In early March 2024, Search Engine Land published the seventh edition of its Periodic Table of SEO, which introduced some changes that I consider significant compared to the previous version, and I wanted to add my thoughts into these changes.
It is worth noting that Search Engine Land first published its Periodic Table of SEO in 2011, and was updated every two years, coinciding with the Google’s tendencies to publish “major” or “core” changes to the algorithm every 2-3 years.
The Changes of the Period Table of SEO
The 7 Significant Changes to the new Periodic Table of SEO aligns with the significant shift in SEO practices that happened in the past 2-3 years as well as the recent Google’s March 2024 update.
The renaming of the Periodic Table
It was renamed from “The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors” the “Periodic Table of SEO Elements.” The new edition uses the term “elements” instead of the previous “ranking factors.” In reality, both the new and old editions emphasize “what should be done for good SEO,” but the old name might lead people to believe that the items in the report are considered factors used by Google to calculate search rankings.
No Longer Provide “weights” for the elements
Since the new edition focuses on “what should be done for good SEO,” it doesn’t provide “weights on the factors”like the old edition. Search Engine Land’s point is that no one really understand how the algorithm weights them and the importance will differ website to website, simply put: these elements are all important, so just do your best to do them all.
The removal of the “Local”, “News”, and “Ecommerce” categories
The reason for the removal is to avoid repetition and to return to the original intention of the table: to explain the holistic, general, fundamental elements that are crucial to SEO.
The elimination of the “Toxins” group
The reason for this is that if you truly focus on practicing the elements of the SEO Periodic Table, you won’t engage in behavior that could lead to penalties from search engines.
Renaming the “HTML” to “Code”
This is important because Code incorporates HTML and few other languages such as JavaScripts and Python, as well as the structured data. Code is a much better choice.
Renaming “Reputation” to “Credibility”
Another more technically correct choice of words, because you can be reputable but not creditable. Reputation is a historical notion based on the sum of the past behaviors, where as Credibility is the current believability of the current session.
Addition of the new group called “Performance”
This explores the on-page experience of your users after your website is published. It’s mostly parts of the technical SEO, and something that requires some knowledge in website development and optimization.
“Content” is the Key
The above explains the differences between the new and old versions of the element table. Next, I would like to specially introduce something I noticed throughout the entire article:
Contents are everywhere
In addition to what’s already in the “Content” group, elements related to content are found in many other groups, including:
- The “Architecture” group, which includes “URLs”.
- The “Code” group, which includes “Titles”, “Descriptions”, “Headings”, and “Image Alt”.
- The “Credibility” group, which includes “Trustworthiness”, “Experience”, “Expertise”, and “Authoritativeness”.
- The “Links” group, which includes “Anchors”.
- The “User” group, which includes “Searcher Intent” and “Task Completeness”.
Conclusion
This 7th edition of The Periodic Table of SEO Elements introduced some pretty significant changes that aligns with the major changes in the past two years as well as the Google’s March 2024 Major Update.
While there are 44 elements of SEO, and all are equally important, it is worth noting that providing quality content is still the key.
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