Recently, there’s been a big push in the SEO community toward “topics rather than terms.” While the SEO of yesteryear was obsessively focused on keyword research and inclusion, today’s SEO has expanded to be more natural, conversational, and user-focused.
Over the last several years, we’ve seen significant shifts in optimization, including Google’s massive push for high-quality, well-written content and the introduction of ranking tools like RankBrain, to name a few.
While keywords can be valuable, and they’ve gained their important position in SEO for a good reason, they’re not the most natural strategy for modern SEO, and many site owners and users alike have found them stale, stuffy, and unproductive.
This has created the ultimate opportunity for a new approach to take over.
Why “Topics Over Terms” Takes the Cake
If you’ve worked in the content marketing industry for years, you know exactly how many changes this industry has seen.
From Panda to Penguin, Google has shifted its ranking algorithms regularly, and marketers have changed their approach to developing content, in turn. This has caused a dramatic change in the way people discover content, and the way search engines rank it.
While Google and other search engines used to deliver content based on its adherence to standards, like keyword saturation, those rules have ceased to be useful or relevant, and today’s focus is more nuanced. Today, value and relevance take the cake, while spammy, SEO-obsessed content falls by the wayside.
This is where the push toward topics rather than terms enters the picture.
Today, people are using dozens of different methods to search for the content they love, from mobile platforms to voice searches, and Google has had to adapt as a result. This has led to a push for authoritative content that delivers a positive user experience.
We’re staring down the barrel of a new key focus: today, the only way to the top is to understand your target audience and produce the kind of quality content they want. When you do this correctly and take the current SEO environment into account in the process, you can establish yourself as an authority in the industry and enjoy a wider reach than ever before.
The Variability of Modern Search Engines
In recent years, the way search engines process and obtain information has shifted dramatically. Historically, marketers have paid careful attention to keyword rankings within search engine results.
Even though keyword rankings change depending on where you are, how you search, and which terms you use, and thus have thousands of different arrangements at any moment, people have historically looked to them as trustworthy ranking mechanisms. Unfortunately, they’re not.
Further adding to the instability of traditional methods of determining ranking is the shift of search engines toward featured snippets, which platforms like Google now roll out more and more to cater to users and offer value.
Google, specifically, has also begun to lean toward machine learning, most notably with its RankBrain algorithm, which helps Google process its millions of daily searches and understand the user intent behind them.
Thanks to developments like RankBrain, Google now knows that someone searching for “Fitness studios in NYC” is likely also interested in a yoga or Pilates studio, even though they never explicitly used these keywords.
This is called semantic search, and it’s at the center of the “topics rather than terms” revolution.
Your Target Audience Is Everything
For years, there’s been a rallying cry throughout the world of content marketing: know your target audience. And that holds just as true in the age of topics over terms as it did in years prior.
After all, your target audience is your ultimate consideration. Since they’re who you’re creating content for, it pays to get it right and ensure that they’re receiving it as well as you’d like them to.
This isn’t a new realization. In recent years, sources like Moz (in a Whiteboard Friday) have explained how targeting specific kinds of people (your target audience) and the topics they’re interested in could be one of the most efficient traffic-driving strategies, blowing keyword-based ranking out of the water.
While a general keyword strategy can help your target audience find your content, it won’t ultimately help them engage with it. The reason is simple: an excessively strict keyword creates restrictions.
Readers want relevant, informative, and engaging content. They want to learn something new, and it’s hard to do that with content that’s only focused on achieving a 3% keyword density. Now that rates of voice and mobile search have skyrocketed, and Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update, which helps the search engine process natural language queries, has launched, it’s more important than it’s ever been to identify the topics your target audience is interested in.
If you were to focus only on keyword inclusion, you’d be hemmed into 10 or 20 keyword phrases. Expand that to a “topic” focus, though, and you’ll quickly find that there are dozens of long-tail variations within each given topics.
According to Fishkin’s whiteboard, creating landing pages with each key term or phrase can create unnecessary words, overlapping information, and user confusion. With search engines determined to bring the best possible experience to the user, it’s a sure bet that confusing content won’t make it high in ranking.
How to Focus on Topics over Terms in Your Content
The benefits of focusing on topics over keywords are undeniable. The question now is where do you start? Here’s your five-step breakdown.
1. Research Your Product(s) and Service(s)
Mike Small from SiteProNews recommend using the Google Keyword Planner tool (it’s free) via a Google AdWords account to research and select your keyword themes. You can also stick to the most notable “core keywords” you have already identified to choose your keyword theme, and then move to step two.
Keep in mind that long-tail keywords count, and these keywords are invaluable for placing in local searches and building out your topic strategy. Once you’ve found a few keywords you want to target, work on building out topics that complement and enhance them.
