We've all heard that the best way to improve search engine ranking is to create great content. Google and other search providers have been working hard to tailor thier algorithms to highlight fresh and original work, so what does this mean for SEO and how do you get your website seen?
The answer to that question is that SEO is still very important but past best practises once designed to 'game' the system through high density keywords and such, are now designed to help craft your great content in a way that your customers will find it.
For companies that depend on websites for lead generation, conversion, and sales, it is now essential to have an SEO strategy that suits reconfigured search engines.
In recent months, Google and other search engines have adjusted their algorithms to place more emphasis on quality content rather than just on link-rich text.
This means that business leaders are looking for new tactics to boost the quality of their content, in order to improve search engine ranking.
A great rule of thumb for accomplishing this transition is to know the words, phrases and terminology that your business partners and customers are most likely to employ when conducting Internet searches.
A good way to determine the preferred search terms of customers and business partners is to have quality market intelligence at your fingertips. The ‘intersection of liberal arts and technology,’ as Steve Jobs once described his company’s philosophy, perfectly describes the rationale for incorporating high quality business intelligence into a company’s SEO strategy.
By understanding and utilizing timely, accurate business intelligence – market research – you can incorporate language and ideas in words that resonate with clients and prospects.
But where to begin?
First, follow to identify and purchase timely market research on your sector. Once you’ve obtained the latest market intelligence that’s relevant to your business, there are relatively low-cost adjustments you can make to build (or rebuild) an SEO strategy suitable for today’s search engines. According to an SEO expert, you should think of the transformation to ‘organic’ keyword and content as going ‘back to the future.”
In a post at Search Engine Land, Aspland wrote:
Sometimes, the best path to improve search engine ranking is going back to the basics of good old fashioned keyword research and content creation with the end goal in mind: the customer and the conversion.
He provides six pointers to get you going on refreshing your SEO strategy:
1) Don’t focus only on broad keywords. The more specific your word-choices, the better.
2) Do keyword research for product categories and specific products or services.
3) Add unique content on category pages.
4) Add unique content on product pages.
5) Give your website personality; it builds trust.
6) Increase page strength to compete with high-ranking competitor sites.
For those interested in improving traffic on a company blog or at a personal website, the same rules apply: quality content is king, followed by strategic selection of keywords and phrases. In addition, the increasing importance of cross-posting your blog on syndicated or other popular websites and blogs cannot be overlooked, according to an SEO expert at Mashable:
"High-growth blogs tend to focus on content distribution — getting their stories and headlines on other blogs or news sites across the web," wrote Shane Snow in a recent SEO blog at Mashable. "Done well, this can build honest links to a site, indicating to Google that brands with authority trust a site’s content enough to publish it on their own."
Each of these pointers require a foundation of quality, timely business intelligence in order to successfully inform your updated SEO strategy.
By making a smart investment in gathering and analyzing quality market research, your keyword and content makeover will produce organic search results that flow seamlessly toward increased conversions.
Amy Alexander
Senior Writer/Content Manager
