Search engines are constantly adjusting their algorithms, but for content marketers, content quality is always the key to SEO success. In this article, Jiexin Internet Marketing Agency will put forward the seven most critical points of SEO for content marketing.
Our topic today is: What are the most important SEO actions for brand publishers today?
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A Google search for "SEO is dead" yielded nearly 45 million results, and the top one was a post by Copyblogger's "resident SEO guy" Sean Jackson denouncing the claim.
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"The term often confuses our work with unprofessional practices like link buying, article placement, and spamming," Jackson wrote. He believes that SEO needs to be revamped. In 2014, marketers should think about "optimizing content for exposure and conversion". Whether or not the neologism is a trend, Jackson isn't alone in his opinion. He is calling on the marketing industry to abandon the search game strategy and instead focus on providing high-quality content that people want. In other words, become a publisher (publisher), not an SEO gamer (gamer).
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Even so, publishers still needExcellent SEO Strategyto gain attention for their content. Although some claimsocial mediaShine as a traffic driver, search is still where people findhigh quality contentthe main way. Anecdotal research by independent publishers has created the notion that social media is eclipsing search's role as a major driver of referral traffic, but broader research findings are quite different. BuzzFeed publishes data showing websites receive emails fromFacebookMore than 3.5% of traffic from Google. And a review of 48 billion page views across 87 websites found that search still drove 41% of page views, while social media drove just 16%. Extensive research by Shareaholic has come to the same conclusion.
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How do you optimize your content for search? This question helps us understand how SEO works.
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A Brief History of SEO
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Search engines have been tweaking their algorithms continuously for the past 20 years. The goal is to provide users with the highest quality, most relevant content possible. In the meantime, marketers and publishers are also constantly looking for ways to crack.
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This contributed to a crisis point. Content producers like eHow and Associated Content flood search results pages with a lot of low-quality, highly optimized content. For Google, this is a problem. So in 2011, they implemented the Panda algorithm, which downweights sites that post low-quality links and makes minor improvements to superficially high-quality content.
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Google is calling on those in the publishing community to reassess their priorities. "For publishers, our advice is still to make your site provide the best user experience possible, not Google's current ranking algorithms or signals." This is what Google published in its related blog post.
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SEO Today
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along withGoogle Panda AlgorithmSearch engines such as Yahoo and Bing followed suit. Since then, the search engine has continued to strive to provide high-quality, content-relevant search results. People are also getting savvier about asking for what they want, voice and conversational search queries are becoming more prevalent, and location searchers are dominating a large swath of mobile searches.
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Google maintains its king status with 67% search market share. Search and discovery tools like the Knowledge Graph show that it's becoming increasingly granular, not only returning the richest query results, but also anticipating what people want to see next.
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content marketingIf people want to keep up, they need to abandon rigid practices, such as worrying about ranking for long-tail keywords. They need to look at problems from a broader perspective and discover priorities.
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Jeasin submitted on Moz, the difference between now and the past is the shift from individual keywords to concepts: "If I search for 'movies about boats and tigers', Google may understand it as the movie "Life of Pi" instead of Optimized pages for those specific keywords.”
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Jeasin is the Director of SEO and Content Strategy at Jeasin Internet Marketing Agency. He advises clients to look at the big picture, not limited to a single keyword query; to consider a brand's stronger reputation on the Internet. This includes off-site citations, comments and social connections. "All of these signals tell Google a lot about you."
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Now that social has overshadowed search as a traffic driver, the jury system may be obsolete. However, it remains a powerful signal of rising influence and authority. When people share, like, engage and link to your pages through social channels, it tells search engines that those pages are what people want to see.
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More than signals of influence, inbound links and word of mouth show the authority of a website, which search engines are always striving to build for their content. The value of Google Authorship is increasing day by day. It is a sentence that Google evaluates an author's expertise and ranks the content published on his website or blog. Linked pages and posts on an author's Google+ profile, when properly established, can display a person's credentials, confirming that they are an authority on a topic. Many people find this approach confusing. But don't let that stop you, pages that are clearly original are more likely to appear at the top of the search results. Bing apparently also usesLinkedInto attest to original origin and integrity.
