Content Development for Readers and Google
Content development walks a fine line between making sense to your readers and getting good SEO ranking from Google. Your readers want valuable content that is easy to follow and understand. Google wants optimized content that can be intelligently indexed.
Content that satisfies your reader is enjoyable and provides content they can understand. When your reader is happy with your content, they will return again and again to see what else you have to offer. This builds their trust and your authority.
Content that is written for search engines can be risky. You may write an article that the search engines like. However, you could lose your readership by writing it in a way that doesn’t make sense to them.
Can your content satisfy both your readers and Google at the same time?
I think you can. Years ago, in order to write content that ranked better in the search engines, writers stuffed their articles with keywords and phrases. This repetition made Google’s algorithms happy. It was a great way to get a higher ranking in the search engines. It did, however, sacrifice the reader’s enjoyment of the article or post. Many times it sounded more like gibberish than intelligent information. In the end, it did little to build a reader’s trust.
Google caught on to the keyword manipulation and updated their algorithms. They also threw a lot of otherwise good articles into the Google dungeon. It was a long crawl back up.
Looking at Google search now, you will notice that when you type in your search term, synonymous words show up below the search box. They basically suggest content they think you’re looking for. When writing your articles, use related search terms naturally throughout. This will help your articles to flow with logical sentences and more than likely give you a better ranking.
The Take-Away
Google is looking for high quality content. The articles with keywords and related keywords get the highest search engine ranking. They want to ensure that when a keyword or phrase is typed into their search box, only the best articles show up first.
As a content developer, your goal is to write articles that fit into Google’s algorithm while making them enjoyable and informative for your readers.
