The Death of SEO and the Rise of Quality Content

While an important component of any marketing campaign, Search Engine Optimization has long felt like catching bees with honey.

As the initial step in a growth cycle it makes sense that search engines assumed keywords linked to relevant content. Unfortunately this idea has become saturated with advertisers using black-hat techniques to cloak their lack of content with repetitive phrasing and blatant link schemes. In the past Google has taken a hole-patching approach with updates called Panda to down-rank websites that downgraded user experience. If this doesn't sound innovative enough to be Google, you'd be correct because it turns out they were just buying time.

The Google Penguin Release

With the Google Penguin release announced in April 2012, the concept of SEO as becoming obsolete was confirmed. Search engines are getting smarter and their algorithms more complex. Keywords will no doubt remain an important asset but the Penguin release marks an important shift in perspective marketers from cheating the system to producing quality content.
So how does this new algorithm work? In Forbes, Ken Krogue puts it best.

"Google used to think if you linked to someone on the Internet they must have valuable content. Now Google seems to believe that if you promote content with social media it is more indicative of relevant content and less likely to be faked."

While this may simply lead may SEO specialists to become social media strategists it shifts new importance on social media platforms. And with social media platforms users are given more opportunity to filter and react to marketing strategies. So what is a marketer to do? Engage with quality content.

Content is King and the Metrics of Engagement

You may be able to fake content but you can't fake shares (at least not easily). Twitter and Facebook may have their fair share of fake accounts but like Google, their digital czars are getting better and better at zapping them out of existence.

And to get shared you have to be relevant, or at least interesting. In the same article by Krogue in Forbes he gives an excellent list of "14 Approaches for Generating Real Content."

1) Research important questions.
2) List good/bad examples.
3) Passionately tell a story.
4) Highlight recent trends.
5) Survey best practices.
6) Compile prove tips.
7) Point out a problem.
8) Recognize who.
9) List what.
10) Warn when.
11) Show where.
12) Debate why.
13) Demonstrate how.
14) State the so what.

In conclusion, the death of gaming the system has been marked. So choose your writers carefully, it's time to get real.