Regardless of your industry, job position, or depth of technical knowledge, I’ll bet that you’ve at least heard the term SEO. That’s because SEO – that umbrella term that stands for “Search Engine Optimisation” but that has come to encompass your website’s marketing success – really is that important. It’s also confusing, misunderstood, and ever-changing in its standards.
The main reason to use SEO is to achieve high rankings on Google. Sure, there are other search engines, and people do use them, but Google is the leader of the pack. Therefore, on Google we focus. We’ve been through a few changes in Google’s algorithms in recent years, which have taken SEO and turned it on its head. Websites that used strategies that worked each and every time, like bucket-loads of backlinks and tons of keyword-laden copy, saw their rankings plummet. Except that websites with bucket-loads of valid backlinks and tons of targeted-keyword copy had their own rankings rise at the same time. The explanation is that content is king:
1. The content of your content is important
Google changes its algorithms for the same reason you want your website to match those algorithms: to keep existing visitors coming back and to gain new ones. Google wants your website to be authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy. The concept can be explained with the term Authority Content, and it means that you’ve got content that, in a nutshell, has the sole purpose of fulfilling your mission statement. Your mission statement should address what you do and how it helps people. At the end of the day, your copy should be for your readers, not Google.
2. The location of your content is important
Yes, pages chock-full of links with no apparent purpose lose in the SEO war. That doesn’t mean that your website needs to be all alone in the vast sea of the Internet, though. Through planning, mindful content creation, and a bit of work, your website can appear on as many sites as you want, and it’ll only take your ranking higher. As long as it’s authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy, that is.
3. The format of your content is important
Copy is a key part of website content; I wouldn’t be writing this if it weren’t. Blog posts, press releases, and news articles all need to include copy. Copy is not where SEO ends, however. For content that is sharable, popular, and chock-full o’ authority, video is key. More precisely, video segments are key. If you’ve seen, perhaps on Facebook or Twitter, a person posting a video every month or so from a lecture they presented or a workshop they hosted, you’ve seen excellent SEO strategy in action. This is a process, and it takes time and work, but it’s very much worth it.
The battle to keep your website up-to-date, high in Google’s search results, and a demonstration of your company’s status as an industry leader is constant. Not only does it require a lot of work, but it also requires a lot of study before that work can even be done. If you’ve got a handle on it, we salute you! For those that struggle to stay on top, we at SGD have a solution: let us manage your website’s copywriting and SEO. Drop us a line and find out how we can help you achieve – and keep – SEO greatness.
