When someone talks about being ranked #1 on Google (or Bing, Yahoo, or other choices) search pages, or improving their SEO (search engine optimization) people get excited…they want to be number one. Who wouldn’t, right? Here’s why you might not necessarily care about being number one on Google.
Google has gotten very good over the past several years…they are very sophisticated in their search algorithms and how they rank various listings on their pages. Today, I don’t believe you can be effective trying to “trick” Google like many have done in past years (even though there are still companies selling these services…avoid them). Tricking Google is not a good strategy…they have thousands of employees finding ways to not let this happen, so you are better to invest in something you can control and doesn’t try to trick the world’s largest search engine.
One thing has been consistent over the past few years…and has been consistently stated by Google. They have told us over and over and made it very clear…CREATE AWESOME CONTENT THAT PEOPLE FIND HELPFUL AND WE WILL RANK YOU HIGHER ON OUR PAGES. What part of this don’t people understand?
WORRING ABOUT YOUR PAGE RANKINGS ON GOOGLE IS NOT YOUR BEST STRATEGY.
The other alternative to focusing on page ranks and trying to get to the top listing is to FOCUS ON CONTENT YOUR AUDIENCE (CUSTOMERS AND OTHERS) WILL LOVE…FIND VERY HELPFUL…AND WANT TO SHARE WITH OTHERS. This is what your audience is begging you for today and really wants…because it helps them in their lives/jobs/business. It is what they are looking for from you…and what they have told us they are interested in reading/seeing/hearing…and they are much more likely to SHARE IT AND CREATE WORD-OF-MOUTH FOR YOU.
However, it might not get you better rankings on Google…it could actually work against you in the search rankings. Why? Because content written that helps your audience might not have the “SEO Structure” of key words or other aspects to help you get the highest rankings on Google. That’s right…if you focus on your audience and give them what they really find valuable, it might not help your Google rankings.
Google will tell you that the best content (most relevant and credible to your audience) will get you the highest rankings. I wish that was the case…but there are still too many companies in the marketplace that have as their primary function the plan to manipulate these any way they can to get you higher on the pages.
My recommendation…GO WITH WHAT GOOGLE TELLS YOU…WRITE TO YOUR AUDIENCE, NOT TO THE SEO PUNDITS.
But the best part is this…if you always write to your audience and they find what you write to be incredibly helpful, relevant, and useful they will share it with your desired audience…AVOIDING THE NEED FOR SEARCH ENGINES ALL TOGETHER. After all, if someone tells you the best place to shop or to work with is XYZ Company and you want to visit their site, you will skip going to Google or any other search engine…there isn’t a need, you simply go directly to their site. This to me is what worries the search engine companies more than anything today…Word-of-Mouth. If you go directly to someone’s website or blog you don’t need the search results page and you don’t need to have a high ranking because your audience isn’t going there to find you.
This is a very critical component to understand about the power of Word-of-Mouth…done perfectly, there isn’t a need for search engine rankings!! Your existing audience of customers and advocates are SENDING YOUR DESIRED AUDIENCE DIRECTLY TO YOU. That to me is the ultimate goal of all of this content you are producing to help your audience. Helping your audience in a way where they don’t need search engines to find you…our audience knows where to tell them to go to find you. If every business did this we would eventually eliminate the SEO companies that are trying to sell strategies to beat Google.
I have always believed this is a losers game…one where you eventually lose. I know this will upset a lot of people and I will get lots of rebuttals, but in the end, it just makes good common sense. Building a strategy where your customers are constantly sharing more and more of your content with more and more prospective customers because your content is top notch and incredibly helpful and gives them considerable value is a winner’s game.
This is simple…WRITE TO YOUR AUDIENCE (CURRENT AND PROSPECTIVE) IN A WAY THAT GIVES THEM INCREDIBLE VALUE AND HELP IN WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING…PERIOD.
Let your competition play the search and SEO games…your customers will thank you for it and be more loyal than any search engine can ever deliver. Focusing on how you can help your customer will never go out of style…regardless of the technology and those that prey on manipulative methods. Stay with what Google has been telling us for some time now…write to your audience, not for search rankings and SEO and you will WIN!
