So maybe content is king after all!
- SEO |
Just as a general FYI:
I recently created a new site. I spent the time writing fairly deep and extensive content. And while admittedly not a highly competitive keyword, in the space of 3 weeks, I went from page 5 on Google, to page 3, to page 2, and this week page 1 (around position 4). Moreover, not just for the "primary" keyword, but a number of other keywords too. Moreover, I didn't actually write the content with keywords in mind in terms of trying to use the keyword to meet some mystical "Density" ratio.
So maybe I'm being naive here and I'm just getting some Google honeymoon affect and will soon wake up to reality, but it got me thinking about ranking generally.
We've always heard Google/Cutts say "Write good content". And Google are somewhat guilty of creating their own backlinking mess due to having links affect your ranking, but if you stop to think for a second...the philosophy is to return the most relevant content for a users search. Google knows that people are engaging in a myriad of artificial ways to build links...come on, it's privileged to have the smartest engineers all under one roof. While they generally claim that links act as a form of "social proof", they know too that your average plumber isn't going to get much in the way of natural backlinks. We've seen them pull the rug out with their Panda/Penguin updates, and you can bet they'll do the same in the future.
So my anecdotal comment really here is I've made it to page 1 thinking only about the user and providing good content. I haven't build a single backlink and I guarantee you I haven't received any natural backlinks.
So ultimately, perhaps it really does come down to content...who would've thunk it
I recently created a new site. I spent the time writing fairly deep and extensive content. And while admittedly not a highly competitive keyword, in the space of 3 weeks, I went from page 5 on Google, to page 3, to page 2, and this week page 1 (around position 4). Moreover, not just for the "primary" keyword, but a number of other keywords too. Moreover, I didn't actually write the content with keywords in mind in terms of trying to use the keyword to meet some mystical "Density" ratio.
So maybe I'm being naive here and I'm just getting some Google honeymoon affect and will soon wake up to reality, but it got me thinking about ranking generally.
We've always heard Google/Cutts say "Write good content". And Google are somewhat guilty of creating their own backlinking mess due to having links affect your ranking, but if you stop to think for a second...the philosophy is to return the most relevant content for a users search. Google knows that people are engaging in a myriad of artificial ways to build links...come on, it's privileged to have the smartest engineers all under one roof. While they generally claim that links act as a form of "social proof", they know too that your average plumber isn't going to get much in the way of natural backlinks. We've seen them pull the rug out with their Panda/Penguin updates, and you can bet they'll do the same in the future.
So my anecdotal comment really here is I've made it to page 1 thinking only about the user and providing good content. I haven't build a single backlink and I guarantee you I haven't received any natural backlinks.
So ultimately, perhaps it really does come down to content...who would've thunk it
If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.
Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.
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