You want to be at the top of Google. Of course you do.
You want clients to find you quickly, fall deep, and kick off a beautiful relationship. That’s the fantasy that fuels search engine optimization (SEO).
By now, SEO isn’t just white hat or black hat, it’s old hat. Back in the day, overstuffing your website with keywords and getting your URL plastered in cheap link farms was enough to reach the sanctified summit of Google’s search results. Times have changed.
RIP SEO
SEO is dead, as MadPipe has deftly pointed out. What happened? Google grew up. And got smarter. And stronger.
SEO tries to game Google’s system, using tricks to get your page ranked higher. Some basic strategies are innocent, like helping people navigate your site better. Most are a bit wilier. Like a classic cat and mouse game, Google’s been foiling SEO schemes, attempting to give users the most relevant page, not necessarily the most “optimized” one.
The SEO gurus were always one step ahead. Were. Now the game’s gone on for long enough that their bag of tricks is looking pretty deflated. Google’s Hummingbird, the newest overhaul of their search algorithm, implements a whole new set of rules on how to rank highly. Now it’s organic, socially-shared content that wins the day, not over-optimized tricked out pages.
The New SEO is Stellar Content
Google wants to show its users sites that they’ll respect, take interest in, and find relevant to their search input. How do you prove your search engine mettle? By creating amazing content that people share, discuss, and rave about. It’s not tricky, it’s just honest: if you want your page to be found, make a better page.
Content marketing is the act of establishing authority and attracting an audience with your content: blog posts, videos, ebooks, tweets, anything. There’s just one caveat: it has to entice. People should want to devour it, comment, and share.
Attain these social signals, and the search engine gods will grace you with a higher ranking. This may be the death of SEO, but it’s the rebirth of quality copywriting.
