My favorite line from all the articles I’ve read about Google’s impending shift to move all keyword data to “not provided” is “Stop worrying about Google”, by Neil Patel. This shift would be Google’s continuation of their move to make some keyword data “not provided” a couple of years ago. Stopping your worry about what Google is going to do next doesn’t mean you have to like what’s going on, but it’s always good to stop worrying about things you don’t, or can’t, control. Right? How many areas of our lives do we need that word of advice?! So, what to do?
Produce Great Content
We’ve been saying this to our clients since we started Digital C4 back in 2010. Don’t worry about writing content for search engines, write for your prospects and customers, and do it well. After you do that, optimize it for search engines, if it makes sense. It’s been our stance from the beginning that good content will produce good results in the search engines. Quality over quantity. Let’s not try to manipulate the search engines while forgetting what our audience wants to read, or finds appealing. Will it help your business to have good search results, good rankings, only to have a prospect bounce off your page because your content sucks?
Produce great content, despite what Google is saying they’re going to do in their latest algorithm or in their analytics package. We do know this, Google wants to show the best content out there. They’ve shown that it’s their commitment. So, assuming they’re not lying, producing great content should get you results.
By the way, if you’re at a loss on how to produce great content, start here with our Four Steps to Building Content Marketing Success.
Don’t Ignore SEO Best Practices
Now, I’m not saying you can ignore some of the basic ‘best practices’ of SEO. You still need to have a focused keyword list. Then use those keywords in your content to be found when someone’s using a search engine. Very soon, even now, you’re going to have to work a little harder to figure out which keywords are sending traffic to your site. We do know this though, AdWords will always show us search volumes for keywords. Use Google AdWords keyword tools, Google Trends, Google Webmasters, and a myriad of other SEO tools out there (We use Raven) to do your research. Connect your Google AdWords account, you should have one even if you don’t advertise, to your Google Analytics account to have more insights into keywords. Finally, using those tools, create a quality keyword list to use while producing your quality content.
Roll Up Your Sleeves
Roll up your sleeves and accept the new challenge that’s laid before you. Again, I love Neil Patel’s take on it…it’s going to make us all become better Marketers. Take a deep breath. Don’t worry about Google. Instead, produce the best content you can. And if that doesn’t help, say these words by the famous Stuart Smalley over and over again…”I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggonit, people like me”. Everything will be all right.