Making SEO content work requires a thorough understanding of how the various elements combine to create engaging website content.
Back in the day, you know like five years ago, online marketers put so much weight into SEO. They tried to hoodwink Google, if you will, by stuffing websites with keywords to bring the pages up in the rankings. Well, as you know, that doesn’t work anymore. Not only does it look bad on the search engine end, but it’s also extremely displeasing to the consumer. But with Google’s most recent update Hummingbird, you are probably wondering if SEO even matters at all.
Google knows when you are keyword stuffing, link-building and using sneaky spam tactics, and when it finds out you have tried bamboozling them, well you can bet your bottom dollar your website won’t be getting the results you wanted.
But before you toss in the SEO towel completely, know that SEO is not dead! It is still important. The all-knowing, all-powerful search engine god just wants you to do it the right way so it’s time you begin to reevaluate your SEO plan.
How to Build An SEO Plan That Pleases Google
As with anything in life, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Nowhere is this truer than when building an SEO plan. This begins with knowing what needs to be accomplished.
For instance, if the goal is to drive traffic to a new website or you wish to establish your business as an authority source within your field, all SEO decisions should be made to advance those goals.
Establishing concrete SEO goals gives you something to shoot for and measurable standards by which to determine if you are moving in the right direction. This begins by honestly assessing your current position, determining where you would like to be after a set amount of time, and devising strategies designed to deliver the result you were hoping to achieve.
Stop the Stuffing!
Far too often, online content appears little more than an ill-disguised attempt to sandwich search engine optimized words between a few paragraphs of fluff, which is designed to draw internet surfers to a particular website. As you can imagine, a search engine that lands on a site that doesn’t offer quality content will be just as quick to click away from that site, regardless of the number of SEO terms used to draw them there in the first place.
When considering what excellent SEO content entails, the primary consideration should be the fact that you are writing to two separate audiences: human and machine. Whereas SEO optimization is clearly a nod to the machine’s sensibilities, to keep the human audience engaged requires appealing content that will keep the reader on a particular page.
Providing helpful information, in an attractive format, goes a long way towards maintaining the human audience’s attention. Rarely will someone expect to get the quality of one of Shakespeare’s plays when they visit a website, but giving the unsuspecting reader something worthy of a read will keep them on the page.
Which Sites Should I Link To?
Providing quality links to additional information is always appreciated by online readers. The optimum word here is “quality.” By providing quality links to additional information, the website’s author is providing a service to their reader while buttressing their own claims of expertise. As mentioned, the overall plan that was developed at the outset should guide any link-making decisions. Toward that end, avoiding overtly commercial links that add nothing to the reader’s knowledge should be observed.
Change Your Strategy
The SEO landscape has greatly evolved over the years. That means your internet marketing strategy should evolve with it. Stop trying to outfox Google; it’s just not going to happen. Instead, become a thought leader and a trustworthy source of information.
People use the internet for myriad reasons. Entertainment, education, information, and the search for simple diversions all have a claim in prompting people to enter the information superhighway on any given day. Regardless of what prompted that decision, however, users expect to have quality content to supply their needs, answer their questions, and entertain them while their boss is in that sales meeting. Be a reliable resource; be a thought leader. This is how you build a following and attract leads.
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