The art of SEO is rapidly changing all the time. It depends on many factors, mostly from Google. If Google makes changes in its policy, about what will affect website ranking and authority, many of our SEO strategies will be obsolete.
Google also works on improving its algorithms and crawlers. So, they can be smarter in detecting any SEO scams.
Rules for good SEO optimization
1. Content Quality
Content quality plays a bigger role every year. As I mentioned, Google crawlers are becoming smarter and more sophisticated. So, you have to create content that is thoughtful, detailed, intelligent and possibly above anyone in the industry. You should create content having your readers in mind and not SEO.
These are some basic content SEO rules that you need to satisfy:
1. Pages have to be created with your readers and the customer experience in mind.
2. Do not make false claims or content in general.
3. Think about what makes your website unique, interesting and different from other websites from the same geographical area.
4. Your website has to tell your company’s story with a unique voice.
5. Try to avoid any suspicious services and programs that offer SEO content optimization help.
2. What type of content does Google appreciate?
Google loves deep and meaningful content. A quality article from 500 to 1500 words. So, do not purposely try to drag out your text or put as many keywords as possible. Your article has to have a substance.
What this means is that you should write recommendations, advice, make your own analysis, thought-provoking pieces and create relevant topics.
Keywords are still important and relevant as ever before. Still, making sure that your content is natural and pleasing to your readers is more important for SEO. Because this is what Google algorithms are searching for today. So, you can’t overcrowd your text with keywords or force certain topics in any way. You can be sure that Google is classifying your article in the right category and it will show it in an appropriate search result.
Promote your content through online ads, newsletters, and social media. It will not attract people by itself, no matter how good it is!
3. Optimize your webpages for appropriate keywords
Do not focus on your main keyword, instead, try to think about what keywords people could Google search, that is connected to your content. So, it’s all about knowing as many keywords and synonyms for your main keywords as possible. This is a golden rule for content marketing.
The most important tool for Google rankings is called – SERP. Under those new rules, the top place in Google rankings is #0. This is a featured snippet that will be shown above the top search pages.
A featured snippet allows people to learn a lot more about the website and its content without leaving the Google search page. Therefore, SERP is being used as a bait for people to click on that website. Google wants to produce the most relevant search results possible. So, it’s in Google’s interest that people click on the most relevant and quality page possible.
Basically, SERP is ‘’El Dorado’’ for every business website owner.
4. How to have a chance to touch this SEO perfection?
Go straight to the point – do not write long, main topic unrelated intro. Give people relevant information and talk about what interests them throughout all the articles. Do what I did in this blog.
Research Keywords – make sure that your copywriter or SEO expert creates a keyword plan and conducts research about the topic. Therefore, you can write about keywords that are relevant to your topic but are not covered by your competition.
Make list articles – Google loves any type of list and numbering. It makes article analysis much easier. People love it too. They can scroll the article with ease and read what is most interesting to them.
Frequently asked questions – incredibly effective with a clear goal of answering questions. Google likes it as well because it is easy to judge the quality of that article. Also, it’s your opportunity to answer any questions about the product that is potentially tricky with a well-thought-out answer.
Links – Links are great for Google crawler’s easy indexing and a better understanding of the relevancy of your content. Google actually states that links and backlinks are the most important factors for ranking websites # 1 i # 2.
The creation of a quality backlink network should be key to your SEO strategy in 2020.
5. There are a few types of links you should be focused on!
1. Editorial Links present quality backlinks that you get if you have great content.
It is so important that you don’t ask others for links. Instead they are linking your content willingly. This means that you have a quality content that other people in the industry value. For Google its the most important type of feedback about your content quality.
2. PBN – Private Blog Network – This is part of the so-called Grey Hat SEO. It’s not illegal per se but you are playing with fire. Why is that? Well, the idea is to create a network of websites that you will take over and fill with quality content. The Internet is full of people willing to sell you expiring or developed domains. Along with a domain you are automatically absorbing their website rank as well and therefore boosting your own Google rank and authority. Keep in mind that Google constantly searches for illegal PBNs. Even worse your competitors are looking at your backlinks as well. So, you must be really careful when using PBNs. It’s also a very expensive SEO strategy.
RankBrain – This is Google’s machine-learning artificial intelligence system that tries to implement an interpretation model for a better understanding of content.
In simple terms, it’s an algorithm that should help Google to have a better understanding of the context within your text. RankBrain uses a system of synonyms for keywords in your article, to better understand the content and its meaning.
Google is talking about RankBrain since 2015. At the end of 2019, we still don’t know much about it. Sadly there is not much that we can do to trick or abuse this system in any way.
In fact, RankBrain conforms what I was telling you about the quality of content. With this sophisticated algorithm, keywords have become much less significant for SEO.
Is there anything else that would be useful to know about SEO?
Well… yes but you probably know that already. For a better page rank, take care about the text that you are writing in meta tags and headline. Also, take care about image optimization and description, mobile version of your website and its performance.
All of them are helping Google to understand what your website and content are all about. A smooth functioning, a well-optimized website is a key for achieving a good Page Rank.
