Thanks to Google, it seems to look this way. In recent years, SEO has been on the decline and online marketers are left scratching their heads as to why their websites aren’t as high up on the results page as they used to be. Before Google intervened, websites would take advantage of SEO by compiling numerous keywords on their pages just to boost their way to the top of the list. Whether these websites actually contained relevant content is another story.

The turning point for SEO was in 2013 when Google stopped providing data about keyword popularity. Users of SEO could no longer stuff their websites of keywords without providing rich content as well. Despite Google’s efforts to look out for the customer, many online marketers are still trying to get around this. Don’t they realize that Google is always one step ahead?

This being said, as SEO’s prominence decreases, SEM is becoming the more relevant term. Search engine marketing aims to get more visibility in search engines. While SEO is still a part of this, related to getting more free traffic, SEM also incorporates paid traffic through ads that appear at the top of the searches. As a result, SEM is more targeted than SEO. When users search for a specific topic, the results that come up are more relevant than they used to be, because they no longer only depend on keywords, or SEO.

Because of this, it’s important as a marketer to provide costumers with useful, relevant content. Keywords are important, yes, but only if they are actually related to what you are talking about. If you provide the costumer with the results they are looking for, your organic traffic, the traffic generated by SEO, will grow regardless. As a final thought from us here at Snyder Group Inc., while getting traffic to your website is important, what happens when these visitors actually arrive is the next step to think about.