This may not yet be the Golden Age of Content, but it IS coming. Getting those all important search engine places has, until now, been a matter of juggling organic search elements.
These include keyword factors like good meta tags, keyword density in text, internal links and even the domain name itself, domain registration age and history, good backlinks and relevance to the topical neighbourhood, the age of links and the quality of the sending domain and metrics such as the time spent on pages and the number of searches.
Google’s current algorithm certainly has some direct analysis of content beyond keyword densities, and there is some speculation that further content endorsement comes from good old human beings (search specialists will also tell you that a good route to prominent Google placement is via the The Open Directory project — dmoz.org –which is entirely human-based).
Google’s own comment on their search algorithm is simply: “Google’s complex automated methods make human tampering with our search results extremely difficult”.
Google watchers say the algorithm changed last year to the detriment of many existing sites using the arsenal of so-called “White Hat” tricks such as keyword density and Long Tail. One way of regaining SEO that seemed to work was increased pagination: more content. It seems as if Google (and other search engines) have good, relevant and interesting content in their sights.
But isn’t that what search engines were meant to be? Somewhere people went to find readable pages relevant to their interest.
You should take note of this now. Don’t abandon White Hat, but be aware that your site should be more than a series of search engine algorithm tricks. Content is king.
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