The folks at Business Content always have great tidbits that I try to keep up on.  Today they had an article titled “How To Get Ahead Of Google Change.”  For this article Business Content gave three tips for ‘staying a head of the curve’ when it comes to search engines:

  1. Write Content for Real People
  2. Make Social Media Work for You
  3. Write a Blog

Before I even got to the article I started thinking about what I tell people about how we do SEO Integration at I Heart Blank.   It’s a tricky talk partially because I don’t want to give away all my secrets, but I truly believe that most of SEO optimization is common sense.  Most people need to understand a certain amount of how SEO work and then simply apply common sense to that understanding.

When I saw the first tip “Write Content for Real People”it made me think of one of the main things I tell people…Search Engines Actually Want Your Content On Top Of Organic Searches.  Here’s the why and how…

Understand Why Search Engine’s Exist

Ima go off topic for a second but stay with me…I was reading a random article on Gizmodo about Google’s FREE Fiber Optic Service.  I was skimming through the comments when someone made a good point about why Google was giving away free internet.  I’m paraphrasing (at best) but he made a point that “We are not Google’s consumers, we are their products.” It made total sense to me.  Google sells AdWords and pays out in Adsense.  Google has the worlds largest search engine so they can sell AdWords.  The people buying AdWords are Google’s consumers.  People searching Google are the products.  Does that make sense?

Here’s another quick example…I remember a conversation I had once about Radio and Newspaper Ads that was a little insincere.  This person had a particular view that Newspapers and Radio were simply Advertising Mediums.  You put content (music, news, editorials, etc) in order to get people to listen or see the advertisements.  Was that a better example?  I hope so, cause I think I’m out.

Search Engine’s Need To Bring You Results

All that being said, I think it’s important to remember that Google wants relevant content to show up in their organic searches.  If Google didn’t have relevant material on their search engine then people (sooner or later) would go to Bing or Yahoo.  In the same way, if a Radio Station or a Newspaper had God-awful content then listeners would soon turn away from that particular medium.

I believe that any Search Engine’s ever-changing algorithms are to help their ‘products’ (us) continue to use their service (and not someone elses.)  If not you could/would search “puppy dogs” and some kind of “NSFW” (Not Safe For Work) stuff may come up…and then you might really which search engines.

Organic Results vs. Paid Results

Most people know the difference between Organic Search Results and Paid Results, but just in case you don’t we’ll go over it.  When you search something on a search engine you’ll often notice some ‘off-color’ ads (blue, yellow or another color) come up first.  These are the Paid Results that are a result of AdWords.  The ‘normal’ looking links underneath that are the Organic Results.

Write Authentic Content About Your Service Or Product

So the answer is to write authentic content.  Write content for real people.  It’s what search engines want!  It’s pretty simple and pretty much common sense.  If you want to come up at the top of search engines then write relative content that people are going to want to read!  If someone looks up “Web Content for Search Engine Results,”  then any search engine wants this post to come up (right after their Paid Results) instead of pornography.  It’s that simple!