5 Elements of SEO that Matter More than Backlinks

SEO-123rf-24027957_sLink building is the demon king of the search engine optimization (SEO) world. Ever since Google became the Internet powerhouse that it is and other companies followed suit, backlinks have been the lifeblood of the SEO business even through countless algorithm updates and tweaks. The importance remains today, but because of the large emphasis on links throughout the years, link building often gets thrown into a spotlight which in turn reduces the importance placed on several other factors that have mattered all along (and perhaps even moreso now and looking towards the future).

Mobile optimization is one of the newer things that is really playing a bigger role with each passing day. Google recently rolled out an update that largely affects the mobile market in which mobile friendly sites get a lot more weight in rankings. Considering the huge marketshare that the mobile market has in search and what is only likely to grow, having your website me mobile friendly is tremendously important in today’s SEO climate.

Content quality has been extremely important all along. The popular phrase “content is king” is no lie. Having content that is not only well-written, but useful for the end user is very important for Google, not only in terms of the real-world algorithms but in terms of the philosophy of what they strive for in every algorithm update. Because at the end of the day, their goal with search is largely to get users to content that they want to see. So as their tools and technology grows and develops, the emphasis and importance of content will continue to grow as well- we can be sure of that.

Social media has taken the world by storm and Google knows it. In reaction, the search giant has put great weights on social media presence on search rankings. Social media signals really matter so it is important to have a good presence that acknowledges customers or visitors and makes them feel a part of the community. SEO benefits aside, a good social media presence can bring traffic and loyalty on its own.

Brand building has been an important part of business in general for ages. Google is putting more and more weight on brand mentions on the Internet as a gauge for the quality and trustworthiness of a website. Brand mentions are kind of like backlinks but without the penalties attached and of course without the actual links too. They are also much more reliant on the quality of the website doing the mentioning and the relevancy to your page. As the algorithms evolve around brand mentions, it is quite possible that they start to replace or cut into the territory that backlinks hold as far as weight in determining rankings.

The last major area that is often underrated but can be more important than link building is shareable syndication. This ties in with the social media aspect as well as brand building because it relies on how your content is replicated around the net and shared. It is important to create content that is not only compelling, but that can be easily shared via modern channels such as videos on Youtube or data in infographics.

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