Give Google Search what they want with no Surprises!

Larry Page, the co-founder and CEO of Google, once described the “perfect search engine” as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.”

So with that said, give the user, the searcher in this case the answers they seek by supplying useful, well written, unique and relevant content that is seen by Google as the best possible answer to the search query used.

Many times I am asked when carrying out organic SEO campaigns for SME’s as to why am I am so insistent on good content and on page optimisation and not as demanding on backlinks, social likes and follows along with guest blogging. The external factors are certainly important but can all be manipulated in some way or another. Where excellent well written and informative unique content is not.

Google understands this all too well via its web spam team and therefore is constantly striving to penalise sites that have manipulated the rankings with these sometimes unfair external factors in ranking above those sites with more relevant and informative content. See it as protecting the field.

Googles financial anchor is its ad revenue but its core business is its search engine in giving the ability to supply quality answers to searchers via its search result page (SERP). It is therefore imperative that Google continues to strive in giving the searcher the best result possible with no surprises!

Focus on the users requirements for knowledge and all else will follow.

In writing these well informed quality articles it will naturally lead to these articles been shared and liked. So create content that wants to be shared that is written for the user not the search engines. Ensure that you give the reader the ability to share and like these articles via on page like and share buttons such as twitter, Linkedin and Google +.

This method of having your valuable content shared will lead to the creation of natural backlinks. The very method and criteria that Google determines whether your site follows Googles quality control regards natural backlinks.

Content creation, strategy and discovery

Discovering topics to form a content strategy can derive from a number of sources but effectively should follow one clear guideline and that is that users want to learn! Content that makes the user smarter and more informed.

Examples could be:

• Top 10 lists
• Product reviews
• Tips and Tricks
• How to

The list is almost endless but should as suggested be informative and written to educate the user. The products and services you supply will dictate the content and should portray the author as an expert in your field.

A large part of your content strategy should be around answering questions. Most searches have the intention of answering a question. Google identified this in 2013 releasing an algorithm to address this very specific need called Hummingbird. Think about why people are looking for something rather than what they are looking for.

93% of people search online before making a purchase, so answering their questions when they search will bring them to your website.

Google trends is a useful tool to explore the search demand interest over time for search queries geographically.

Check out my Moving Web SEO Blog for further articles