Weathering the storm of Google’s algorithm changes is no small feat. One day you’re ranking top of the SERPs, and the next your site is nowhere to be found.
But, as with any storm, you need a good anchor to provide stability. And that anchor is SEO.
Just like an anchor, proper SEO can offer you:
Yet, SEO is often overlooked when it comes to marketing and growing a business’ brand. Most marketers or business owners turn to paid advertising or pump out stacks of content in the hope of grabbing someone’s attention.
And it might work – your sponsored page may be front and centre on page one of the SERPs.
But, when the storms of change come rolling in, you’re going to need a strong SEO anchor to see you through.
Companies Who Are Securely Anchored
SEO is definitely not a novel concept, yet so many people prefer quick growth through paid marketing campaigns over the stability that SEO can offer.
Yet, some companies have proven that SEO can keep you consistently ranking at the top. And although these are not SaaS companies, we can certainly learn a thing or two from them. Many of these companies own several different websites, all of which are ranking.
Dotdash Meredith
Dotdash Meredith owns many well-known websites, like
- Investopedia
- The Spruce
- People
- VeryWell
- LifeWire
- InStyle
- Health
You probably recognise a few of these names?
That’s because whenever you type a search query into Google, odds are at least one of these websites would appear somewhere on the SERPs.
Clearly, they are dominating in the SERPs.
And that’s because they stick to tried and tested best-practice SEO methods, like internal linking, keyword optimisation, content design and on-page SEO. They also focus on E-E-A-T.
Let’s look at just The Spruce Pets as an example.
Right at the start of this article, we get to see who the author is. This instantly establishes trust and authority.
When you click on the link by the author’s name, you’re taken to a new page where you can read about her experience in the pet niche.
Now, let’s get into the content.
There’s immediately a “meet the expert” segment, so we know the information in this article is from a primary source and an expert in the industry.
Internal links are used throughout the article, with clear anchor text so you know exactly where the hyperlink will take you.
Hyperlinks are not only useful for readers to help them navigate your website but are also used by Google’s bots to crawl your site.
And, instead of being hit with a wall of text from the start, the content is broken up into easily digestible chunks, thanks to pattern interruption (e.g. bold, bullets).
It all seems so simple, but it really works.
According to Semrush, The Spruce Pets gets over 5 million visits a month. And a strong SEO strategy contributes to this.
Future Publishing
Future was already taking over the SERPs because they own companies like:
- Techradar
- PC Gamer
- Marie Claire
- Horse & Hound
- LiveScience
They also tend to dominate the SERPs, especially for their tech pages.
Here’s an example for the search “best gaming laptops”:
It should come as no surprise that PC Gamer, Tom’s Hardware and GamesRadar+ are all owned by Future.
So, it is safe to say their SEO strategy is sound.
But, they recently changed their approach to marketing affiliate products. They started including “Reasons to Buy” and “Reasons to Avoid” boxes in their reviews.
Why does this matter? Because it adds value to the content and positions them as having expertise and experience. You trust that the person writing the product review is familiar with the product. They’re not trying to push the product on you – they’re even telling you when not to buy!
Similar to The Spruce Pets above, the websites owned by Future also make use of author info, internal linking, and pattern interruption.
There is also a strong focus on search intent here.
For example, someone looking to purchase a gaming laptop does not want to read paragraphs of text before coming to the recommendations on which laptops are the best.
Across Future’s pages, they always list the best performers near the top of the page as a Quick List, with a brief write-up of each.
And, how well are these sites doing?
Techradar gets almost 50 million views a month.
Gamesradar+ does even better at over 70 million visits a month.
The Real Value Of SEO
“Search engines are built to help people”- Andrew Holland
That statement might come as a surprise to many, even SEO experts. Because, when you’re creating content and laying it out on a page and adding images and alt text, your focus is probably on how the search engine will crawl and index the page. The last thing you’re focused on is humans.
But, the end goal is to get humans to perform desired actions on your page. Whether that is to buy something, click a specific CTA button, navigate to another page on your site, or sign up for your newsletter.
So, even though you’re writing SEO-optimised content, you still need to keep the humans in mind.
So, let’s get into the real value of SEO, and why you need this anchor to stabilise your web pages.
Economic impact
If you care about your return on investment (ROI), SEO is the way to go.
Paid advertising and digital marketing campaigns can quickly add up, but SEO is an affordable, sustainable way to attract and retain new customers.
SEO not only generates highly qualified leads – it is also a long-term strategy.
By implementing consistent SEO efforts, your business will stay ahead of your competitors.
All you need to do is optimise your content and adapt your SEO strategies to the ever-evolving search engine algorithms.
Competitive advantage
By implementing SEO strategies, you will gain a competitive edge. When done right, your search engine visibility and ranking will improve.
As expected, high-ranking websites attract more organic traffic – which increases your market share.
Consistent SEO efforts will help your website stay ahead.
Customer Trust
The higher you rank, the more you’ll be trusted by those navigating the SERPs (usually).
That’s because Google and other search engines usually rank credible sites with authority higher – kind of like an endorsement.
Effective SEO practices, like obtaining reputable backlinks, producing content with value, and including author bios, will reinforce trust.
This, in turn, will encourage customer loyalty.
The best part? Loyal customers lead to higher conversion rates and repeat business.
Future-proofing
SEO can future-proof your business.
Algorithms and customer behaviour are constantly changing. But a strong SEO strategy can help you ride out the storm.
Of course, you can’t just sit back and relax as all these changes are happening – you’ll end up tumbling down the SERPs the next time there’s a big algorithm update. But, by taking a proactive approach to SEO and constantly monitoring your strategy, your site will continue to perform well in search results.
The Downside To Using SEO As An Anchor
Sometimes, Google comes in and changes the game. This is more evident now than ever before with Google’s SGE and generative AI results.
Of course, there are some AI fails too –
Like this one suggesting you add glue to your pizza…
And this one giving Obama a new middle name and religion…
And this one for time travellers:
But when we look past these recent AI failures, and think about what usually pops up at the top of the SERPs, we realise Google can quickly knock your rankings down by supplying their own results to search queries.
For example, if you search for song lyrics, Google will provide these lyrics to you. You no longer have to click on a page like AZLyrics.
If you’re searching for hotels in a specific city, Google immediately provides you with the best hotels, without you having to navigate to Booking.com or Expedia.
And this – Google delivering content to the SERP – has had an impact on websites trying to rank for these terms.
So, the biggest risk of using SEO as your anchor is when you create content in a format that Google loves to copy.
There is good news:
SaaS companies usually don’t produce this kind of content.
And that is why so many B2B companies continue to invest in SEO.
The recent Google algorithm leak has also, in a way, highlighted the importance of SEO. Over 14,000 attributes – ranking factors – were leaked, which gives us a nice insight into how Google ranks pages.
And, guess what? Good SEO practices are still important. Just avoid keyword stuffing and over-optimised anchor text, and make sure to bold some text (these are just some of the ranking factors).
Google may change its algorithms, users may change their online shopping behaviour, but when you use the right, best-practice SEO tactics, you can ride out any storm.
