New SEO: Forget Tricks and Focus on Quality Content

Google makes algorithm changes an astonishing 500–600 times/year. For the most part, we ignore these changes—who, after all, can keep up with what Google, and most of these changes are minor. But Google occasionally rolls out major algorithmic updates—you’ve probably heard of Google’s Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates that affect search results in significant ways. Its latest major update is being referred to as Mobilegeddon because of its far-reaching effect on websites that don’t translate to mobile devices.

Changes include an emphasis on high-quality content

But this isn’t just content marketing. You really have to understand Google’s overarching goal for search, keeping in mind that Google owns the search space. What you need to know: we’re no longer focusing on keywords, but on content—and that means quality content.

Forget the tricks to optimize your website 

We used to identify keywords, then load our landing pages with those keywords. This is no longer an acceptable strategy; in fact, keyword loading is something for which Google apparently punishes you. Avoid the tricks that SEO had really become—a bag of tricks for ensuring your pages could rank well without your having to do any real marketing.

Think about it—you really didn’t have to provide thoughtful or creative content. Instead, you thought about keywords, linking strategies and trying to show up on page one of Google—at least for a day or two until the algorithms changed once again. But while we’d all rather show up on page one than 50, there are those who point out that showing up on page two or three is not a bad thing. I always tell my clients that you really have two audiences: you want to show up on search engines, but you also need to provide a compelling reason for people to contact you once they land on your website. A high ranking doesn’t necessarily translate to conversion.

Google’s content guidelines

With the significant algorithm changes, Google has published content guidelines that clearly spell out what they’re looking for. These are their exact words to elicit high quality content:

1. Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
2. Don’t deceive your users.
3. Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
4. Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.

I keep coming back to a quote I read a while back. If you want your site to show up in search engines, invest in good writing. “You can no longer game the system. Quality content has become nonnegotiable.”

Quality content has never been more important. I’d love to talk with you if you have questions. Contact me at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Let’s Take the Mystery Out of Keywords

There seems to be some kind of mystery associated with keywords, but it’s not as confusing as they try to make it. Your keywords are based on what you do—I’m a content marketing expert, so obvious keywords for me are words like marketing, online marketing, content marketing and internet marketing.

What would people be keying into a search engine to find you?

A good approach is to think about what words people would be keying into a search engine to find you, then capitalize on those words. Use a tool like Google adwords to gain an understanding of how often people are searching for these terms. If the numbers are large, there are a lot of people using those terms—that means there’s a lot of competition. A better strategy is to identify words or phrases that are still meaningful and relevant for you, but for which there is less competition. With less competition, there’s a better chance your site will show up in a search. In general, the more words in the keyword phrase, the smaller the search result—but also the more specific it could be to what you do.

The trend these days is not to be limited by a keyword alone; rather, think of keyword phrases or long-tail keyword strategies—these longer phrases that are even more definitive about what you do have a better chance of reaching your specific audience.

How to use keywords in a landing page or blog

You can’t trick Google anymore by filling a page with a bunch of nonsense and blatant keyword stuffing; quality content has never been more important. Keywords don’t need to be repeated throughout the page. Do use the keyword in your headline, and let this drive the page’s topic and keep it closely focused. Avoid awkward sentences and phrases where you’re trying to work in your keyword phrase. The goal is to inform the reader, not search engines.

Keywords don’t need to be an exact match

Use closely related words and phrases--this is more natural than trying to overoptimize a page by deploying one keyword a number of times. Searches will use a wide range and combination of words and phrases to find what they’re looking for. The content on your site should be varied enough to meet that search engine criteria while still adhering to one overarching theme.

Struggling with keywords and content marketing? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re content marketing experts.