2. Get Creative
When you rank content with keywords, you simply try to identify every opportunity to stuff a keyword. When you rank content on a “topics over terms” basis, though, you’ve got to get creative with your topic ideas.
The idea of a topic cluster is to use one primary search term and then build out topics around it. Here’s a diagram from HubSpot to demonstrate:
The idea here is to be natural, not mechanical. What are people interested in? Which topics, if covered, will help you improve your internal link strategy? How can you cover the topic broadly while also informing and exciting your audience?
When you answer these questions, it’ll be easier to develop a smart topic cluster and use it to your advantage.
3. Refine Your Cluster Content
Once you’ve created your topic group, it’s time to improve it. You’ll want to edit it, ensuring you’re optimizing your cluster content to attract traffic. How best can you attract readers to these topics. Is there anything you’re missing?
Keep in mind that the goal of cluster content is not necessarily to drive conversions. Rather, it’s designed to bring in the traffic you need to make your pillar content as high-converting as possible. As such, you don’t need to think about “selling” nearly as much as you do educating. Isn’t that a nice weight off your shoulders?
4. Measure the results
As with any content creation, the next step is to measure the results of your effort. Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to pay attention to how many people come to it, and how often.
Collect feedback from your readers. Is there anything they’d like to see more of? If so, how can you shift or alter your strategy to offer it for them? The more you measure the results, the easier it will be to ensure you’re catering to your target audience exactly.
5. Adjust as Needed
If you’re noticing areas where your new content falls short, adjust it as necessary. The more frequently you do this, the better your content will be in the long run.
Make Way for the Future of Topic-Focused Content
We all love themes. A theme opens the door to a wide variety of topics and subtopics; all housed under one primary or mother theme or, in this case, keyword.
While developing topic clusters and moving, mentally, from a focus on keyword-rich content to topic-focused content can be intimidating, this is a relevant and timely move to make in the modern world of SEO. The sooner you wrap your mind around it, the better.
Need content that’s conversational and approachable? Visit our Content Shop to hire our expert team today.
Keyword optimization isn’t as technical as you may think.
It’s not about counting keywords and doing math equations.
Instead, excellent keyword SEO involves:
Inserting keywords using natural language where it counts
… That’s it!
In fact, as long as you strategically place your focus keyword/secondary keyword in the right spots, you can forget about keywords altogether as you write.
Using this strategy has helped my own content nab top rankings in Google, including the #1 position.
Sound good? I thought so.
Let’s examine the nitty-gritty do’s and don’ts of keyword placement and SEO to help guide you to SERP success.
5 Do’s and Don’ts to Improve Your Keyword Optimization
1. Don’t Focus on Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to how often your keyword(s) appear within your content piece. To figure out the keyword density of a piece of content, you count how many times the focus keyword shows up and divide that figure by the total number of words.
However, you don’t have to understand how this works, because keyword density is an outdated concept.
It doesn’t matter. You do NOT have to count keywords when writing for SEO.
Google and other search engines are smarter now than 10 years ago (when KD was a big deal). They’re no longer looking for instances of a keyword in your content – instead, they’re looking for context and relevancy, and matching the user’s search intent.
The only time you need to worry about keyword density is if you’re using your keyword(s) too many times. That’s called keyword stuffing. That’s spam.
So, what should you do, instead?
2. DO Pay Attention to Keyword Placement for SEO Content Optimization
Instead of inserting your keyword(s) wherever you can, focus on strategic keyword placement.
Use your keywords in the right places, using natural language, and your content is more likely to get ranked.
Search engines look at how keywords are used on your page. The algorithms use these clues to figure out what your page is about.
If your keywords appear in key places, that sends a signal to search engines, i.e., “Hey! This page is about [insert your focus keyword here]!”
These are the key spots to insert your keywords so search engines take note:
The H1 (the headline/title of your content)
H2s (the main subheaders)
H3s (sub-subheaders)
Once in the intro/first paragraph
Once in the conclusion/last paragraph
Sprinkled throughout the text (used naturally)
These key placements apply to your focus keyword as well as any related or synonymous keywords.
For an example of correct keyword placement in a blog that’s ranking right now, look at EW’s own post, “How to Outsource Your Content Writing (Successfully).”
The keyword we wanted to rank for was “outsourcing content writing.”
As you can see, we’re currently ranking #1 on Google for this keyword (after the paid search listings).
This is why:
A. The focus keyword appears in the H1, in various H2s throughout the blog, and within the introduction.
B. Related keywords are sprinkled throughout, and are used in some H2s.
C. The concluding paragraph has a keyword-optimized H2 and contains the focus keyword, plus a related term.
D. All of the keywords are inserted in the text naturally, effortlessly, and with variations as needed for correct grammar.
All of these strategic keyword placements add up to blaring signals for Google and other search engines to latch onto – they can’t ignore these signals!
Once the keywords are in place, if the content quality is high, and if the piece is relevant to the user, Google will rank it highly. That’s exactly what happened here.
Another keyword we rank for using the same strategic keyword placements: “blogging statistics.”
This is the post on Google, currently in the #3 position:
In addition to using the focus keyword, “blogging statistics,” in the major spots, we also have instances of related keywords in key areas, like “results from blogging,” “blogging online marketing,” and “blogging commitment.”
We did NOT count how many times we used the keywords, but rather used them when it felt natural, with grammar variations to keep the text readable.
THAT is a major part of why this blog ranks so well right now.
3. Don’t Ignore Less Obvious Keyword Opportunities
SEO content optimization isn’t only about the textual content. It’s also about details the user can’t necessarily see on the page, but you can tweak on the back-end.
Don’t miss these keyword opportunities.
A. Meta Titles and Descriptions
To boost your SEO, your metas should be optimized for all your content pieces. The meta title is an obvious one (A.K.A. your headline or H1), but don’t forget to add your focus keyword to the meta description, too.
To learn how to write and add optimized metas to your blog posts, check out our guide on blog optimization.
B. URLs
Yep, the URLs for all your content can be keyword-optimized. Blogs each have their own page/URL, so this is especially relevant for that type of content.
To make them user and search engine-friendly, include only the most important words and separate with hyphens, i.e.:
That looks scary for a user coming fresh to your site. (Are they on the right page? What are you trying to load onto their computer??)
Search engines don’t like it, either. A short, clean, descriptive URL is best-practice in both cases.
C. Image Alt Text
One final place where you can use keywords: image alt text.
Alt text is an attribute within the code for displaying an image in your content. It tells the web browser what to display if the image can’t load. This can be an opportunity to use descriptive keywords.
When the user hovers over an image with alt text on a web page, a tooltip with the alt text will appear.
Plus, if your visitor uses a screen reader (which usually means they’re disabled or blind), they’ll be able to understand the page better because of your descriptive alt text. Thus, using keyword-rich alt text is a good practice for accessibility as well as SEO.
4. Never Attempt to Force a Keyword Where It Won’t Fit
A huge tip for writing content with keywords:
Forget about the keywords.
(Wait, what?)
Yes, seriously.
When you’re writing the body of your content, let all thoughts of keywords fly out of your head. Instead, focus on explaining your topic or subject as clearly as possible.
Usually, when you do this, you’ll find yourself naturally using the keywords you need, including variations and related terms.
That’s how human language and communication works. We use related concepts, ideas, examples, words, and metaphors to get across meaning.
If your intent is to truly create a useful piece of content on a particular topic, the keywords will follow.
On the other hand, if you try to force keywords into your content, it will be really obvious.
Granted, there will be times when you need to use a really strange-sounding keyword that doesn’t make much grammatical sense. (E.g., “best dentist Oklahoma” or “gourmet cupcakes NY”)
If this is the case, I still recommend forgetting about keywords and just writing the content. Then, once your first draft is finished, go back over it and find a sentence you can edit to include the difficult keyword in question.
Smooth out that sentence as much as possible. Read it back to yourself out loud to make doubly sure it sounds natural. If you need to, change up the grammar of the keyword phrase, as such: “The most delicious gourmet cupcakes in NY are made with the freshest ingredients.”
If you can’t find a way to smoothly insert a difficult keyword, don’t force it. You shouldn’t sacrifice the readability of your content for one measly term.
5. DO Think About Helping Your User Understand the Content
As we move through the basics of keyword optimization, you may have noticed a trend:
Every aspect works together to help the user understand the content.
Placing keywords in specific locations sends strong signals to Google that your content is topically relevant to the search term in question, but it also sends those same signals to your audience. These cues tell them your content covers what they want to know.
As long as you consider your human audience first and what helps them make sense of your content, you’ll probably make good choices for SEO, too.
Remember: Keyword Optimization That Wins with Users, Wins with Search Engines
Keyword optimization is not about beating the search engines. It’s not about gaming Google to sneak to the #1 position for a keyword.
Instead, it’s about making your content the best it can be for the optimum user experience.
Above all, the user should be able to understand your page, and understand whether it fits their search intent.
That’s the nuts-and-bolts of it. Keep your users top-of-mind, and good SEO practices should follow.
If you are in the SEO business or in case you are thinking about it, there is one major rule you will have to keep in mind: the search engines don’t care about companies; they only rank content. It doesn’t matter how great your company is if you can’t offer the readers high quality content.
The main purpose of search engines (including Google) is to offer their users the best experience possible. When a user searches the answer to a question, the more details the answer has, the more useful it is for the user. As a result relevant and high quality content will have a better ranking in the search results.
All this determines your goal in content creation: publishing marketable, useful and relevant information. This will boost your ratings and it will ensure that your SEO strategy will have long-term effects.
So here is why content is the key element of SEO:
1. People Are Interested in What You Have to Say
According to Brafton.com 52% of people made purchase decisions based on what they read on blogs and 57% of the marketers gained new customers because of their content. 42% of people look for articles and blogs about the products that they wish to purchase and 60% of the marketers claim that content helps them make better decisions. 61% of the customers say that they are likely to purchase the products of a company that offers custom content. All this should show you how important your content really is.
Now that you know your content makes all the difference, what could you do to improve it for higher SEO ranks and more traffic?
2. Give the Consumers What They Need
First of all, you have to know what your target audience is. Secondly, you need to know what they want and what information is relevant to them. If you don’t, you will waste time and energy offering solutions to problems that don’t exist. Once you know what the target audience wants, make sure that the content you offer is really helpful.
Think of the most common questions and offer answers. This way you will become the source of knowledge to the readers. While the other people will be too busy with self-marketing, you will give people exactly what they need which is the best self-marketing strategy ever.
3. Just Give Yourself
Regardless of the kind of content you are thinking about, you can be sure that there are hundreds of people who thought of it before you woke up this morning. This is why you will have to find ways to make your content stand out; find ways to present your content in a way that has never been used before.
If your content is similar to the others’, you will just need to add value to it. There are many different ways to make your content stand out, such as adding videos, infographics, images, or anything else that would make it unique.
4. Boredom Is the Death of SEO
You may be working in a field that is boring or dry, but you can be sure that they are always ways to add a fun and creative spin to it, even if you are in the field of toilet seats.
One of the most important aspects that you will have to be thinking about is branding, according to Seth Godin. Based on information from brafton.com, half of the users are more likely to visit a page if it appears several times among the search engine results. For this you will need a diversified content strategy. It means that you should have blogs, webpages, images, videos, whitepapers, social snippets, infographics, and anything else you could think of.
All this will result in people being engaged with your brand. You will be able to fill the content gaps and you will maximize the benefits of all your content.
5. Content Reduced to Keywords
When you’re searching for something with the help of search engines, you have to type in keywords. These are the same keywords that the users type in to find your content. Since you know what your target group wants, you should have a pretty good idea of what keywords they might use to reach the desired content. All these keywords must be a part of your pages. This way in the moment the user hits enter, your content will be first on the list of results.
6. Can Keywords Reduce Your Ranking?
In order to have high ranks on the search engine results, there is need for your content to contain keywords. So, why wouldn’t you include all the keywords that you can think about? The truth is this is a very bad strategy. Keyword stuffing isn’t the solution to your problem. If you have too many keywords, the content will lose its purpose and it won’t be useful to the readers. This is why there is a keyword density accepted by common sense. If your web content keyword density is higher, it will hurt your ranking. On the other hand, if you don’t have keywords, it will become very difficult to attract traffic to your content.
7. Is Your Content Engaging?
If you have high quality content, you will be able to engage the readers and this is something that the search engines also measure. The more time readers spend on your site, the better the rankings will be. If you don’t have high quality content, the readers will simply bounce back to the search results and, again, this will hurt your ranking.
8. Be “Socially” Involved
You can see social media everywhere you look. If you get shares, likes, tweets, or any other kind of social feedback, it means that you have high quality content and this is something that the search engines will appreciate as well.
All in all, no matter what kind of feedback you’re striving for, it all comes back to your content and whether or not your readers like it. Regardless of what you’re writing about, always consider what the readers want; the search engines want the same thing as your readers: high quality, informational, engaging content.
Last year, search engine optimization (SEO) gurus rode a wild rollercoaster of change as Google updated a slew of search engine algorithms. New and exciting algorithm changes are expected for 2014, but one staple of SEO seems to remain static: high-quality, fresh content.
SEO Is Not Dying, But Evolving
The truth is: SEO is far from dying; it’s evolving. In 2014, Google will be working overtime to weed out fraud. To ensure that you’re earmarked as a productive plant instead of a weed, here are some of the top SEO predictions and how to apply them:
Prediction #1: Google’s Crackdown on Spam
“Cheaters never prosper.” This idiom holds unmistakable application to SEO cheaters and spammers, the folks who rely on shortcuts over good, old-fashioned hard work. Those who cheat will lose credibility and reputation in 2014. Eventually, they will fail altogether.
Guidelines aren’t issued just to look pretty, and Google is getting more aggressive about penalizing sites who insist on operating outside of their posted SEO guidelines. Familiarizing yourself with Google’s guidelines is important as we embark on a new year because spammers and cheaters will find themselves getting the ranking boot. Here’s what to avoid:
Don’t ignore Google’s SEO guidelines, familiarize yourself with them.
Don’t load your content with keywords over quality, relevant material.
Don’t backlink without proper research.
Don’t use shortcuts thinking they will give you quick ranking until you “find time” to flesh out content per SEO guidelines.
Prediction #2: Negative SEO Attacks Are a No-No
The competitors’ war wages on and, unfortunately, some like to take their gloves off in the ring. In 2014, you’ll need to be wary of competitors who attempt to attack your rankings through low quality links. Search Engine Watch published a great piece discussing the ins and outs of negative SEO attacks.
In essence, a negative attack occurs when a competitor tries to destabilize the organic visibility of a website or single page on Google. Some experts predict such attacks to grow in 2014. The good news is that Google is aware of such unscrupulous tactics and while they admit damage to rankings is possible, they stand by their webspam team. Crackdowns on spam will be the undoing of anyone choosing to wield this tactic.
Prediction #3: Social Media and Google+
We already know social media is a cornerstone of search engine optimization. The staple platforms continue to grow and adapt to the needs of audiences, businesses and marketers. Social signals are predicted to grow continually important throughout 2014. Search engines are now crawling actual social sends, and it’s practically assured algorithms will adjust accordingly. Social network dominance will only improve your SEO results.
If you aren’t using Google+ religiously to post new content and media, you’re missing out on a huge SEO opportunity. In 2014, G+ Pages and Helpouts will likely drive the popularity of both the network and its weight in the SERPs. You see, Google’s emphasis on author rank is quickly becoming an effective means of significantly increasing your credibility and reputation. Here’s how it works:
Google is encouraging users to get more active on their Google+ profiles by connecting to their content. By linking articles, blogs, press releases, etc., to your Google+ profile and making a link appear on your profile page, author rank will be triggered. Google+ posts are crawled, and index almost immediately— and, thanks to Google Authorship, all of your content will be branded to you. By using Google+ consistently, you can increase your SEO results exponentially.
Prediction #4: Long Tail Keywords
In 2014, long tail keywords will likely grow in popularity. Such keywords consist of 3 to 5 word phrases designed to target specific, relevant search phrases with the goal of pulling in traffic through targeted content.
We expect to see the popularity of these keywords increase due to Google’s focus on generating more targeted search results. Consumers know what they want. They are more likely to enter a phrase versus keyword into a search, such as “how to plan a wedding on a budget” versus “wedding planning.” As a result, the more focused you become in your optimization efforts, the more likely you are to see excellent results.
Google’s search algorithms are armed with the ability to detect synonyms. Quality content won’t be stuffed with long tail keywords. Instead, it will be well-written, engaging and fresh. Keywords can and will be adapted to preserve the copy’s quality above all else.
Prediction #5: Linking Is Not Dead
Contrary to popular opinion, link building for SEO is not dead. Surprised? It’s true that in 2013 we saw a lot of hype from many sources, all crying wolf that link building was coming to an end. Google says differently, and they are the ultimate decision maker. SiteProNews put it perfectly, link building for SEO is still important “because search engines…need context about the content you’re publishing, and its related utilities.”
Link building is not a simple matter of linking to random content or popular websites and expecting traffic to roll in. On the contrary, link building is a well-researched strategy. When choosing links, keep the following in mind:
Ensure the content of the link add to or expand on the topic of your content.
Research the link prior to using it. Things like Domain Authority (DA) matter. You might try using a free tool, such as MozBar, for researching links.
Back linking is beneficial. It’s like a personal recommendation and establishes content specialization. It will become more important in 2014 as longer more specialized content becomes the trend for website owners seeking to command traffic and conversions.
Advanced techniques—like finding and filling broken links on popular, high-ranking websites—will be “un-sexy but highly necessary,” according to SiteProNews.
Prediction #6: Responsive Designs Will Win
Mobile web surfing will increase in 2014 as people move further away from laptops and desktops in favor of tablets, smart phones and other mobile devices. Therefore, simple responsive designs will make you a winner. This means it is imperative for all of your online content to be optimized for mobile viewing.
Optimizing content involves more than just using a website design that is workable for mobile viewers. Another type of optimization must be taken into consideration as copy is written: keeping the content appealing to a highly busy audience. Paragraphs should be kept short; otherwise they’ll look like pages on a small mobile screen. Sentence structure should be kept simple so readers can quickly digest the content. It will take a high caliber copywriter to ensure these standards are met while staying on topic and keeping the content interesting.
Prediction #7: Local Mobile Searches Will Explode
Mobile users are on the rise. In 2013, we witnessed a migration as over 50 percent of Internet surfers left their desktops behind. The majority of people today depend on their compact portable devices when searching and surfing the Internet.
Have you noticed search engines and other apps pinpointing your location? A trend arose in 2013: the majority of people searching on a mobile device expected local results based on their current location. Mobile search and its correlation with finding what’s local based on the device location will continue to climb in 2014.
Prediction #8: A Shift in Ecommerce
Customers are less concerned with price and more concerned with quality of service and speed of fulfillment. We’ll be seeing this shift in ecommerce in 2014. As a result, quality content will be a killer SEO strategy.
Studies indicate consumers are happy to pay more for quality, service and rapid response. They aren’t looking for the cheapest price. They are looking for the best quality, for an investment in value. Your best friend in 2014 will be a seasoned copywriter, one capable of writing compelling, relevant copy.
Consumers are searching for information above all else. They want to know why to invest in your product or service. How will it benefit them? Why are you different from the competition? The best way to make a lasting impression is through informative, educational content.
Consumers who feel educated are more likely to buy. If you are the source educating them, your credibility and reputation grows. Potential consumers will become more comfortable purchasing from you, and you’ll push your rankings over the top by backing everything with proven rapid responses and excellent customer service.
Prediction #9: Press Releases
The point of a press release, informative document, educational article, blog or business presentation is to generate PR and, ultimately, the bread and butter of sales conversions: traffic. Moving forward, experts predict that press releases of any kind will need to be newsworthy to generate traffic.
How much time do you have in a single day to read? When we say read, we mean to really read, not skim for a general idea. Most of us are lucky to have an hour of freedom to dedicate to really reading. If you expect your press releases to generate traffic, take your own time restraints into consideration; chances are your audience is in the same boat.
What makes you stop to read a press release, or any type of content for that matter? The decision to dedicate a small amount of precious time to really read will revolve around the following factors:
The title and/or accompanying graphic have caught your attention because it’s thought provoking or emotionally charged.
A quick glance at the headings appeals to your current needs or touches on a topic that recently grabbed your interest.
The first sentence of the first paragraph you read, which could have been anywhere on the page, grabbed your attention.
Every sentence you read thereafter kept you enthralled.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: quality content is the heart and soul of SEO. Your content has to demand attention, provide relevance, be substantial and deliver.
Prediction #10: Quality Content Matters
We already know quality content is important, but in 2014 it will matter more than ever. Quality traffic will be the direct result of unique, engaging content strategies. High-quality content will be the focal point of every winning strategy.
How many times have you read content (for the reasons listed under “Prediction #9”) and felt let down in the end? While the writing was upbeat and held your attention until the bitter end, the end was just that: bitter, disappointing, lacking. What happened? Honestly? The content fell short of quality.
You see, quality content isn’t about keywords, hot topics, relevant backlinks and social media dispersion. Yes, all of these aspects are part of creating and marketing quality SEO content. But at the core of true quality is value.
Successful content must offer something of value—the solution to an issue, the conclusion to a problem, the extension of hope, the satisfaction of answering at least one big question—otherwise, it isn’t quality. The reader will feel ripped off, left to wonder why on Earth they wasted their time. Don’t let this happen to you. A lack of quality content will reflect on your business or brand. Potential customers will redirect their time-limited attention spans elsewhere.
What It All Means
Just what do these 10 predictions mean for you? You no doubt see the commonality between them all, the statement we kept repeating: high-quality content. It is the ultimate, killer strategy for 2014.
Search engine optimization, rankings, credibility, authority, it’s all attainable through a focused effort to generate and market high-quality content. Social media, long tail keywords, linking, responsive designs, local mobile searches, newsworthy press releases, these are all icing on the cake. They’re the decoration that says, “Happy Birthday to You When You Choose My Company/Brand.” But decorations and icing are just sugary fluff.
Well-written, pristinely formatted, relevant, engaging and value-packed copy is the delicious cake that fills your content marketing strategies for 2014. You might even call it the meat to the potatoes. You can’t fill up on sugars and starches with the expectation of feeling full and satisfied; you need the main course for that!
Audiences are looking for the companies and brands that supply a full course content meal. Don’t leave them feeling shortchanged and unsatisfied by skimping on or watering down your content. 2014 is the year to satisfy your audience’s every need, a task you can accomplish simply by giving them the high-quality content they crave.
