focus.jpg

I was always reluctant to call myself an SEO… That is, until I was at this conference and met a guy who owned one of the most respected SEO firms in the country. During his presentation, he didn’t say anything that I didn’t already know, so afterward I approached him to talk shop and started asking him about blended/universal SEO. This is when I realized not only that he didn’t know s**t and that I did, but that SEO was basically bulls**t. This is really why content is king.

Basically, everything you need to know about ranking for your desired keywords can be summed up in 6 little steps:

  1. Forget Meta Keywords — the major search engine ignore them.
  2. Use Descriptive Page Titles.
  3. Write Accurate Meta Descriptions.
  4. Use H1 Tags to Label Pages — make them similar to (but not the same as) your page titles.
  5. Have Relevant Content on Your Pages: aim for a 3% keyword density, but settle for 2% density because reading a page with 3% keyword density is like rubbign your eyes with a cheese grater.
  6. Use H2 Tags to Label Smaller Chunks of Content

Basically, the real secret to SEO is to be relevant. If your pages aren’t really relevant to your targeted keywords, then you’re a spammer. Search results are made for people, not users. Google is dedicated to showing people the results that are most relevant to them. Even if it’s an imperfect search engine, I can assure you that the people behind it are a whole lot smarter than you. You might figure out how to game their algorithm for a bit, but it won’t matter because no one searching for “car parts” is going so say “Oops, I’ve ended up on this mail-order bride site. Maybe I’ll order a wife instead.”

And more and more people are starting to wake up to this:

SEO is using deodorant instead of washing. SEO is masking bad coffee with sugar. SEO is cramming instead of studying. SEO is using pain killers instead of going to the dentist. SEO is taking weight loss pills instead of exercising. SEO is a comb-over. SEO is Scientology. SEO is Paris Hilton. SEO is the Zune. SEO is the morning-after pill. SEO is astroturf. SEO is not the real thing. SEO is cutting corners. SEO is not the solution. SEO is bullshit.

The Google algorithm has come a long way since it was BackRube. Backlinks aren’t quite as important as they used to be, and meta keywords aren’t worth s**t. This is why they say that “content is king.” With the web in its current form, Google is as close to a semantic search as we can get. Google judges the relevance of a page based on the content that’s on it, as well as how well the page is structured and labeled (not “tagged”) for usability.

So as long as you focus on producing quality content in a usable format, you will rank according to how relevant you are. And if your niche is a really competitive one and your competition dominates the first pages of SERPs above the fold because they have just been around a lot longer and, then I guess you have to get off your ass and do something new, innovative, and/or interesting. Otherwise, you’re not really relevant, and you’ll always just be another mediocre copycat, and Google will always know.

About CT Moore

administrator
Hi, I'm CT Moore (@<a href="http://twitter.com/gypsybandito">gypsybandito</a>) and this is my personal blog, a place where my thoughts go to wander. I'm a recovering agency hack who now manages <a href="http://socialed.ca/seo/">SEO</a>, <a href="http://socialed.ca/social/">social media</a>, and <a href="http://socialed.ca/content-marketing/">content marketing</a> campaigns through my consultancy <a href="http://socialed.ca/">Socialed Inc</a>. Sometimes I speak at conferences, too, but you can check me out on <a href="http://ca.linkedin.com/in/ctmoore">LinkedIn</a> if you really wanna know <i>that</i> much more about me. And if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line. I love it when strangers come a callin' ;-)

6 thoughts on “SEO vs Content: 6 Secrets to Ranking

  1. Yeah, content is totally part of SEO, but kind of in a way where SEO has become a part of content strategy, rather than vice versa. You know what I mean?

  2. What a post, I like it in a way. But there’s so many conspiracy here, do you do SEO? Have you done SEO before? Have you been scammed ? This sort of post comes with a lot of hidden agenda. But in a way I agree that a lot of SEO’er out there don’t know more than the normal self-taught SEO’er. Also agree with monica, Good SEO = Content = High traffic effcient site? What do you think?

    Els

  3. I don’t see any difference between your landing page and article h1 and h2 tags, and your meta description is all but absent. So you’re either too good to follow your own advice or you’re a cheap white trash bullshitter.

    Still, you’re a nice looking man with a pretty mouth. Can I buy you a beer on Friday?

  4. 7pm St Elizabeth Pub
    Corner of St Elizabeth and St Catherine, near St Laurent

    I’ll get the Russians to come, too

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *