For so many years Search Engine Optimization has been the bread of butter of PR pros everywhere. You wanted to get attention to your website or store so you would spice up your blogs and other content with keywords and links. Google would take notice and bump up your website to the front page, allowing searchers to stumble across it easier.
But things are changing. Google is catching onto our tricks and actively working to offset them. Their latest update, Panda 4.0, is designed to make content – rather than the keywords – the rightful king. The search engine giant’s aim is that their users will find relevant content, not content merely stuffed with keywords.
The more things change, though, the more they remain the same. While SEO isn’t quite what we thought of it before, the idea still remains the same. But now, it’s all in the execution…
The New SEO
“Content is king,” but what does that even mean? One of the other “rules” of writing blogs and making other content is to make as much of it as consistently as you can. Does that mean you just have to keep this up and hope for the best?
Sure, but on top of that, you should try to increase the quality of your output. This could mean slowing down a bit, actually, rather than throwing as much as you can against the wall to see what sticks. If you write one blog that’s completely amazing, it could be worth more than 30 that are subpar.
This is because Google’s new algorithm focuses on what the content is rather than what’s in it, if that makes sense. If you write a blog post about the rug industry, it has to be great enough to stand on its own, not because you inserted a ton of keywords.
In the End…
When it comes down to it, though, not much has changed. While some might cry the end of SEO or even say it’s the end of the concept, it’s not like that much has changed. How should you take advantage?
For one, you should probably keep doing what you’ve been doing. This algorithm change was made to weed out the more “spammy” aspects of searching on Google. So your great content that’s informative, funny, and easy to read is soon to become the norm.
You can’t insert arbitrary keywords into your pieces anymore and expect results. This actually makes your job easier when you think about it – how many times were you sitting in WordPress trying to find links to add and what keywords to pepper in? Now you focus on the campaign at large rather than bother with little details like this.
To be perfectly honest, we have only begun to see how Panda 4.0 changes everything. There could be not much of a change at all or there might even be effects we haven’t thought of yet. But one thing will never change: write blogs, press releases, and other content to reflect your original ideas and thoughts and you’ll be fine.
Do you think the new algorithm will drastically change the way SEO works?
This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (https://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab your free 160-page copy of the Big Press Release Book – Press Releases for Every Occasion and Industry here: https://www.ereleases.com/free-offer/big-press-release-samples-book/