The rules around content and SEO have changed, but have you?

SEO Content

Well it’s no secret that the SEO world has changed a lot over the years and I’m still amazed when I see sites trying tactics from years ago that now do more harm than good. I’m old enough to remember the really early days of SEO when just repeating a word more times than your competitor with hidden text at the bottom of the page allowed you to outrank them.

Fast-forward to today and it’s not that easy, and SEO really works the way it probably should have all along, by truly bubbling the best content up to the top. The reality is, search engines are supposed to help people find what they’re looking for and that means great content not sites that are great at gaming their algorithms.

Also, it’s safe to say that Google has a pretty massive budget to throw at making sure they deliver the best results possible and to keep SEO companies on their toes. I’m certainly not an SEO expert but I have been following the trends over the years and regularly read sites like Search Engine Journal…which is where I spotted a pretty interesting article last week that I wanted to share with the rest of you.

The article, as the title of my post alludes to, is about how SEO has changed when it comes to content and there are some really good nuggets in this one. Here’s one of my favorite parts of the article:

Most keyword research tools have a “related keywords” section. Use these throughout your content, regardless of whether you’re creating a blog, video description, or some other type of content.

Related keywords help demonstrate the content’s relevance to the topic as a whole.

Also, for even deeper content built around a “Topic Cluster” strategy discussed below, search those related keywords on Google and you’ll discover more of what people are asking and searching for, as well as which topics your competitors are creating content around.(Source – Search Engine Journal)

This is something I don’t think people consider when they’re writing content that they want to rank well in search. I see people often become laser-focused on the exact keywords they want to rank for…but Google’s smarter than that, their algorithms understand context and know what words should be around those keywords when there’s content with real value.

Another point I thought was interesting that actually made me think, “hmmmm, maybe I should be doing this” is their point about refreshing content:

Don’t just create content and expect it to constantly deliver qualified traffic to your website. A competitor will always come along and rob a spot, or an algorithm change will send once high-ranking content to Google’s back pages.

If you have extremely strong content with high ROI value that has dropped in rankings, you may consider refreshing the entire piece.(Source – Search Engine Journal)

Like I said, this article is full of nuggets and it’s free to read so if you write content that you’re hoping ranks well, it’s probably not a bad idea to give it a read. Enjoy!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton