Relevant Social Content is more important than links. In Google’s most recent Penguin update, their weighing priorities place a whole lot less emphasis on links. Google now seems to believe that if you promote content with social media it is more indicative of relevant content and less likely to be faked. Apparently, these social links are thought to be harder to fake than other links.
In his recent forbes.com article entitled “The Death of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, and Real Content”, author Ken Krogue summarized many of the changes and made a point that really caught my attention:
- “The bottom line is that all external SEO efforts are counterfeit other than one: Writing, designing, recording, or videoing real and relevant content that benefits those who search.”
How many times have we heard that Content IS King? He posits that “Real Content” is truly the foundation of strong SEO as the target for search success continues to evolve.
I am continually reminding clients of the need to produce content for their sites…Social media, specials, blogs, how-to’s, videos, thought pieces….and, the conversation always ends up here –
“I know we need to produce content – but, what do we write about?”
Relevant Social Content is all around your business.
In his article, Krogue listed the following approach for creating “Real” content. I love this checklist so much; I may have this tattooed on my forearm.
14 APPROACHES TO GENERATING REAL CONTENT
1) Research important questions.
2) List good / bad examples.
3) Passionately tell a story.
4) Highlight recent trends.
5) Survey best practices.
6) Compile proven tips.
7) Point out a problem.
8) Recognize who.
9) List what.
10) Warn when.
11) Show where.
12) Debate why.
13) Demonstrate how.
14) State the so what?
With a business to run, it is a difficult task for many of my clients, – but, content creation is a service we gladly tier into our monthly agreements. We create and publish the content and then refine and re-purpose it across several social platforms. It is a vital and necessary component of today’s successful SEO and will make a huge difference in a site’s connectivity, relevance and ranking.