I wrote a post in October 2019 on this subject and now in 2025, I have compared what the state of knowledge on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation, 'search engine' referring to a collection of data bases designed to give information - which is based on the same principles as what is happening today and was surprised to find that many of the conclusions that prevailed then still hold today.
My conclusions are:
After consulting numerous so-called experts on the subject, I have confirmed that the so-called SEO "fundies" are very good at the business of making money for themselves, but not so good at making SEO do what it's supposed to do - which is to drive traffic to websites; and more importantly, to allow the owners of the websites to earn money from them. It seems to me that a website can be as pretty as a picture, look hugely impressive, with impressive testimonials, but if it doesn't make money, it is nothing more than a huge waste of time for the business owner of the site.
I managed to find an extremely professional as well as friendly, website designer and builder Karen Nel owner of Weaver Worx, who listened to all our requirements and built us a beautiful site with all the 'bells and whistles' we needed at a very reasonable price, which included hosting for a year.
After close to a year, during which time the site generated only a couple of leads, my partner and I decided to try and make the SEO work ourselves, without the help of any 'experts' and found that blogposts were the magic key that enabled the website to start 'cooking' and we started to receive quote requests for our services.
Strategies that worked for us:
- An attractive, well organised, user friendly site with links to social platforms.
- Lots of attractive pictures, relating to the content.
- Copy that reflected the 'vibe' of our business so visitors could get a 'feel' of what kind of people we are.
- A testimonials page.
- Most important! a blog page wherein we, the owners could post regular interesting blogs on all sorts of subjects, bur mainly topics related to our business.
We discovered that it was vital to keep the site alive' with fresh content every 2 weeks. Over time, we posted more frequently; and despite advice advising that it was not a good idea to post too frequently, we discovered that the more frequently you post the better; culminating in the fact that noe we post every day.
Our customers, viewers and followers like to see frequent posts, so they can keep track with what is going on; particularly in light of the rapidly developing digitally driven world we live in today.
Keywords are still valid today as they allow 'bots' to track your progress and rate your businesses and individual users accordingly.
Recent developments, particularly new social media platforms and rapid development and changes regarding AI have revolutionised our lives completely; especially regarding ChatGpt in its various forms. These developments are changing the SEO scenario, almost daily and businesses need to keep pace with them, so as not to fall behind; as new challenges, as well as opportunities occur constantly.
The other trend that is changing the face of SEO is the fact that videos appear to be surpassing the effectiveness of blogposts; although post are still effective. Although costs are certainly higher than just blogging; it seems the appeal of regular videos by reprentatives, particularly owners in videos, creates a more personal relationship with companies, which hence increases trust!
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