Your company’s online presence has never been more important than it is today. But as you churn out content for your blog, website or social media pages, it’s possible to forget about the people behind the screens as you focus on your site’s rank on Google. While cracking the first page of Google is important, you can still achieve this and provide your users with the quality content that brings them back for more.
Google has been fighting web spam for years and every algorithm update goes further to help combat against spammers. The latest update, launched in April, is no exception.
Here are three of Google’s quality guidelines you should follow to avoid being demoted by Google’s new update.
- Steer clear of a technique referred to as “cloaking,” which deceives users because the content is presented differently to search engines than it is to the reader. When creating your pages remember, the content is for the user not the search engine.
- Participating in link schemes will negatively affect your website’s rank on Google. Your ranking is partly based on the sites that link to you. If you are linking to web spam or helping a friend out by constantly linking to his site, you could be negatively impacting your ranking.
- “Keyword stuffing” is loading a webpage with random, misused keywords in an attempt to manipulate your site’s ranking. This can negatively influence the user’s experience on your webpage in addition to dropping you down the ranks on Google.
Writing quality content for your webpage isn’t impossible, it just takes commitment. Staying on top of the latest trends in your industry, improving flow throughout your copy (like adding lists similar to the one above) and reaching out to other players in your field by linking to their pages with appropriate content for your audience are all ways to improve your chances of climbing the Google ladder.
Content marketing is an ever-changing industry. Knowing what works and more importantly what fails is something content marketers learn more about every day. Don’t let Google intimidate you into creating lackluster content for the sake of your search ranking; it’s a tamable beast when done right.
