Knight (@Knights_tale) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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A1.As important as you knowing the height of the building you are building.At some point you gotta know where you are heading.#RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Devanshu Arora (@devanshuarora) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

A1: Rankings are the only way to know why your traffic is going UP or DOWN. #rankwatchchat<\/a> \u2014 Sadbhav Shah (@sadbhavshah) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

A1: More and more consumers find brands via social media as opposed to SERPs. Rankings matter less than social reputation. #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Meegan (@VivaMeegan) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

A1: With social traffic taking over, I guess a lot of people believe organic is not for everyone anymore. Any inputs? #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 vidhatanand (@vidhatanand) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A1 #RankWatchChat<\/a> ranking is (not only) valuable for the sake of ranking. Rank position is the result of the quality of your site<\/p>\n

\u2014 Predikkta (@Predikkta) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q2: Do you think the importance of inbound linking will change in the future? Why?<\/h2>\n

\"RW-Chat-Do-you-think-the-importance-of-inbound-linking-will-change-in-the-future?-Why?\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The topic received quite a positive response, suggesting that quality link building is still a safe and effective method of SEO. Most of the participants shared their views that the impact of links might reduce over time but it will continue to be a part of Google\u2019s algorithm for rankings. Good links would always bring good traffic.<\/p>\n

Guest speaker\u2019s insights:<\/h2>\n

Bill – “@RankWatch A2: Google told us they tried ranking without links and the results were not good. An inside experiment. So, yes – I think it’s a part of the big algorithm for the foreseeable future, but the value sent through each link is clearly changing. Relevance and quality never mattered more than today IMO. I see a majority of links that once moved the needle substantially being negligible today. I personally take the approach of link building + digital PR. Get referral traffic wins too. Fill your funnel<\/em>“<\/p>\n

Participants’ tweets:<\/h2>\n
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A2: As G’s algo continues to become more sophisticated, I think they will add more signals. But links will remain important #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew Dennis (@AndrewDennis33) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q2: There’s no way to change the importance of inbound links. They’re still an essential part of being well-ranked in Google. #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Alexandra Tachalova (@AlexTachalova) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

A2: As long as links help humans, google can’t take it off from ranking algorithms. #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 vidhatanand (@vidhatanand) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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#RankWatchChat<\/a> A2 importance will not change but will increase as people who cannot do this fair will fail! #RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Akhil Agarwal (@akhil1594) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A2: We think that it will not changed dramatically, because it is about how Google works, everything is built on links #RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Predikkta (@Predikkta) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A2. Linking importance will substantially reduce with time but will always be existent. #RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 danish usmani (@danishwanish) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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@RankWatch<\/a> Number of inbound links will matter less than quality of links. Links from influencers, publications will RULE. #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Meegan (@VivaMeegan) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q3: What are your favorite strategies to get your site or content ranked in the Google SERPs?<\/h2>\n

Most of the participants agree that writing relevant content coupled with a strong multimedia presence on pages is the key to getting ranked. Some of the other favourite strategies our community voiced are link reclamation, broken link building, mention\/image links, semantic markup, internal linking, strong social media presence etc.
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Guest speaker\u2019s insights:<\/h2>\n

Bill – “@RankWatch A3: You can’t phone it in now. Build big buzz digital marketing strategies. Tactics are the steps in a strategy. String them together with goals. Think bigger picture. Take a chance.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

Participants’ tweets:<\/h3>\n

The so called Skyscraper technique<\/p>\n

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A3 pick pop pages, improve upon them, reach out to sites linked to those lower-quality pages&get them to link to you #RankWatchChat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Predikkta (@Predikkta) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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@RankWatch<\/a> A3: It’s all about the mentions and keeping a great reputation. The internet is a community. Become a mentor. #rankwatchchat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Meegan (@VivaMeegan) October 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n