While it is always a great business decision to remain up-to-date with all the happenings within the digital marketing industry, sometimes it is better to exercise judgment or a little bit of cynicism when a new trend comes along.
Between every month or so a new trend will emerge. This trend will be filled with promises and expectations as it declares to vastly improve online performance and spreads like wildfire across the digital marketing community, only to have that same trend’s flame extinguished sometimes immediately after it first arrives. This is often because the trend fails to deliver on its promises, showing inefficient results, and even if they did show promise big companies and stronger websites would exploit and dominate the trend until it has nothing left to offer.
Some examples of such trends that tried to make a difference, but failed are guest blogging, article directories, and link wheels. Websites have made use of these trends in the hopes of highering their SEO ranking, but have since been renounced by Google. Therefore, how do you avoid from falling into these traps that offer so much, but deliver so little? Well in order to identify the trends that are just not up to par, you need to ask yourself several questions.
First, does the trend do anything for my users? Most trends that pop up in the digital market are flashy tricks that miraculously improve SEO to a certain degree. Yet these same trends have nothing to offer in terms of improving overall user experience, which is why they don’t tend to last for very long.
Moreover, search engines like Google are putting more and more focus on promoting sites that authentically enhance user experience for their visitors. Therefore, if a trend surfaces and has no aims of improving user experience, it is better if you avoid it altogether.
A second question you need to ask yourself when determining the worth of trends is; Is this a ‘trick,’ or a ‘hack’? Sometimes self-proclaimed experts in the field use public forums to discuss things they refer to as “quick tricks” or “SEO hacks,” that supposedly help a website climb the SEO ladder. The mere fact that these experts call these techniques hacks and tricks should give you enough indication that they won’t be all that impactful. What’s worse is that these temporary trends can, and most often will, come back and spurn you if you decide to use them, damaging your website’s SEO ranking, making it harder for search engines to share your website with all who search for it.
One thing to keep in mind is that there is no easy way to the top. There are no quick hacks or trends that can carry you to the very top and keep you at the very top. Like everything else hard work and time is what you have to work with. You should completely disregard facetious trends and instead focus your time and energy into strategies that hold long-term value and pay off for both you and your visitors. Your success will be far more deserving and rewarding then.
