Old SEO vs New SEO mindset:
Old:
Go after KWs with the highest search volume.
New:
Go after KWs with the highest search intent.
Old:
Publish few super-long “skyscraper” posts to try to outrank your competitors for big, fat head terms.
New:
Even 300 words are enough if you’ve answered the search intent really well. And content velocity really matters.
Old:
Programmatic SEO is blackhat, low quality, and doesn’t serve the users.
New:
Programmatic SEO can improve user experience and content quality by bringing consistency to posts following an expected structure – e.g. listicles, comparison posts, reviews.
Old:
Avoid zero search keywords at all cost.
New:
Zero search keywords are great if they have great intent. High content velocity for niche, high-intent KWs can help you gain topical authority faster.
Old:
Google Keyword Planner is gospel.
New:
All KW tools are inaccurate and should not determine whether you publish a post on a particular topic or not. Since 15% of all searches every month are new anyway, and 45% of search terms are hidden in Search Console, following keyword research tools blindly over understanding the target audience is a slippery slope.
Old:
Prune content, and avoid cannibalization at all cost.
New:
Having more than 1 position in SERPs for the same search term with different content = more real estate you take up in Google. Aggressive pruning just to avoid cannibalization can do more harm than good unless you invest tons of time into analyzing what each post also ranks for, which just doesn’t make any sense.
Old:
Domain authority.
New:
Topical authority.
Old:
Build backlinks.
New:
Build internal links. Pay attention to content hierarchy.
Old:
Build links from high Domain Rating sites.
New:
Attract links from high Domain Relevance sites.
Old:
Seems to be focused on endlessly creating new content
New: Updating, improving and repurposing what we already have published.
