People’s reaction to Google’s plan to encrypt more of the informations offered on Analytics, made me believe that what content marketing needs is a new SEO strategy. But the more I read the less I actually believed in this idea.
The tale of the Squirrly alchimist
So today I will tell the tale of the Squirrel searching for the Elixir for prolonging website’s life. Our Squirrely little character knew a lot about the white magic way of SEO strategy. The amount of keywords each post needed it came naturally to this furry alchemist. He used tips and tricks, he bolded his keywords and tagged all his pictures. But he always relied on his Shaman friend that gave him indication of how well his magic was doing and what was his next step. If he choose the right keywords that will get him closer to the Elixir. And one day the old Shaman died.(a moment of silence) And what Squirrly soon discovered is that he always knew how to make his SEO better. That deep down inside he knew what he had to do to get closer to the Elixir.
The new SEO strategy is the old one
Same thing applies to the real world. Yes you don’t have all the statistics you had before, but the SEO strategy is the same. You choose the keywords which are most relevant to your companies field. You can still do research on that keyword with other software. For example our plugin also offers a Keyword Research tool that gives you the recent discussions, the exact searches, competition and trend.
And then you write content that is valuable and interesting. The principle is the same. You focus on optimizing your articles and promoting them. The SEO strategy is the same because Google is mostly the same and how people use it to search for information has never changed.
The Secret that helped
The moment when I actually understood that I wasn’t searching for a new SEO strategy was when I read Jason Acidre’s best kept secret. Creating content that is fully optimized, focusing on industries head terms and text that is update-able is the real aspects we should focus on.
Writing strategy
Find your core keywords and write content naturally based on them. That is what content marketing is about in the end. The SEO strategy is just a way of making that content easier to find when people search for it. But the optimization and creation of content has not changed too much.
For this aspect you need to become and expert in the field you write in and get to understand your audience. This researched information will actually make you better understand what are the true problems and questions people want to find answers for. It will make you understand what we need more of and what is enough. You will become a visionary and you will understand if something is not found at all or they just need to be better explained.
Lasting in time relevance
Another important aspect that people forget is that your content should be update-able and relevant to people even in a few months from now. In the end you don’t want to be ranked high up for a keyword this week, you want to stay there for months or even years. Having articles that refer to specific events is great, but your pillar articles should have some information relevant to the industry that will last in time. People will visit and revisit those pages for the information they offer. They need to reread it after months so they will bookmark it. It will organically be brought up in online conversation on social media.
Offering your public bits of information means they have to be clear and focused. Being specific does not represent a detriment and how valuable your content is. Explain in detail one aspect so they will understand precisely how important it is and how they can use it. When your audience feels that they have grasped the concept and how easy they can master it on their own, they thoroughly appreciate it. And you have only winning aspects through their reviews, their social media activity and their subscription to your feed.
Connecting the crumbs back together
Usually understanding one concept is not enough. You need to understand a whole field with the specific terms and mechanism. You have created article with bits of information, focusing on one keyword at a time as part of your SEO strategy. To make those posts become a solid content you need to build links. The links have to be clear and logical. First you can make referrals in your articles to information you have already written about and connect it to that specific article. Also don’t be afraid to link other sites if you consider that information relevant as you go into detail.
Something that I found quite interesting in Jason Acidre’s article is how the pages he explains his secret on, are actually reference lists. They are 2 articles optimized on his core keywords in which he promotes his whole site. It’s more like a map of all the articles, cut down on specific sections. I think this a great plan not just for uniting all your content but also to create a big picture of what you sites offers. In this case it’s really appropriate because Jason is a SEO strategist and you can see in one article what he can do you for your online company. For a business, even if you don’t dig deeper seeing that he wrote about 106 different aspects of SEO strategy seams pretty convincing.
Doesn’t seem the scenery has changed too much since Google’s decision to encrypt some keyword statistics. Of course we will miss that information, just us much as our squirrly little alchemist will miss his Shaman. But life goes on and the SEO strategy is the same. We write for our customers, we give them long-lasting information and we connect it all up from them. And one day we will all find the Elixir.
