I’ve been writing about helping clients with SEO for a long time. Organic SEO improvement is never the end goal of my client engagements (that’s sales integration), but rising rankings are a welcome benefit of consistently publishing quality content on a specific topic.
Other than a logical use of keyword phrases and the use of effective plugins like Yoast, that’s usually the extent of our SEO strategy. I’ve never believed in trying to game Google’s algorithm to try and shortcut a client to a top ranking. So it’s been gratifying for me to see Google make changes to increasingly reward writing for human audiences, not writing in a way tailored first for a bot to index.
Google’s latest directives on what they call link schemes has many in the marketing industry buzzing. Google will be making decisions as to whether optimized links are editorially valid, or are they “unnatural.” Google wants all natural SEO, or else.
Here’s a good story from TopRank that sifts through a lot of the over the top reactions. Basically what Lee Odden recommends is to be relevant, don’t abuse links and you should be OK. Here’s a video from Matt Cutts, head of the Webspam team at Google and a colleague named Sandy describing their definition of natural vs. unnatural links:
So publish for a human audience, and optimize in an editorially honest manner. If your content resonates and attracts an audience you’ll be rewarded with better SEO.
I agree with Google — that sounds natural to me. It’s also an approach that fits perfectly within a consistent, high quality content marketing approach.
Agree completely and let me add one more thing. Doing it your way is actually easier.
Write for that audience who wants to hear what you have to say. There’s the old adage that a well-written letter sounds like the writer is whispering in your ear as you read.
Much easier, particularly as the Google algorithms have no ears….
Very useful Chris. Living and learning these days for sure!