Stay Current in Your Industry to Maximize SEO Efforts and Discover Keywords

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – There are plenty of variables that go into SEO. You’ve probably spent time honing your metadata for search engine optimization, and you certainly know the value of good links. Now the best way to further optimize your website for search engines is through new content.

Courtesy of jezweb.com.au

Google likes fresh content. However, creating new content for your company’s blog can be daunting. You may start with a good list of topics, but once those are exhausted, it can be tough to find other topics to write about.

Test your knowledge of your industry by making a list of hot-button issues that double as keywords. Those keywords are important. Are they the same keywords that your potential customers are using to search Google?

Use Your Resources
Make Internet marketing work for you by compiling a running list of good industry resources. Medical professionals might subscribe to RSS feeds from medical journals. Learning what’s going on in your field will help you use more timely SEO keywords.

When we say “stay current,” we mean stay fresh. Learn new things. Ask new questions. Search for popular blogs and websites that feature news in your industry. See what other people are writing about. Knowing what the buzz is in your industry does two things.

First, it allows you to join the current conversation. You’ll know what other businesses like yours are discussing, what methods they’re trying, and what’s working for them. From the number of comments on competing websites you may even be able to gauge how effective certain topics are.

Second, knowing what people are talking about also tells you what they aren’t talking about. You may see an opportunity to start an important conversation about changes in your industry. Content that is fresh and unique has the potential to attract lots of viewers.

Comment on articles from your industry that appeal to you. Link to them on your website or social media outlets. You’ll learn a lot by being an active member of the discussion.

Do Your Own Research
Imagine you’re a baker, and you’re testing a new cake recipe. We don’t want you to share proprietary information, but sharing your journey developing a new product makes an honest, compelling story. Ask your customers for feedback when they try your new cake. Ask how the new cake compares with another one they’ve sampled. Record how many times the new cake flavor is ordered compared to the old ones. Spice up the name of the cake and see how sales are affected.

You’re probably doing this anyway, but think of a way to incorporate your journey into a blog post. All the research you do to increase your business is important, and sharing the results you’ve seen could be informative and engaging for customers and other businesses in your industry. Competition can be cutthroat, but gaining contacts in your own industry is a good thing. A friendly rivalry with another local bakery could yield excellent marketing and SEO benefits.

Remember all the Google SEO secrets we’ve shared along the way as you cultivate your content.

Know Your Keywords
You should be able to create a list of keywords from all your research. Staying in tune with the industry shifts can pay off. Grab some paper (or open a “note” on your phone) and list 10 keywords that are important to your industry. Bakers might list: “baking a cake, cupcake decorating, wedding cake prices, Dr. Seuss cake, and gluten-free desserts.” Already you’ve got a list of possible blog topics. Within each topic, think of specific things users would want to know about that topic. Pretend you are the one searching for the information on Google. What keyword phrases would you use to find gluten-free desserts? Maybe you’d use: “gluten-free cakes, recipes without gluten, baking without wheat, and flour alternatives.”

A column by Trond Lyngbø at Search Engine Land discusses the importance of keyword research.

“Powerful keyword research tools that can help automate and speed up many repetitive processes include Google Keyword Tool, Market Samurai, Google Insights for Search, and Google Trends (that can help reveal seasonal and other trends),” Lyngbø writes. “Analytically reviewing the consolidated data they throw up puts into startling relief many hidden opportunities just waiting to be exploited.”

Visit the resources mentioned above and see if the keywords you brainstormed have low or high competition.

Make your blog topics specific. This gives you more opportunities to diversify the content and the keywords within each post appearing on your company’s blog.

Keeping up with your industry will certainly boost your SEO efforts, but it also will trickle into your everyday work. In the SEO game and in life, there’s always room for improvement.

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The Google Freshness Update: Why Current Content Matters

Google’s climb to search engine prominence over the years has been subtly dotted with algorithm adjustments in order to stay current. In November, Google supplemented last year’s caffeine indexing system with the freshness update, making an algorithm that favors content that is both recent and relevant.

“Different searches have different freshness needs,” says software engineer Amit Singhal on Google’s official blog. “This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers.”

Although the freshness update is estimated to impact 35 percent of searches (at least one result on the page), it will only be noticeable to the average user among 6 – 10 percent of searches. In other words, the update is more effective than will be noticed.

