As we all know, the SEO game is very different now compared to what it was a number of years ago. No longer is the focus solely on link building, keyword stuffing and other similar methods that were relatively easy to do and manipulate search engines with – In fact, those are a quick way to earn your online business a penalty that will be difficult to work back from. Now, site owners are better off ensuring their site is filled with creative, high quality and engaging content and having users naturally create links. Links should be there because people WANT to link to the quality content, not because they are deliberately gaming the system.
Creating quality and engaging content isn’t as hard as it may sound; producing FAQs or help related content can encourage users to share your advice or knowledge on their own sites. Today, given the power of social media, creating content that is fun and engaging is key. But the real key to fantastic, shareable content, is creating content that makes people look good.
Content that makes people look good = shares
The content that people are most interested in reading and sharing with their followers or friends is something that helps form and create their online identity. Simply put, the content should be something people would be proud of introducing to friends and followers on their social feeds.
People share things on their social media accounts primarily out of their own self interest. So if every article, infographic or video is shared because it says something about that individual that they want others to see, it means you need to create content that will make your audience appear in a positive light to their followers or friends. The goal of each piece of content you produce should be to cause your visitors to feel powerful about themselves. So as you make other people look good, you make your brand, site and company look good too.
Social media is the extendable arm of SEO and illustrates the importance of the role of outreach. So next time you’re thinking of ways to improve your SEO and content, remember to think about your audience and about how you can help them look the best they can be online.
