Outranking competitors to reach the top of Google’s search engine is the Holy Grail for most brands and companies; getting there, however, has never been easy. And with Google’s latest round of updates to its algorithms, the goal posts have shifted once again.
Google is getting smarter and wising up to some of the underhand SEO tactics that have emerged over the years and there are large global brands – Interflora to name one – that have fallen foul of the new rules.
Google recently penalised Interflora for paying external websites to link to its own site – a tactic known as ‘link baiting’ – to drive up the number of click-throughs and improve its Google ranking. Link baiting is a definite no-no these days.
The good news (if you enjoy writing) is that content is now King. Google’s latest round of changes encourages brands to improve search engine rankings by attracting users organically through original, high-quality content.
While the changes don’t discount other valuable SEO tactics, it is now more important than ever to place content at the very heart of your digital strategy.
That means that it is time to dust off your blog and add some fresh new content to your site that is relevant and valuable to your audience – the sort of content that people will want to share.
The reward for your effort: a better chance of making it up Google rankings to give your company a competitive edge in a cluttered and challenging marketplace.
