Google Search Is Changing. Is Your SEO Changing with It?
In March 2024, Google rolled out a series of changes in the way Google ranks pages in any search. These changes were implemented to combat deceptive web and spam tactics that allowed low-quality, unoriginal content to rank in searches.
?While anyone who was using unethical or intentionally deceptive SEO strategies is understandably panicked, these changes also affect businesses with highly ethical and well-intentioned SEO strategies.
Google's March 2024 core update was very targeted at sites with low value, low relevance, or intentionally spammy sites. However, all kinds of companies felt a shift in search strategies. That's because Google is now more focused than ever on high-quality content.
But what does that mean in practice? It means that sites must be more specific, relevant, well-organized, and well-maintained to rank higher on relevant searches. Here's how you can do that.
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1. Focus on High-Value, Long-Form Content
Cup O Content has always maintained that companies must continually create meaningful, helpful content to rank in relevant searches. However, after Google's March update, high-quality content is more important than ever. But what, exactly, does Google deem to be high-quality content?
2. Keep Content Fresh
SEO is not a one-and-done project. Instead, you must update your site regularly, provide up-to-the-minute news about your industry, post regularly, and talk about the issues your best customers care about.
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3. Put Less Emphasis on Keywords
The new Google changes are focused on content, not keywords. This is a big shift. While keywords remain an excellent tool, the page has to talk about the topic in a valuable way. For example, if you want to attract people who want to plant a native garden on their Pennsylvania property, create many informative articles about the topic. Focus on helping people evaluate native plants, understand the benefits of native gardening, and give tips on choosing and growing a wide variety of native plants. Cite research and link to well-respected sources. When your content has a lot of value to your intended audience, your rank will improve.
4. Provide a Good User Experience
Google rewards sites that people like to use. Your company website should be responsive (it should resize based on the viewing format) and provide a seamless browsing experience on all devices.
Page speed is another crucial ranking factor. Manage image size to ensure your site downloads quickly. The amount and format of coding also affect site speed, so delete any unused code and remove unnecessary characters and spaces.
Finally, make sure your site is in excellent working order. Address technical issues like broken links, structured data markup, and website security to improve user experience and search engine crawling.
5. Linking Still Matters
Creating links among the site pages is still a powerful SEO tactic that allows search engines to crawl through the structure of your site. This is called "crawlability." When a crawler lands on a page, it will index it and look for a link to another page to keep indexing the site. The crawlers will continue as long as you provide links to other pages. But if they hit a page without internal links, they'll stop crawling and move on to the next site.
Never Stop Optimizing
If you want to rank on search engines, you'll have to make a continued commitment to SEO. Cup O Content can help you identify issues and optimize your site in ways that will help you rank higher, be visible to more customers, and drive more business. Contact us today for a free consultation.