Though it is a constantly changing environment, and not exactly a job discussed at dinner parties in Liverpool, the world of SEO is anything but new. However, the classic techniques which worked when it was fresh out of the box, still very much apply today.
It is for this reason that taking care of the on-page basics is still relevant. Keywords need to appear in the URL for example, whilst the same is true of the titles, tags and headlines.
Without these, the rankings will be difficult to increase but, more importantly, customers visiting the page, having an initial scan will quickly move away.
Keyword and key phrase use in the content is important too but, natural use is best.
Everyone working on search engine optimisation knows this, or should know this. Accepting that this is taken care of, it is little wonder new ideas are searched for all the time.
Possibly the biggest development over recent years has been the successful exploitation of social. Such a point is made in a recent SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin.
He explains that using new Twitter tools for embedded content, and ensuring sites remain shareable, is key to user engagement. For this reason, modern day SEO also requires images that display adequately on other platforms, for example.
Developing these new concepts will always help SEO progress, grow and, all things being fair in the world, achieve the rankings it deserves. It will not happen with new techniques alone though, which is why all worlds of old and new need to be perfectly combined.