You always heard it said that “content is king” but that adage kind of flies in the face of the newest trends in SEO, which is to penalize websites and web pages that have “too much content.” Google recently announced changes to its algorithm, and even warned sites against “over optimization.”
Now what in the world does over optimization mean? How can something be over optimized? This is a play on words, and does not actually mean that sites that do SEO “too well” are going to be penalized. On the contrary, the newest algorithm changes are targeting sites that have poor SEO practices, and that attempt to “overdo it” as a means of compensating for poor quality content.
Google says it doesn’t matter if you write 10,000 articles of low to average quality – you should not get any special benefit. On the other hand, websites that have high quality content, and that establish high quality links (i.e. publishing work at other quality sites) will start experiencing search and traffic benefits.
So in the end, it’s still about “content is king…” but that “content” is now being scrutinized. Under Google’s new terms, it may be better to publish 10 great articles at high quality sites (or on a company blog) than to publish 100 low quality articles all over the place.
Ultimately, reputation is what matters. And who among us really wants a reputation of publishing weak content, or giving poor advice? No, we want to associate our names with quality content. We want our customers to think of us as an expert in our industry. The only way to improve a reputation online is to write high caliber articles on a regular basis and to seek out quality links at equally reputable sites. Are you planning for the future of online marketing through organic SEO?
