Learn from Google – Focus on Content Strategy in 2020

Every now and then, Google releases new updates to improve rankings and search results. Its main goal is to show its users the most relevant content. Google algorithms become smarter every time using the latest AI technologies.

The most powerful updates usually happen several times a year. They lead to significant changes in how Google treats website positioning. Before to announce a new update, Google notifies businesses of the changes they need to implement in order to drive through this update smoothly. Most often, Google provides advice on how to deal with upcoming algorithms and what to focus on.

For example,

The Greatest Algorithms in 2019:

• June 6, 2019 – Site Diversity Update: It mainly focused on the organic listings of the website. Businesses had to make sure that businesses don’t appear in duplicate organic listings.
• June 3, 2019: Google Core Update: When it comes to core updates, it means that everything will be taken into account. Businesses affected during core updates before had to deal with a new impact from Google.
• May 23, April 5, 2019 – Indexing and Deindexing Bugs: Businesses struggled to index their new content during this time. Google informed about this bug period later.
• March 12, 2019 – Google Core Update: Another significant update happened in March. However, there were no specific details given.
• March 1, 2019 – 19-result SERPs: there was an unusual organic boost on this day due to in-depth articles ranking.
• February 6, 2019 – Unnamed Update: there was a great boost in ranking that shifted businesses in search engine results.

How Google Proceed with Content Reassessment

When running core updates, Google wants to make sure that search engines all over the world distribute content in the most efficient way to meet people’s needs.

During this time, websites usually experience drops or gains. Businesses who lose their rankings after the update, try to fix some issues on their websites. However, there might not be any problems at all. Sometimes, you need to wait until everything gets back to normal.

No algorithm update aims at bringing down specific pages on the website. On the contrary, the goal of Google updates is to improve the content system.

That’s why naturally, some websites will go up ready to be included in Google top results. While others will go down because of straightforward selection. Content focus will help to win the battle.

Quality vs Quantity

Currently, the most important and rewarding marketing area to focus on most of the efforts is Content marketing.

Google strengthened content important since long ago. That is why, businesses multiplied their content sources to produce more and more texts, articles, tutorials. There was an immense increase in the content load of the website. However, not many focused on content quality.

There’s often a big choice: Quality vs Quantity. 

Some websites focus on generating a lot of new content, covering different topics and keywords. That is how they increase their chances to be ranked at least for 5-10% of all generated content.

Other websites focus on improving the content, making it more relevant and interesting, answering questions asked by people straight away.

Both tactics are worth a try! 

It is always good to experiment before introducing a new strategy. Building new content requires a lot of efforts of writers, proofreaders, editors, publishers. Sometimes you need to go through new content and to remake everything from zero (if a topic covers outdated things).

The only thing you need to make sure is that the content you offer is the best.

Here are a few strategies to consider for

Content Marketing in 2020

1. Focus 65% of efforts on updating well-performing content and only 35% on creating new unique texts. It is easier to push the website that is already in higher Google results than the one with no particular rankings and traffic.

2. Try to introduce as many similar root keywords as possible in the article. It is not enough just to insert the keywords randomly. Every group of words and expressions should respond to a question asked by users. It is good to spot paragraphs that will focus on and uncover search queries.

3. Anything can produce an article update: adding a new piece of text, meta tags or images altering, more links insertion.

4. Headlines and titles should be explanative enough to arise the interest and showcase what the article is about.

5. Adding links to authority resources will give weight to the writing and help access more in-depth research.

6. Content updates should be regular, and based on how much new info appears on a given topic. The regularity makes Google come more often to check the article URL.

7. Watching competitors’ efforts will also help to plan the strategy correctly. Building a piece of content that will win – it is the biggest strength of any business.

8. New content should appear at least once a week. Every fresh article meticulously planned will have a detailed description of a given topic. Asking yourself what people need, what they are interested in, what they ask, what would I read myself – these are good questions to start a topic.

9. Stay calm as producing a lot of new content doesn’t mean lots of immediate traffic. It is lucky if 5-7% of the generated content stays in TOP Google positions. Moreover, sometimes it takes a few months for Google to rank your content. So, don’t lose hope.

10. And the last thing to consider when posting your content. Analyze if you (as a magazine or a person) would share this content. Would you link back to this article/tutorial? How much value do you see in your content?