I see a shift in search engine optimization emphasis (or more importantly online brand visibility success); one that places a greater emphasis on custom content creation. Perhaps nothing super-new, but certainly more important.

Take a look at Google’s new indexing system Caffeine as a starting place. Caffeine was launched back in June 2010 to improve the speed and relevancy of their search engine results. Before Caffeine, Google would index the entire Web and then update their search results page every few weeks. Now, search results are being updated continuously adding new content as soon as it’s available. Add to this the ability for searchers to filter out old, static content and the need to continuously create new content becomes huge!

This content can be in the form of blog posts, social media mentions, and articles – though where you post these articles has changes slightly. Sound online brand visibility needs to center around a smart keyword strategy, but rather than just focus on website optimization and link building there’s a shift to relevant, custom content.

We’re seeing success with our search engine optimization clients when we optimize their site with all the proven tactics – meta data, H1 tags, alt image tags, well written copy that utilizes (not abuses) keywords, etc. When we do this, coupled with custom (well written and relevant) content creation around keywords and links back to their site page that focuses on that keyword, we’re seeing HUGE success. Add to this formula posts on Facebook and Twitter, and then sharing this content at content aggregators, the custom content becomes the work horse.

This is nothing new or Earth shattering, but its importance to the visibility mix is greater than ever. In a recent BtoB Magazine CMO survey “when asked if ‘custom content is the future of marketing,’ 35% of this year’s respondents said they ‘strongly agree,’ up from 19%. Forty-seven percent strongly agreed it should be part of the marketing plan, up from 30%.”

So get writing (or hire a smart agency that knows how to write)! Your search engine rankings depend on it.