Content Marketing has become even more important with Google’s Hummingbird update.
For many years, search engines have evaluated your website by comparing keywords or phrases entered in a search box to those found on your blog or webpage. In simple terms, search results relied on the user’s view, but Google concluded that words can mean different things.
In late September, Google revealed that it had updated its search algorithm by launching Hummingbird. This change aims to better understand how people think and to take into account the different meanings of words or phrases used in searches. Here are 5 tips to enhance content marketing following Google’s Hummingbird:
1. Content Must Focus On Consumer Needs
There is probably no better time to consider customer acquisition through a permission-based marketing strategy. Why? Because it is the consumer who is defining quality content and Google intends to satisfy the consumer. There is little to gain in designing a website or an email campaign to force your message upon people who haven’t asked for it. When people use the search, they are looking for a direct answer to a question or useful information on which to base an important decision. For web content to be quality, it must satisfy those needs.
2. Carefully Consider the Language Used In Web Content
Even though Hummingbird is geared to mobile and voice search, it will affect the majority of online searches. You need to understand why people are typing a specific word or phrase in the search box? Are there alternative words or synonyms that describe your products or services? In other words, let’s say you have a real estate website – what does your site content say about first-time home buyers or problems that might be encountered in buying or selling a home? You must start thinking beyond an exact keyword and focus your content around those ideas. Your customer relationship management techniques must focus as much on the “why” of the search as they do on the “what”.
3. Quality Content Needs To Be Shareable
Millions of people are sharing ideas, opinions, and other valuable information in social networks everyday. Are you adequately tapping in to this potential social media gold mine? Your web page or blog should be designed to make it as easy as possible for people to share your content with their relatives, friends, and co-workers.
4. Web Content Must Be Interesting and Inviting
Professional web content writing does not have to be dull. The Panda and Penguin updates punished websites that contained thin, stale, or irrelevant content, as well as, linking techniques of the same poor quality. People are scanners, not readers, and if they don’t find something of interest in the first few seconds, they will be gone. If you feel that defining quality content is difficult, outsource it.
5. Web Content Must Clearly Define Your Brand
Your blog and web content must be structured so your visitors can find a definite answer or clear information. They don’t want to be directed somewhere else to solve their problem. Don’t make people have to guess who you are or what you do. The best content will be totally honest and transparent.
Google is making every effort to make search quality better and the Googlebot is now trying to understand the intent of the search. Our challenge is – How can be make a direct relation with our target audience? The key ingredient is relevance and we must learn to think beyond targeting just a few keywords.
If you need help in your “connection building” techniques, contact us and we will help you make sure the right message reaches the right audience.