Without search engine optimization, no article or website can be kept permanently at the top of the Google ranking these days. SEO agencies therefore earn good money, but many of them fight for clicks for their clients with lovelessly produced texts. But it seems that the Google algorithm will not be tricked by bad, keyword driven content for much longer.
Topics in this article
- Quite logical: Google wants to deliver optimal search results
- Good content comes from good journalists
- It’s the mix: Exciting elements add value to articles
- Conclusion on SEO success with “good” content
Is there an SEO and keyword strategy that will bring my website to the top of the Google ranking? What does SEO success actually mean? And which ranking criteria and search engine factors influence the Google algorithm so that it prefers my landing page – or an article on my homepage – in the search results and brings me a lot of traffic to the website?
Well, do you still want to read on after this introduction? Yes? Then I have probably done everything right with my keyword stuffing. Or were you on the verge of bouncing (fleeing) because I hammered too many SEO-relevant nouns, i.e. keywords, into my keyboard in almost random order?
In any case: With this article about “good SEO” I move in a world of professional magazines about Search Engine Optimization, felt a million SEO experts and pig-expensive SEO seminars on thin ice. Oha, did I just write “thin ice”? An anti-keyword – very bad from an SEO point of view! Right?
If you want to make it big on Google, you’re up against a whole army of SEO-experienced competitors. Before dreaming of a 1st place ranking for a lucrative keyword – the biggest challenge is probably promised by “SEO seminar” – you should know Most of the top search results were created at least three years ago. This is the result of an investigation by the SEO tool provider Ahrefs.
Quite logical: Google wants to deliver optimal search results
So everything stupid? You’d rather just leave it alone and put the money in AdWords? No. Not so fast. Because in addition to many different SEO criteria, one thing in particular influences Google rankings: the quality of the content. It’s logical: Google is a service provider that wants to offer its users the best possible content.
“In Google’s mission to organize the world’s information, we want to guide Google users to the highest quality content.”
So if you create a text only from an SEO point of view, tools such as the SEO traffic light Yoast (which automatically checks whether the respective page meets the most important SEO criteria) will give you the green light, but the probability that the user will lower his thumb is high.
Good content comes from good journalists
The criteria Google uses to feed its algorithm can easily be found in the “Guide Lines”. Most of what is written in these SEO guidelines you can actually think for yourself: Good content informs, entertains and moves people.
But how is “good content” created? By experienced, creative (online) journalists who have internalized the most important SEO criteria. They deliver exciting articles that inform and entertain readers in equal measure – and they also contain the right keywords.
That doesn’t always work, but sometimes it does. Among some other keywords, ispo.com – the website of the sports business network ISPO, which is managed by THE DIGITALE – has also been ranked first in the search term “Bundesliga Sponsors” with its article since summer 2017. This is interesting in that the competition for all soccer topics is enormous.
It’s the mix: Exciting elements add value to articles
Why may the article “Bundesliga Sponsors: These are the 18 jersey sponsors of the clubs” serve as an example of “good SEO” here? Because it actually brings the (currently) maximum benefit to users looking for the main sponsors of the Bundesliga clubs.
- The article refers to many clubs, the text is updated regularly.
- It includes a table with all sponsoring deals, with the income and terms of the deals.
- A picture gallery shows all jerseys.
- The integration of Facebook posts loosens up the text and creates an up-to-date reference.
In this form, this article is unique on the German-speaking Internet – and is therefore rewarded by Google with the top position. By the way, not from the beginning either: For several months it was not visible on the first page of search results, then it ranked second behind “bundesliga.de” for a long time – until it overtook the official Bundesliga homepage.
Conclusion on SEO success with “good” content
Of course, a well thought-out website architecture and functioning technology are enormously important in order to play a role in Google rankings at all. An SEO analysis is indispensable before a (re-)launch. But please don’t be frightened by technical terms of so-called SEO experts. Google is not an unpredictable monster, but can be used with the right content planning and good journalism.
The goal should always be: Create content for people, not for (search) machines!
