In recent years, you may have seen more and more people on the internet saying that “
SEO
is a nerd”. The reasons for this kind of opinion may be that SEO
algorithms
have become extremely complex in recent years, and that even if you enter the market with a new
domain
, you may be struggling to get high rankings. However, it is a premature opinion to say that SEO is boring; in reality, it is not boring at all. If you take targeted measures, you can definitely get high rankings and still have a strong effect on attracting customers.
Therefore, in this article, we will explain why SEO is said to be complicated in the first place, and at the same time explain why SEO is not. We will also explain the concepts and measures necessary for successful SEO, so please use this as a reference.
What is SEO?
First, I will explain the outline of SEO as a prerequisite. SEO stands for “
Search Engine
Optimization” and is primarily a measure against Google. However, Google’s goal is to “provide search results that are useful to users,” so while it is said to be a countermeasure against Google, the most important thing is to create articles and sites that are useful to users.
SEO can be broadly divided into three categories: internal measures, external measures, and
content
. Internal measures include publishing the site with source code that is easy for Google’s robots called crawlers to circulate, and updating the sitemap appropriately. As the word “internal” suggests, it is an image of optimizing parts that are invisible to the user.
External measures are measures taken outside the site, such as acquiring backlinks and raising the level of domain power. This is a point where the ability of the SEO person is tested, and a good SEO person knows the means to acquire high-quality backlinks and can execute them appropriately.
Regarding the last content, you can imagine a column article or a blog article. We select keywords for each article and take measures to ensure that the blog article appears at the top of the list when a user searches for the keyword that your company wants to attract customers to.
The feature of SEO is that it focuses on three things: internal measures, external measures, and content.
Why is SEO said to be outdated?
So far, we have explained about SEO. By the way, why is SEO said to be a nerd? There are six typical reasons.
- Significant algorithm fluctuations
- It has become a battle for domain power.
- Video content such as YouTube is attracting attention.
- There is too much competition
- Small techniques don’t work
- You can’t fight without a certain amount of budget.
Let’s look at each in turn.
Significant algorithm fluctuations
The biggest reason why SEO is said to be slow is because the algorithm fluctuates so much. Algorithms are Google’s own standards for ranking in the top rankings, and are not publicly available.
It is said that there are more than 250 types of algorithms, and there are no clear standards for countermeasures, so it is very time-consuming as it is necessary to take countermeasures while considering search results and the situation of competitors every day.
In addition, Google updates its algorithms, called algorithm updates, about once every three to six months. When an algorithm update is carried out, the ranking of search results changes significantly, and there are cases where a site that was in first place yesterday is out of service the next day.
In recent years, Google has increased the frequency of algorithm updates, resulting in frequent changes in search results. As a result, it is no longer uncommon for sites that were ranked high to be suddenly pushed out of range. This is the reason why SEO is said to be complicated.
It has become a battle for domain power.
Domain power is not an official Google metric, but a metric set independently by Ahrefs and Moz. However, sites that rank high in search results tend to have high domain power across the board. In particular, in genres such as financial and medical fields that require investments of tens of millions of yen to obtain high rankings, the domain rating (DR) is over 50 to 70 across the board.
Even if a newly established corporation enters this genre, it cannot expect to be ranked high because it has no chance of winning in domain power. Regardless of the content, since the battle is decided by domain power, there is no chance of winning even if a new entrant enters the market, and this is also a big reason why SEO is said to be poor.
Video content such as YouTube is attracting attention.
Although this is an indirect reason, one of the reasons is that video content such as YouTube is attracting attention rather than text-based content. With text-based content, the range of expression is limited compared to video, and it may be difficult to reach young people who are turning away from print. As a result, video content from sites like YouTube tends to be more cost-effective for the same budget.
