What's old is new again - 2020 in SEO

It's been a long time since I've posted to this blog, but the fundamentals of SEO haven't changed. Sure there are some details here and there, but the same old lesson has never gone away: provide good content and a good user experience!

The primary reason for this used to solely be as link bait, but these days Google itself knows what a good piece of content looks like.

Structure of Good SEO Content

Machines reading content can attempt to analyze the words and structure of a page to understand if it is thorough, readable, and providing useful information. Here are some of the technical elements that a machine reader may evaluate while trying to study the quality of a given web page:

• Use of headers (h2, h3, etc..)
• Lists (ordered or unordered)
• Length of content
• Inclusion of pictures, video, and/or other media
• Correct grammar and spelling
• Varied sentence structure

Checking the boxes won't necessarily make boring content in to something that generates user enthusiasm, however, and links are still very important for a successful SEO campaign!

If you research your market and your keywords and provide a great user experience, you won't have to worry all that much about the SEO.

The Jacksonville SEO Market is Small.. and Strange

It's been a long time since I've posted to this blog, but 2020 has brought big changes and new priorities back in to focus.

While I've remained involved in SEO and web publishing more generally, I never ended up following through with building a local SEO firm in Jacksonville. I have, however, kept an eye on it - and I've worked on some local business websites either as a personal owner or as a favor to a friend.

SEO Companies and Marketing Firms that Offer SEO in Jacksonville

Dagmar Marketing and Thrive Internet Marketing are probably the two largest SEO firms in Jacksonville that actually have top organic results for Jacksonville SEO & related keywords. Since that's what they're selling, they're probably the ones you can trust the most.

Beyond that, there appears to be a significant number of small-time operations run out of someone's home. Now, there's nothing wrong with that - because that's all it takes to get results! In fact, some of those sole proprietorships seem to be outranking the big firms.

The State of Organic Search Results

Digging a little deeper in to the smaller sites that rank well tells an interesting story. The current top spots are held by sites using decidedly grey to black hat SEO tactics. While I'd normally argue for pure white hat techniques, it's also hard to argue against what works.

The niche doesn't look like a free for all, either, after all.

Several large firms have been kicked down 100 or 200 spots for what I would presume are search penalties. It's possible they tried to copy what appeared to be working, but flew just a little too close to the sun.

What do you think? Have you had any particularly positive or negative experiences with a Jacksonville SEO company that you've hired for a local or national or even global job? Let us know in the comments: Your advice could save someone a headache and help their business, too!