[Content SEO] Run DMC and Google Want You to “Keep it Fresh”
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Are you spitting rhymes about gold chains and Adidas kicks?
Or shaping your SEO and content strategy?
One thing is for sure and essential… “Keepin’ it fresh.”
Fresh content is unique and engaging, and Google likes that.
It seems nowadays, the Google team wants your website to keep content as fresh as organic veggies!
How do you do that? Let us find out below together! It’s tricky, tricky, tr, tr, tr, tricky!
The Google Roller-Coaster
It has been quite a ride for the SEO industry. It’s like a roller-coaster.
What was a relatively stable way of doing things is now totally flip flopped.
It seems that marketers are constantly keeping one eye on Google.
Why? They are trying to understand what to do, and how to do it best.
Currently, search engine optimizers must focus on
- restructuring their websites
- producing better content
- disseminating this content on social media.
As the landscape continues to shift one thing is for certain, Google doesn’t like low quality material.
What was once a mass strategy to publish and disseminate as many pages as possible is now a systematic approach to index and push high quality material.
In April 2010, Google unveiled its Caffeine update which allowed indexing in almost real time.
It became blatantly apparent for search engine marketers after the Mayday update, how non-unique content is punished within their algorithms.
In November 2010, Google Instant sent shockwaves through search engine land!
Many people started to proclaim, “SEO is dead as usually in such cases.
What Are the Experts Saying?
Truth is, SEO isn’t dead, it is just fragmenting as search engines find better ways to index and understand content.
Here are a few of my favorite takes on our current search engine landscape:
“Maybe the problem isn’t the thin content that users detest seeing in search results. Maybe the problem is with SEO itself.
The purpose of SEO is to achieve top rankings and visibility, maximum impressions and clicks in SERPs”
– Adam Audette
“It’s the epic frenemy battle of SEOs vs. Search Engines that whittles the SEO techniques down to what eminently points to no other option but to have a great product.
What is a great product? It’s a site that people want to go to, return to, share with their networks, email their friends, aka building natural links and “buzz”.
Get it? Great content and natural links and buzz = the new SEO
“Rules of engagement:
- Write meaningful posts.
- Help people.
- Solve problems.
- Promote these posts, socially and otherwise.”- Mark Jackson
How Prevalent are Google’s Changes?
SEO really isn’t anything to freak out about.
SEO best practices really haven’t changed too much since 2010.
The freshness algorithm (QDF) does not affect the majority of searches.
High level strategy may have changed somewhat (emphasis on different SEO tactics), but the people who cut corners are often the ones crying when Google changes an algorithm.
We all know that, even though Google’s algorithm will continue to adjust, quality content and best practices will remain current.
Everybody seems to think that Google is moving towards search personalization and social integration in their search results.
However, something that is rather ironic and funny is the fact that Google returns only two sites have been published in the past year for the unfiltered search term “fresh content seo” (see screen shot below):
Regardless of this irony, to stay in the safe zone, and continue ranking for search terms on Google adapt!
Shift your high level strategy to incorporate fresh content disseminated through social media.
Focus on solving problems with your content and promoting this on multiple different media and it will be ranking for years.
This is a contribution by Matt Krautstrunk. He is a writer based in San Diego, California, providing insight on topics ranging from social media marketing to merchant services.
Opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the SEO 2 views.
* Image source: Urb.com
I have to say, Google search engine is getting humanize. By focusing on what human needs, you don’t have to worry about your SEO. It is human that read your website, it is human world, not machine world.
If you have high quality content, you don’t have to worry about your seo. Everything is searching for content, especially B2B business. Before they make any decision, first thing they have to do is search information allow them to research and then make decision.
When Google rolled out Panda Algorithm, my site got improve and I know it would.
is Google protecting Intellectual Property nowadays? Content copying was very common for the past few years. Tighten the SEO, only the better can get ranked, I think is fair enough.
The only issue I see with the above position (which I agree with 100%) is that to allow this pocess to occur naturally can be very time consuming. If you have 10 years to allow your web site the time to age and grow naturally…no problem and no need to worry about SEO.
If on the other hand you need a more immediate approach and some quantifiable results within 12-18 months, then you better start looking at some SEO help.
And for the record…I don;t think Google hates SEO’s or the business model of a good SEO in any way. What they hate is “so called SEO’s” that try and cheat the system. In other words, SEO’s that try and get sites with little or no content or BAD content to the top of the SERP’s.
Mike,
Can’t argue with that. This isn’t knocking the advantages of getting professional SEO help. I simply believe that it’s more of a “if you are not creating fresh content, it may be hurting you” kind of thing.
I think you need to put things into context a little more.
The freshness of content is only really essential in markets (niches) where the competition is also adding new content.
As the example above shows, large protion of the web have little or nothing added into the mix, from month to month. Take it on trust, that “pallet storage systems” or “industrial Ovens” has a very little interesting new to say from week to week.
In these turgid waters, “old school” SEO has it’s place for a bit longer yet.