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Seven key points to achieve SEO:
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It's important to optimize your content with small strategies, but don't lose sight of the big picture. "People often forget that the people who read the content are the same people who Google it," says Nicy, editorial director at Internet Marketing Agency. In other words, don't just think about how to get them to the site, but keep them there.
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1. An original and compelling story always wins.This is the most important point of SEO. Publishing stories that people can’t help sharing, liking, and commenting on is the ultimate path to good SEO.
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Google is practically begging people to do it. Last August, after discovering that many users were searching for in-depth original long-form content, Google gave priority to such articles in search results.
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2. Keyword and audience research are still important.There may be more keywords than there are words in them, but publishers should still use existing research to assist in deciding to optimize content topics. Keyword tools like Google Adwords Keyword Planner, Bing Keyword Tool, and übersuggest will help you understand the amount of content that has been optimized for keyword query volume. Google Trends can help grow content around these words based on topics that are popular at a particular time and geography. This is an effective way to gauge what content your potential audience needs.
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Another way to get an audience perspective is to ask them directly. Social media is a low-cost way to practice this. Find out what your audience wants from your brand with engaging posts like quizzes, games, and develop content accordingly.
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3. A good headline is the key.Uninteresting headlines are poison, and vivid but misleading headlines may generate short-term traffic but not long-term success (especially on social networks). After the initial traffic wears off, search engines may lose sight of what drives traffic in your content.
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Even headline gurus like Upworthy are gradually moving away from teasing readers to more descriptive, Atlantic-like stories. The difference between clickbait and a real good headline is like a one-night stand and a long-term relationship. Marketers who really want to maintain a long-term connection with their audience should establish a way to create smart headlines and continuously test and optimize them (Upworthy has done this, despite its disgrace). Headlines are the gateway to content, links to your brand, and coming up with effective headlines should be a constant endeavor.
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4. Pursue quality rather than quantity.Marketers who produce a lot of content at the expense of quality should rethink their strategies. If your site publishes the same content in different formats on multiple pages, consider integrating or revising them. Otherwise, not only the ranking of a single page, but also the overall authority of the website may be lowered by search engines.
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5. Optimization of pages and platforms.All the annoying details like meta tags and descriptions are tedious work. They let search engines know what is displayed on your webpage. Don't do this job well and it can break your content. For example, the Buffalo Wild Wings' March Madness Fandamentals content is actually not findable through basic searches on search engines or social channels. This is a serious problem, especially since they also spend a lot of money on prime time television advertising. (Editor's note: Fandamentals content appears to be locked behind EpiServer).
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Beyond page production strategies, smart platform technologies are the lifeblood of high-quality content. Jeasin says the biggest mistake his clients can make is thinking technology doesn't matter. By cleaning up HTML coding, H1 headings, server errors, URL structure, and how page codes load, they were able to ensure a significant lift in organic search results for their clients' websites within 18 months.
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6. Obtain the import link.Even if you're creating engaging, original content, it's important to find other ways to drive reliable links to your site. Guest blogging has been a popular way to get incoming links this year, but Google's Matt Cutts recently announced that this method is no longer available due to the deluge of paid links. On the other hand, guest blogging is an effective way to build brand awareness and brand image. Is guest blogging good for your brand? With all link building efforts, purpose is paramount. Does your guest blog bring value and authority to your audience and to Google? Just remember, don't get incoming links at the expense of your content.
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Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), such as Outbrain and Taboola, are another popular method for driving large amounts of traffic. This automated, data-driven service places publishers' content close to in-demand audiences across the web. Bray has brought great success to his clients through CDNs, not only driving a large number of highly targeted directional links, but also more social shares. Content sharing on community platforms like Reddit can have the same impact.
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7. Social influences search in many ways.Google and other search engines are unclear about the exact role of social media in their complex thinking. But if Facebook likes and links are considered, the impact of social networking on search cannot be ignored. Personalized search results are a good example. The search results you get when you are logged into Google are different and more specific than those you get without being logged into Google. Authors who are in a user's Google+ circles will rank higher in the user's search results than other authors who are not in his circles. For that matter, search isn't just about Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. either. People search across Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, among other social networks. The circle of influence between social media and search is undeniable, including and far exceeding the traffic it generates.
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epilogue
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Tell a good story and get people to discover the site. Stay updated with best practices at all times. Be patient and don't explode or take an all-or-nothing approach to improve page rank.