On SEO Content
If you’re with a business or organization that relies on web traffic, you know that you need to rank high on SERPs (search engine results pages) to overcome our species’ tendency to fall in love at first site.
A higher ranking = better visibility = more website traffic = increased engagement/revenue. A low ranking = being locked in the internet gallows = slow, grizzly, e-commerce death. This gives SERPs like Google, and other ones that apparently exist, an immense amount of power over your business. Basically, operating a website is the modern equivalent of a medieval serf petitioning a king for favor.
Serf, kneeling: “I bring you my humble website, m’lord.”
Lord Google: “Very well, peasant. I shall rank it on my second page!”
Serf, in despair: “But m’lord, my website is the best in all the land! And I rely on my site to feed my family!”
Lord Google: “Now it’s on the third page!”
Serf, falling to the ground: “Please, m’lord, have mercy. I beg of you!”
Lord Google: “FOURTH. PAGE.”
The problem with Google is that, like the whims of a 14th-century feudal lord, its ranking algorithm is constantly shifting. And it just introduced another groundbreaking change that will impact SEO strategies.
“The SEO strategy is dead! Long live the SEO strategy!”
Long, long ago (the 90’s), at the dawn of search engines, SEO dominance was as simple as littering a website with keywords and spammy links. For example, if my content writing business existed in 1998, and I wanted a high ranking on primitive Google when people searched for “writer Reno”, my website might have featured riveting copy like this:
“Brandon Evans is a writer in Reno, who writes for businesses in Reno, the city where Brandon, as a writer, writes.”
Google hasn’t fallen for this kind of copywriting trickery for a while. In fact, it now penalizes you for it (as it rightfully should). As Google’s fiefdom expanded, its algorithm evolved, enabling the search engine to effectively scorch keyword-stuffing copywriters trying to game the system like knights trying to sneak a gold chalice past a sleeping dragon. Think you can get away with it today? Think again. Unless your second thought is also that you can get away with it. In that case, think as many times as it takes to not think that.
And now, Google has fully launched Search Generative Experience (SGE), a feature that provides AI-generated answers to search queries based on select web sources, providing succinct answers without the need to click on a site.
But the biggest shock is that high rankings do not guarantee inclusion in AI-generated results. In fact, only 46% of the SGE sources rank in the top 10 positions of traditional organic search results.
Getting the highest ranking used to be the most important thing. Now? Not so much. SEO strategies need to adapt to this change, or face the same fiery fate as the old ones of yore.
So what SEO strategy works today?
There are no shortcuts. The most effective thing you can do to boost your SEO is this: create quality content.
According to Google’s SGE itself, it prioritizes “the quality, context, and comprehensiveness of content over keyword optimization and backlink strategies . . . businesses will need to focus more on the depth and breadth of information rather than on traditional SEO.”
This means that content needs to be:
Written by an expert or someone with firsthand experience
Come from an authoritative source
Provide trustworthy information
And, in what seems counterintuitive to our species’ rapidly shortening attention span, long-form content is extra important for SEO. Why? Because long-form content creates more of an opportunity to provide insightful information. Plus, the more time people spend on your site, the more authority it establishes. So providing consistently well-written content is the only way to ensure that more people will click on your website and stay for a while.
As is true in pretty much every area of life, shortcuts don’t work. Doing SEO the right way by creating compelling, quality content takes time and money—but it’s worth the investment.
In addition to an SEO boost, content creation has the added benefit of providing valuable resources to your audience, building your organization’s credibility and establishing trust in the process.
As search engine algorithms continue to evolve, quality content will continue to be the difference maker.
How I Help with SEO Content
If you have an SEO strategy, I can work in tandem with it. If you don’t, I can help you get one. After that, I craft the content that gets you results.
1.Optimizing your current web copy for SEO
Clear, readable, and substantive web copy is crucial. I can help you enhance your existing web copy boost your site’s authority and provide value to your audience.
2. Creating regular content for you
Whether it be blog posts or landing pages, I can create quality content that provides insightful information for your audience.
Let’s chat and develop a content strategy that will set you up for success.
