How do you make sure your site meets the latest search engine standards?
What’s the best way to keep up with the constant changes in algorithms while meeting the needs of your customers?
Google’s latest useful content update emphasizes the importance of providing users with engaging and useful content.
Not only should your content strategy maintain SEO principles and strong keyword rankings, but it should also be useful to humans and relevant to their search queries.
On October 19th, I moderated a webinar with Dave Snyder, CEO and Founder of CopyPress, and Jeremy Rivera, Director of Content Analytics.
Snyder and Rivera demonstrated how to create better, more authoritative content that meets Google’s revised Useful Content Guidelines.
Here is a summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, complete the form.
What is the useful content update?
Google announced the Useful Content update in August to better connect people with useful information.
It’s part of a broader effort to ensure that people see users writing more original and useful content in search results.
What it means for your business:
Google will use a ranking signal throughout the site to determine if you are using useful content. Google considers AI generated spam and will use its machine learning algorithm to detect it. Content created for ad and click monetization will no longer work. There will be no manual penalties, but you could simply start losing organic visibility. Detection becomes more apparent at higher volume, where aggregation becomes an issue.
[Discover if your site is a problem site] Instantly access the webinar →
How to adapt useful content update to your strategies
1. Use expert information
Real, satisfying content comes from experience. Develop deeper and more satisfying content by uncovering real difference and real answers.
This implies:
Say NO to data aggregation WITHOUT unique knowledge. Say NO to just rewriting the existing highlight and “hope” for the best.
2. Leverage Experience to Really Address the People Question (PAA)
Featured snippets and “people also ask…” are common search items. Even better, they are good starting points for including subject matter experts.
[Find out what makes the best answers] Access the webinar instantly →
3. Use content strategy outside of SEO data
Discuss “pain points” with your product managers, salespeople, and support staff.
Find out exactly what your prospects are trying to solve or overcome with a Google Search:
At the product level. Compared to a competitor. As a reason to upgrade, buy an add-on or choose the business tier.
4. Implement the 3-point process
Step 1: Leverage SEO data for PAAs, featured snippets, and relevant keyword groupings. This can be used to feed new articles or review existing content.
Step 2: Brainstorm pain points and issues that need solving. Ask your experts what should be used to create a list of new articles.
Step 3: Take a fearless inventory of existing content and review its current ability to provide a satisfactory response. In larger companies with established volumes of content, it is useful to do this by category.
[Learn to adapt to the algorithm update] Access the webinar instantly →
Strategic contributions
Much of the marketers’ focus is on what to do next.
Instead, we should be thinking about how we can improve existing content, just as we are approaching new editorial content.
Create a system to help you find your lowest performing content. At scale, find out what your old content is and what the competition has. What is your missing content that Google indicates it will want in the long term? Build an opportunity sizing model using third-party data to get a sense of the low-hanging fruit of your low-performing content. Use tools like Content Harmony to quickly assess SEO deficiencies and create meaningful summaries for optimization. Leverage subject matter experts to proofread articles, add FAQs, and include other unique content that a general editor or AI writing system can’t generate.
[Slides] How to adapt to useful content and core updates from Google
Here is the presentation.
Join us for our next webinar!
Smarter Link Building: How to Use Machine Learning to Accelerate Organic Growth
Find out how relevant content can increase your visibility and traffic for winning SEO performance.
Join us for insider tips on prioritizing the relevance of your digital PR and link building campaigns.
Image credits
Featured image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
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