03/12/2012

Why content without SEO is like beer without alcohol



This article goes out as much to our own beloved FeckTV.com colleagues as it does copywriters across the globe. Feckin' good copy leading to subsequent social interaction is the future of SEO.

And don't go expecting to find that on many SEO suppliers' websites, either. I'll explain why in the next technology article. Just trust me for the time being, okay? Cool.

Before you carry on reading this article, I'd ask you to nip across to Google's Official Webmaster Central Blog and read their article More Guidance On Building High Quality Sites, even though it's dated May 2011.

Quality Content is still King of SEO


Now, you don't have to tell me that SEO changes like the wind. If you follow SEOMoz or read SearchEngineLand, you'll know that Google releases sizeable updates, or filters, to their algorithms a lot more frequently than just, "Ooh, THAT Penguin Update" or, "Shite, that feckin' Panda update in March..."

But what has not changed in SEO in all that time is Google's strive to return quality content. That drive is perhaps more of the catalyst behind the updates than a subsequent result of them.

However, many webmasters don't see that aspect of their SEO campaign until their site has been 'spanked'.  They then have to redress the balance, which is not only a right feckin' pain in the 'arris, but is also costly, non-productive and puts the site on probation until the next update to see if violations have been corrected.  If not, the site maybe gets spanked a little more and will do so until the webmaster either toes the line or walks away.

When it comes to SEO, Google calls the shots


Google does not want voluminous dross churned out by the barrelful; there are billions of pages littering the Internet like that already.  It might be the funniest article online, but if it's SEO is shite it will not get ranked and no one will ever read that brilliant punchline.  As far as I know, webcrawlers and indexers do not appreciate satire, nor do they have a sense of humour.

What Google is looking for is content that will encourage its readers to remain on site and not leave it instantly (the lower this 'bounce rate' the better). Google rates a page even more highly if the reader interacts with the content (commenting or sharing) or bookmarks a page and returns for more.

Always remember that it's Google's search engine that we're using to drive traffic to our site. When its customers use the infamous Google search box, Google wants to deliver the most relevant results in the shortest possible time every time.

Our pages need to allow the webcrawlers to index our pages correctly, i.e. we must optimise them. This is so that the articles we're producing get selected to be shown when the respective keywords that we target are searched.  This is the entire reason we choose the article marketing route.

If we do not implement SEO, we would quite literally be better off producing nothing. Really. If an article does not follow the guidelines set out it stands a very good chance of being penalised with each refinement to Google's algorithms. May be not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon...and sooner than you think, Ilsa.

It's in both Google's interest and ours that we optimise.


By producing content that we want Google to find, we have to be mindful that there are rules. As long as we adhere to them, (95% of the time) we'll get along just dandy. If we don't, then "Thwack! - we're all out of the park, mister."

On that note, I'll take me a time out. Join me next time when I'll share why SEOs won't tell you about the shift in power towards the copywriter and explain the catalyst behind this little soapbox moment.

In the meantime, why not share your absolute number one SEO tip here?

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