The Decline of Keywords
During the beginnings of Google, its search engine optimization (SEO) was highly abusable in that its primary determinant was the PageRank algorithm. To generate more traffic to a webpage, people abused the simplistic nature of the PageRank algorithm by creating sites that contained a high density of keywords in a niche subject. These sites would all point to a webpage containing an advertisement or product, increasing the webpage’s PageRank, and thus, generating more site traffic to the page.
Nowadays, PageRank is just one of the hundreds of algorithms Google employs. It is no longer the major factor in determining a page’s authority score. Site design, loading speed, content quality, social media shares, outbound links, inbound links are just several of the many factors in determining a page’s score. Another way the SEO has evolved is the importance of the placement of keywords. The frequency of a keyword does not matter as much as the placement. Solely repeating a keyword over in the body of a paragraph is no longer sufficient; Google takes into account the placement of a keyword in the webpage, checking to see if it shows in the URL, image captions, headers, and sub-descriptions. Though important, keywords are not necessary for a webpage to show up on search engine results page (SERP). Through the use of semantic search, Google can still determine a webpage’s relevancy, even if that page does not contain the query or keyword. For example, say I have a popular site that sells cheap gifts, where every item is under $5. Nowhere on my site mentions the word “cheap.” When a user searches for “cheap gifts,” my site would still show up on the front page. Thus, Google interprets the meaning and context in which a word appears, emulating the searcher’s intent.
The article also discusses the future of SEO. As Google improves its search algorithms, it will become more and more insensitive to any shortcuts one may use to rank higher on search results. The dependency on keywords has already declined since the early 2000s in favor of other page authority factors.
Sources: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251524