SEO Has No Place As Your Main Content Strategy

No company should be optimizing their website for search engines. Last time I checked, not a single search engine has every purchased a product or service from any business I’ve run. No search engine has given a personal endorsement to a friend or become a lifetime customer. Yes it is important to rank high in the search engines, but looking for ways to optimize through manipulating content or other factors, is simply a game in which you risk loosing every time the rules change.

We Don’t Do SEO Content Anymore

Last week I spoke to a large content production company. My intent was to get some real, high quality content produced for which we simply did not have the resources to accomplish. Before I could get a word out the salesperson told me “just so you know, we don’t do SEO content anymore”. I asked him what kind of content did they produce. His answer was “only high quality, researched & interesting content”. Imagine that.

User Optimized Content

UOC should be the new term. User Optimized Content. This is in fact what Google preaches you should be doing in the first place. Creating good quality, easily readable, relevant and extensible content is apparently back in vogue.

What to Do?

You still need to do research to discover what terms your desired audience is looking for, and they still need to be in the copy and description tags. They should also sometimes be in the headlines. This is not just helping the search engines, this helps the site visitor decide if your site has the information they are looking for.   The Content itself still has to be really good. So if turning out lots of keyword stuffed articles in no longer the key to a high SERP ranking, then what is? Following some basic common sense will go a long way.

• Readable – The content should be presented in an easily readable format. Headlines that have meaning following by a few sentences of relevant information.
• Researched – Your content should give users the information you know they wanted when they found your site. Do you research up front and know your audience.
• Interesting – Keep your content and flow interesting. Start general and become more specific as you go. The folks most interested will keep reading.  A more engaged site visitor often shares and returns.
• Be Social – Develop content that is extensible. When planning your content look to deliver it in as many formats as possible. Text, Mobile, Images, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, Video & Games.

SEO for content is dead. Long live UOC. Got a better term for this? Post a comment.

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