So how is freshness and relevancy measured by Google’s standards? SEO expert and Master Google founder, Ali Husayni, points to respective topics.

“For ‘news’ items, the later a page has been created and content developed, the better rank it will have,” Husayni says. “For other topics such as ‘historical events,’ Google may include old pages along with new analysis.”

Account Director at Punch Communications and Huffington Post blogger Philip Keightley explored the same question in a recent post.

“What constitutes relevance? In Google’s eyes, hundreds of factors, with freshness being a recent development,” Keightley says. “What constitutes freshness? Real-time social networks such as Twitter and to some extent Facebook and Google+ have added additional tools to Google’s armory, since it can now crawl the content from these networks and deduce which content people are interested in, what it is and if it is relevant for its search results.”

The freshness update has not only affected search results, but has already begun to affect the methods of developers and writers as well. Former Master Google writer Kristen Peters has expressed how the freshness update influences her approach.

“Google’s freshness update has certainly affected our writers’ methods here at Master Google,” Peters says. “We always knew that content was a huge part of optimization, but this development has made it all the more important to write quality blog posts more often and has encouraged us to keep an eye on industry news, as the timeliness of the content is also a crucial component.”

Keightley shared thoughts on the immediate future as well.

“This presents a number of opportunities to marketers, regardless of their size and ammunition,” Keightley says. “Essentially, by creating a digital social object, whether that is in the form of an application on Facebook, a microsite or even a blog post, the buzz around that content will have a far greater benefit in search.”

Husayni does not believe any one component to a site warrants particular care and attention, but notes the importance of general consistency as with such formats as blogs.

“Blogs seem to be an important part of any site because they get updated on a regular basis,” Husayni says. “I suggest site owners should write for their sites on a regular basis. The more fresh, quality and relevant content they post to their sites, the better chances of exposure and inclusion on Google search results they will have.”

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Popularity: 2%

The Google Freshness Update: Why Current Content Matters

Google’s climb to search engine prominence over the years has been subtly dotted with algorithm adjustments in order to stay current. In November, Google supplemented last year’s caffeine indexing system with the freshness update, making an algorithm that favors content that is both recent and relevant.

“Different searches have different freshness needs,” says software engineer Amit Singhal on Google’s official blog. “This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers.”

Although the freshness update is estimated to impact 35 percent of searches (at least one result on the page), it will only be noticeable to the average user among 6 – 10 percent of searches. In other words, the update is more effective than will be noticed.

So how is freshness and relevancy measured by Google’s standards? SEO expert and Master Google founder, Ali Husayni, points to respective topics.

“For ‘news’ items, the later a page has been created and content developed, the better rank it will have,” Husayni says. “For other topics such as ‘historical events,’ Google may include old pages along with new analysis.”

Account Director at Punch Communications and Huffington Post blogger Philip Keightley explored the same question in a recent post.

“What constitutes relevance? In Google’s eyes, hundreds of factors, with freshness being a recent development,” Keightley says. “What constitutes freshness? Real-time social networks such as Twitter and to some extent Facebook and Google+ have added additional tools to Google’s armory, since it can now crawl the content from these networks and deduce which content people are interested in, what it is and if it is relevant for its search results.”

The freshness update has not only affected search results, but has already begun to affect the methods of developers and writers as well. Former Master Google writer Kristen Peters has expressed how the freshness update influences her approach.

“Google’s freshness update has certainly affected our writers’ methods here at Master Google,” Peters says. “We always knew that content was a huge part of optimization, but this development has made it all the more important to write quality blog posts more often and has encouraged us to keep an eye on industry news, as the timeliness of the content is also a crucial component.”

Keightley shared thoughts on the immediate future as well.

“This presents a number of opportunities to marketers, regardless of their size and ammunition,” Keightley says. “Essentially, by creating a digital social object, whether that is in the form of an application on Facebook, a microsite or even a blog post, the buzz around that content will have a far greater benefit in search.”

Husayni does not believe any one component to a site warrants particular care and attention, but notes the importance of general consistency as with such formats as blogs.

“Blogs seem to be an important part of any site because they get updated on a regular basis,” Husayni says. “I suggest site owners should write for their sites on a regular basis. The more fresh, quality and relevant content they post to their sites, the better chances of exposure and inclusion on Google search results they will have.”

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Popularity: 3%