According to Search Engine Watch, a leader providing search engine industry analysis, SEO marketing “finally matured in 2013.”
In a single year, over 500 algorithm changes took place, changing the face of search engine optimization forever. In 2014, you’ll need to adapt to change if you expect to hold onto your SERP (search engine results page). In preparation for the New Year, we’ve investigated multiple resources and sorted out the pertinent research that will prepare you for the new word of SEO.
SEO Copywriting Is More Important than Ever
Newbie webmasters and business owners sometimes falsely believe that SEO copywriting is neither useful nor necessary. Such ideas could not be farther from the truth. In fact, we tackled this topic head on in one of our blogs on SEO copywriting. If you doubt for even a nanosecond that optimization for search engine placement is dying, you had better catch up by reading our post! In 2014, SEO will become more vital than ever. However, it absolutely must be handled correctly, otherwise it will be for naught. And the work you’ve already put into optimization now needs an overhaul, otherwise it’ll be hopelessly outdated and nonfunctional. You want website traffic? You want conversion and sales? You better listen up…
Keywords Matter but They’re Not Almighty
Over the years, opinions and facts about keywords have rapidly changed. At one time, content was bursting at the seams with keyword after keyword, repetitively stuffed in to gain high search engine rankings. Google put the kibosh on this outdated (and frankly, irritating) method of optimization for ranking in favor of quality content. People aren’t robots; they’ve never “crawled” over content and “indexed” it like early model search engine robots. Instead, audiences the globe over have cried out for the chance to read quality content, not sift through incoherent piles of keywords and phrases culminating in an “Order Now” button.
As we wrap up 2013, one of the biggest and most buzzed about changes to SEO keywords is the loss of the Google Keyword tool. Moving forward, what does this mean for you?
A Moment of Silence, Please
Putting the Google Keyword tool to rest is an eventuality almost all of us have been expecting. For those of us neck deep in SEO research, we understand the transforming fact: users want quality content and a great experience above everything else, and Google has heard their voice. Cut the fluff and educate! That’s what consumers want.
Back in 2011, Google started dropping hints to SEO marketers that their models and algorithms were about to change. The Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird updates pushed an attention shift from the almighty repetitive keyword insertion to content quality and relevancy.
As we step into the new world of 2014, it would be prudent to take a hard look at your SEO campaigns. It’s time to ensure they’re keeping up with the changes. Otherwise, you’ll be pushing campaigns that won’t push business, and that the last thing you want to do. It would mean a complete waste of planning and funds.
SEO Content in 2014
For those of us on the warpath, determined to give our audience of potential customers exactly what they crave, many of the same standards we’ve adopted in the past year are still relevant. For example, we have written on our blog about never sacrificing content quality for rankings. This philosophy is still one of the essential SEO content writing tips and the best policy going into the New Year. In fact, you might say it’s the only policy. Climbing the search engine rankings is about to focus on longer quality content, relevant material and the use of keywords with variations.
As the New Year is ushered in, every business owner and marketing guru will meet the change of dealing with new obstacles. Let’s take a look at 3 of the most monstrous obstacles: #1: Traditional SEO Methods Won’t Cut It
Remember the days when inserting keywords and variations of those keywords equated to higher SERP rankings? Don’t live in those days because they’re going, going, gone. Mobile searching has taken root, and the almighty Google has made it a point to determine where users are searching from. As a result, SERPs are not static.
Google is also tossing customer opinion into the mix. What customers say about you is going hold more weight than other SEO elements on your page. What does this mean for you?
It’s time to see beyond an SEO strategy. You’re going to need a local, national, and international strategy so that searchers from any location have a chance to see you.
Local search terms are about to be vital for your local SEO success.
Customer testimonials will be more important than ever.
#2: Static is Out
Neither Google nor your market is static. Just because you hold a high search engine ranking today, doesn’t mean you’ll still hold it tomorrow. You have to play defense to keep your rankings high, and you have to expect them to fluctuate throughout the year. What does this mean for you?
Ranking competition is fierce. You need a defensive strategy to survive the upcoming competition of 2014.
SEO isn’t a one-time deal. It must be maintained and evolve as SEO practices change.
If you plan on successfully defending your visibility, traffic and conversions to sales, you need to allocate both money and resources into your budget for 2014. Skimping is out of the question!
#3: Quick Fixes Lead to a Quick Death
The rule of 2014 is to following SEO best practices. Cutting corners and attempting quick fixes—you know, the “I’ll tie up the loose ends later” approach—is something Google will not tolerate. A quick fix would get you quickly banned from Google!
The 2014 SEO Game Plan
Now that your head is reeling from the challenges, let’s talk game plan. It’s time to push a positive spin on the new frontier of SEO. After all, it’s entirely possible you already have plenty of best practices in place:
Keywords. Rest assured that keyword research isn’t gone. It is the very foundation of all on-site SEO and will continue to be such. However, keyword use has changed. You want to avoid inserting an awkward keyword, one that stumbles the reader as they read your content. Google is equipped with synonym identification, meaning you can vary your keywords to better match your content. As a result, Google still indexes the content, but your audience is much happier. Be sure each page of content stands for a single topic. Avoid multiple pages covering the same thing, especially if you’re using synonyms to describe the same or similar thoughts.
Quality. It’s been the huge SEO topic of 2013. Google wants to make sure we’re replacing fluff with quality stuff. The days of hyping sales are quickly coming to a close, and as a result attention is shifting to producing quality content. This means presenting well written and well formatted material; material that comprehensively covers a topic or issue.
Length. We used to shoot for 300 to 500 word blog posts and website copy. We kept it short and usually fluffed it up to cover over keyword insertion. These days are in the past. Readers prefer longer content, and Google is catering to them. In 2014, quality content with a length in the 2,000-word range is going to be preferred. At any rate, word count should never, ever sacrifice quality, as it is you primary concern.
Freshness. Fresh content doesn’t need to be ground shatteringly new. Literature and the written word have been around for centuries. Every idea known to mankind has been written about and explored in some manner. Your goal in 2013 should be to make your content fresh. You need to present your business and ideas from a fresh perspective, going outside the norm.
Engagement. If your audience is engaged, they’ll stay on the page to read the content. It’s important to gear your content toward your audience. What issues concern them? What problems do they want to solve? How will you assist them with this?
Google’s New Direction
One of the biggest shakeups of 2013 was Google’s move to 100% secure search. This loops back to the death of the Google Keyword tool we discussed earlier. You see, for those of us watching the tool, we saw a steady rise in the appearance of “Keyword (not provided).” As keywords disappeared, we knew sooner or later the tool itself would vanish. But most of us didn’t expect it to happen this soon.
The release of Hummingbird came right around the time of the Google Keyword tool’s death, and this timing was no mere coincidence. Hummingbird zeroed in on marketing with meaning versus sales fluff. As a result, the push for quality content delivering a clear message grew. Keywords became less important. Content quality and relevancy became everything. What does this mean for your website?
Google Webmaster Tools are taking on a newfound importance when trying to make the most of your SEO campaigns because it’s the only source of keyword data. You’ll now be measuring the effectiveness of your page not by performance, but by potential. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to:
Know and understand your audience. Who are they? What are they looking for? How does your company fit the bill? How will your audience search for information? SEO success in 2014 involves thinking beyond traffic and revenue. You have to focus on your audience.
Optimize for multiple keywords. Google’s synonym technology has grown in leaps and bounds. Your audience knows there’s more than one way to refer to something. Variety is the spice of life, and it should be present into your copy. Readers—potential customers—want to be engaged with diverse, entertaining content, not boring and irritating repetition.
Know your competition. Who else is ranked using your keywords? You can bet they’re hungry to defend and advance their SERPs. You need to know your competition and be ready to defend and advance your SERPs.
The Evolution of SEO
Search engine optimization has evolved dramatically, but 2013 was undoubtedly a year of surprising revolution. In order to be successful in 2014, you need to be on board with change. We’re going to make it easy to spot any changes you need to make to your SEO campaigns with a simple comparison of the current do’s and don’ts:
Don’t focus completely on keywords. They are only an aspect of search engine optimization.
Don’t be a robot. A methodical and mechanical approach to SEO is outdated.
Do create quality content. It should be targeted, relevant, and fresh.
Do join social media. Think of social media as a digital cocktail party. The who’s who will be there, and that’s where you want your brand to sit.
Do focus on building relationships. Your copy and social media should focus on one vital thing to your business: people. Your goal is to reach out and start forging relationships.
As you slide into the New Year, you’re presented with a remarkable business opportunity. The latest changes in search engine optimization in 2013 are pushing businesses to connect with people. A new opportunity to gain a stronger local presence is rapidly approaching.
Social media has taught us that people have a voice, and that a single voice can accomplish remarkable things. In 2014, you have the opportunity to connect with those voices, carry on valuable conversations, and be seen as more than a product or service. You have the unparalleled chance to let your customers see you as a relatable entity, a business sharing their principles and values. As you pour the heart and soul of your business into engaging and moving copy, you’ll accomplish your marketing objects while also building one of the strongest relationships possible with your customer base—a rapport based on trust and loyalty. Need help with your content? Talk to us today.
