Content Building is one of the driving factors when it comes to onsite performance and ranking higher on Google. While there are a variety of ways to increase traffic to your website; quality & relevant content is one of the most common strategies when it comes to optimizing webpages. This blog will highlight the most efficient way to create content, whether it be a service page, service area page, a blog, or even a social media post, but first, let’s examine the basics of Content, and some important algorithms to pay attention to. If you feel like you have mastered the content basics, skip this blog and step into the big league!
Content 101
When it comes to creating content on any social platform, there is a basic guideline to follow, from there it is a matter of making sure you are following the content rules dictated by Google. With a variety of algorithms implemented by Google to penalize low-quality, duplicate, or infringing content.
Content: Content in a marketing sense is essentially any text or verbiage that is designated to promote, highlight, or showcase a product or service. The main goal is to bring exposure to products and goods on a digital (this can be anything from a call to action, to a product page, or a blog)
Keywords: A keyword is any word that holds significance to your business or organization that you want to focus on to increase your SERP’s, which can be related to a service, a location, or an industry
- An example of important keywords for a marketing company would be (SEO, Optimization, Organic Traffic, Get Found Quick)
Headings: A heading is a title at the top of a page or subsection that is designed to help Google Crawlers, but also gives individuals immediate insight on what the article or page covers
Content Farming: Content farming is the act of outsourcing content to freelancers or agencies to create relevant content for a website based off of data, keywords, and other important metrics
Google Panda: Google Panda was implemented to help combat the overwhelming amount of content that is published online, this algorithm helps score websites with quality content higher on SERP’s and penalizes sites with low quality, duplicate, or “stolen” content
Content Building Do’s
Write For People
Given the information highlighted above, it may seem optimal to write blogs with robots in mind, as this is the primary way that people will discover your blog or service page in the future. This is both true and false, while it might be logical to write for a robot, what is the point of writing this content if a human can’t read it? This is where content farming can fall short; if the content is broken or fragmented, you reduce readership and potentially conversions. Even if the information is super relevant you may not be getting the most out of your content.
Keyword Variety
It is important to continually use a variety of keywords to diversify your blogs posts, this differentiates your content as Google will notice if the same keywords continually link back to the same page, this variety can help build relevance with SERP’s as well as create variety in your content as well.
Social Media
Social Media has become a pivotal tool when it comes to ranking in local and international regions. Have you noticed that when you search for a product or service Facebook will provide results? This is in part due to Google reading these websites and translating that information over to Search. If you are producing quality content on your website, double down and share it on any social platform your company or organization utilizes.
Content Building Don’ts
Content Farming
While it is important to have a continual flow of blogs, social media posts to your website, it is more important that this information has quality content, and not being written for quantity.
Duplicate or Unoriginal Content
There is rarely a shortcut to take when it comes to writing content for websites. With such a large volume of content being published daily, it can be difficult to feel like your content is truly unique. This is where many might take the route of copying and pasting content from a similar business. THIS IS A MAJOR DON’T!
Since Google has Panda to crawl has access to every page on every site, it will find that duplicate content (unless you tell it not to) and ultimately penalize your page because the content is not yours.
Ways to Avoid Getting Penalized By Google Panda
Unique Content
Simply put, the best way to avoid getting penalized by Google is to create content that is unique to your site and your site only! While it is never a bad thing to look to other blogs for insight, advice, and potentially new ideas
Non-Canonical Articles
In many Content Management Platforms, there is an ability to block Google from crawling a certain page, or by telling Google directly “this content is not mine.” This can be done through a variety of ways such as labeling a page as “non-canonical”, “no-index”, or “no-follow”
Give Credit When It’s Due
This is a Follow up on Non-canonical articles, but for snippets or pieces of content that you do not own. If you want to take information from a website you still need to cite your sources. This includes images, videos, reviews, and blurbs. (Think back to high school or college when you had to annotate your sources for research papers, the same concept applies here except that when Google catches you, your website score goes down)
The Kings Of Content
Boston Web Marketing team specializes in curating unique content for sites that have been in business for over 100 years or even companies that just opened their doors. If you are interested in growing your business online or would like to expand and optimize the content on your website or social platforms, give Boston Web Marketing a call today at 857-526-0096!