There is too much competition
More than 15 years have passed since the term SEO was coined, and recognition of its importance has spread considerably. Moreover, the competition when it comes to SEO measures continues to increase. Around 2010, it was possible for your company to be the only one dealing with niche keywords, but today there is competition for every keyword in search results. There are a certain number of people who are overwhelmed by the number of competitors and claim that SEO is crap.
Small techniques don’t work
In traditional SEO, there was a trick called black hat SEO. Strictly speaking, black hat SEO still exists as of September 2022, but as Google’s crawlers evolve and algorithms change frequently, these sneaky techniques no longer work. I am. People who don’t have white hat SEO skills, which are the essential SEO measures that provide value to users, will describe this situation as a bummer.
You can’t fight without a certain amount of budget.
Lastly, SEO in recent years cannot be done without a certain amount of budget. A long time ago in SEO, you could outsource 1,000 articles for 1,000 yen per article and rank high with mass-produced SEO. However, in recent years with SEO, articles cannot be ranked high unless they are written by writers who are familiar with the industry or have high-level SEO skills. In addition, there are some keywords that cannot be ranked highly unless you have a supervisor and raise the EAT.
Based on these facts, assuming that the outsourced unit price per article is 20,000 yen and 200 articles are created per year, a budget of 4 million yen is required just for this. Also, if you pay a monthly fee of 100,000 yen to a supervisor, your total annual budget will need to be at least 5 million yen.
The above amounts may be within the expected range for companies that have already secured a certain amount of budget. However, it can be said that it is a difficult amount for a newly established corporation to prepare.
Why SEO is not a joke
So far, I have explained why SEO is said to be a nerd, but SEO is not a nerd. There are two main reasons for this:
- Depending on the content, you can get high ratings.
- Good compatibility with video content such as YouTube
I will explain each in turn.
Depending on the content, you can get high ratings.
It is true that companies with domain power and budget tend to win in SEO. However, high-quality content is still highly valued by Google. And it can be said that the reputation of high-quality content will not decline in the future. This is because Google considers content that is useful to users to be of high quality.
In addition, a site with a wealth of high-quality content will naturally have an easier time acquiring backlinks, which will increase its domain power. In the end, the company’s attitude towards content production will be questioned. For example, if you continue to outsource at a low unit price, the quality of your content will be low, and as a result, you will be forced to struggle with SEO. Companies that have a system that allows them to create high-quality content will continue to be able to compete in SEO in the future.
Good compatibility with video content such as YouTube
SEO and video content such as YouTube are often seen as completely different things, but they are actually closely related. For example, YouTube video content may appear in Google search results, and YouTube SEO is relatively easy to master if you understand Google’s SEO.
Also, if you embed a YouTube video in a blog post, Google will recognize it as highly unique information. It is predicted that we will live in a video-centric era from now on, and from this point of view, there are great benefits to working on video production. If you also work on SEO, you will be able to create even more synergistic effects.
For SEO to be successful, overall web marketing measures are required.
So far, we have explained why SEO is not a nerd, but in order to lead SEO to success, overall web marketing measures are essential. Specifically, please keep in mind the following three points.
- Reorganize the purpose of SEO
- Collect potential customers that cannot be obtained through SEO using other customer acquisition measures.
-
Brand
on SNS and get designated searches
First, let’s reorganize the purpose of SEO. By clarifying the number of leads you want to acquire per month through SEO, it will be easier to budget and outsource.
Next, if you cannot acquire potential customers through SEO, aim to attract them through video content such as YouTube. Rather than sticking to one method, SEO, you can expect synergistic effects by working on other web marketing measures at the same time.
Finally, since Google places importance on the number of named searches, you should also strengthen your communication on SNS to increase the number of searches for your company name or personal name.
summary
In this article, we have explained why SEO is an issue. In conclusion, SEO is not a joke. Domain power is becoming more important, and depending on the keyword, a considerable budget is required, so it may be difficult for companies with limited business strength. However, if the content is useful to users, it can still be ranked high and have a high effect on attracting customers. First of all, please refer to this article and start by reorganizing the purpose of SEO.