Content marketing for search engine optimization has been a successful marketing method for many years and it still is, but the rules has changed. With all the Google algorithm updates over the last couple of years, many websites and dedicated article directories were penalized by Google and lost most of their rankings.
Why is this? It’s simple. Google wants to provide their users with the best user experience and with low quality content it’s just not possible. Many content marketers used one article and then used the same article on a content spinner to produce multiple articles originated from the original. Spinned articles are low quality and usually only focusses on keyword stuffing. These articles were then used in many different article directories with each pointing a link back to a specific website.
For many years this worked because content marketing and link building was more a numbers game than a quality game. When Google updated their algorithm to counter this approach, they changed basically everything. All the duplicate versions of content was removed and de-indexed. The links that were built in this process didn’t count anymore and weren’t producing any traffic.
Trust me, this wasn’t the end and content marketing is still king for SEO and social media – you just have to use original and informative content that your target audience will find interesting and share with their own network and social circles. It’s really not a numbers game anymore, but a quality game.
If you are interested in content marketing – you should be if you are busy with an SEO or social media campaign, find a couple of tips below to make sure you only use quality content in your strategy.
Quality content marketing tips
- Quality over quantity wins. Focus only on quality.
- Use only unique content.
- Don’t make your primary focus article directories. These still work, but don’t focus only on one method of getting your content across.
- Regularly publish high quality content on your own website, blog, and social media profiles. Trust me, Google will see it – especially if it is shared and commented on.
