For years, search engine optimization has been a field all of its own, a professional niche of content writers and web analytics experts that relied on short-form keywords, link building exercises, and other common practices to boost Google rank and improve traffic.
But traditional SEO was never really about producing high quality, unique content. Instead, it was a mathematical model that tended to favor almost the sometimes absurd and carefully calculated placement of keywords and links, oftentimes sacrificing quality.
The Downfall of SEO Prior to 2014
In fact, traditional SEO content is often generic, copycat fare, the work of SEO writers who claim they can produce content in any and all subjects, but who don’t have a deep enough knowledge in any given field to truly produce the kind of rich content that most people would be interested in reading or sharing. In other words, while most SEO writing has been able to accumulate enough clicks and traffic to rank on Google, it has been distinctly less successful at retaining reader interest for more than a few minutes, let alone at converting those readers into followers or customers.
For all of these reasons, it’s hardly been surprising to see modern SEO moving in a different direction. In 2013, there was a big move away from using links and keywords for the sake of using links and keywords, and a move toward content marketing as a means of gaining followers, clicks, and Google rank.
Part of the drive behind this was the readers, who have proven that they want deeper, richer, more unique content than most SEO “experts” have been writing for their clients for years. The other impetus was Google itself, which has begun to wise up to the methods that SEO industry players essentially use to game the system to come out on top of internet searches.
In fact, with the search engine penalizing content creators for overusing keywords or links, one could say that the old concept of SEO is dead or dying.
4 Reasons Modern “SEO” really means “Content Marketing” as of 2014
So what does all of this mean for your business and its digital content? Rest assured, at BWD we think this shift is going to be a welcome one for most. For example, small business owners will no longer be fooled into believing secret keyword formulas or scams from SEO snake oil salesmen since 100% subjective “quality” (according to Google) will always be at the forefront.
Here are more reasons this change should be welcomed by everyone within your marketing department:
Readers know how to use search engines to find exactly what they want. For the most part, SEO workers of the past have long focused on centering content around simple, two or three-word keyword phrases. While these phrases have indeed helped countless businesses improve their Google rank, the fact is that most people now know exactly what they are looking for and exactly how to use Google or another website to find it. This means longer, more detailed, and more difficult-to-predict keyword phrases to locate content, commonly known as “long form” search phrases in the former SEO industry.
People are more likely to read, share, and engage with unique and high quality content, meaning more revenue for you. The fact is that the vast majority of readers aren’t interested in the boring, repetitive, and copycat content that many SEO writers produce. While these pieces may have perfect spelling or basic grammar, they have often been produced by authors with little to no background in the field at hand. This isn’t the fault of the SEO writers themselves: their job, for years, has been to be able to produce credible content in virtually any topic or field. It just means that quality is now essential to any marketing plan that your company may have.
Simply being “credible” isn’t good enough anymore. If you can provide potential clients with an experience in the form of rich, detailed, unique, and eye-opening content, you will be rewarded by not only direct sales and revenue, but likes, follows, shares, traffic, great search engine rankings, and much more that will continue to build compounding social capital and more for your brand on many different social channels.
Build fellow content love, not brooding competition. The best content marketers will promote great content about their industry no matter what, whether they published that piece of content or not. For a long time in marketing and sales, the idea that you would “help” a competitor directly by sharing or linking to a competitors content was ludicrous. Aren’t you drawing attention away from your own brand and losing customers in the transaction? No. On the contrary, sharing “partner” content through mutual relationships with brands’ social feeds and content can directly boost the power of your own social and brand clout. Remember, consumers in 2014 are looking to follow high quality sources with trusted and innovative voices in the industries they’re buying in. By remaining a careful connoisseur of the latest developments in your industry you’ll not only impress potential clients, but your current ones (your best sales asset!) as well.
“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
– the Content Marketing Institute
The list goes on for why traditional SEO is fading away, why content marketing is taking its place, and why that transition could prove beneficial to businesses and internet readers alike.
Everywhere you look over the next year or so, expect to see a move toward high quality content and away from old-fashioned keyword baiting, link building SEO practices.
For instance, the SEO blog over at SemRush.com recently published a fascinating case study on how it increased traffic by “ditching traditional link building” and adopting content marketing in its place.
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