As we covered in last month’s Vortex Marketing Blog, the August Google algorithm update placed more emphasis on website content, promoting satisfying, useful information written by humans for humans. This month, we’re going to cover how to avoid common pitfalls that may negatively impact your website in the new update.
Write with Humans in Mind, Not the Search Algorithm
As we covered in last month’s topic, this principle hasn’t really changed, but has become more important than ever. When writing new content for your website, the main goal shouldn’t be to please the Google algorithm gods, but instead giving your website visitors helpful information that will help them accomplish their goals. This information should be unique, and come from a place of deep understanding and expertise, not a keyword-stuffed article about the latest trendy topic.
Avoid Using Extensive Automation
Automation and AI-assisted writing can be a great tool when used sparingly, but relying too much on it will negatively impact your search ranking in the new algorithm update. Churning out dozens of automatically generated pages with little change will be penalized much more than in the past, so keep that in mind when creating geo targeted pages and other similar content.
Don’t Simply Summarize Other Articles
One pitfall we see a lot in online articles are simple summaries of more well-thought out blog posts. Summarizing a complicated topic can be an effective piece of online content, but only if you’re adding meaningful information to the discussion; don’t merely regurgitate what someone else is saying.
Write About Topics You Know, Not Just Popular Topics
Another mistake we see commonly online is websites chasing the latest trendy topic without actually knowing much about it or doing research into why it’s trending. Some users will simply write about the new, popular buzzword hoping to ride along the wave of traffic without actually contributing anything valuable to the conversation. All of the content on your website should have an obvious purpose for existing beyond just covering what is popular at the time, and come from a place of expertise and experience.
Don’t Write Towards a Particular Word Count
Despite what many people believe, Google does not actually have a preferred word count. There is not some magic number you need to get your blog post to in order for it to rank well. Try not to focus on the word count of your pages, and instead put yourself in the visitor’s perspective: is this page giving me enough relevant information for me to accomplish my goals and leave me satisfied? Whether this takes 300 or 3000 words is irrelevant: the main goal is to write helpful content for the end user.
Need to tweak your website content for the newest algorithm update? Want assistance creating high-ranking content? Visit VortexBusinessSolutions.com or call 319.621.0191 today!
