A sus­tain­able SEO strat­e­gy is not a sim­ple check­list of tips and tricks. It’s eas­i­er to under­stand your audi­ence than it is to under­stand search algo­rithms – the secret for­mu­las search engines use to rank web pages based on what peo­ple search for. There­fore, to stay ahead of the algo­rithms and reach con­sumers at crit­i­cal moments, you must focus on your audi­ence. Cre­ate appro­pri­ate con­tent that address­es their need. The rest will fol­low.

When peo­ple think about online mar­ket­ing, they often think about how to stay one step ahead of Google – like a game of chess. But being strate­gic does­n’t mean try­ing to “beat” the search engine. It means work­ing to under­stand where search engines like Google are head­ed, so we can work with them.

When you think about the type of dig­i­tal busi­ness cul­ture you want to cre­ate, the ulti­mate goal is proac­tive mar­ket­ing, rather than reac­tive.

See, search engines are prod­ucts, too. They are prod­ucts of the com­pa­nies that own them. And those com­pa­nies have their own goals for their search engines.

Work­ing to under­stand what those goals are can help you be more strate­gic in your approach when you’re play­ing in their sand­box.

How Algorithm Updates Factor Into Strategy

Google is a busi­ness first, one that makes bil­lions of dol­lars off its search engine.

To ensure it pro­vides the best search results, Google places a high pri­or­i­ty on the user expe­ri­ence. One of Google’s core philoso­phies is: focus on the user and all else will fol­low.

Google per­forms hun­dreds of algo­rithm updates per year, many of which go unno­ticed. Some­times, how­ev­er, algo­rithm updates have a big impact on sites.

Most of the updates Google makes to its algo­rithm are meant to improve the user expe­ri­ence by deliv­er­ing a bet­ter prod­uct (the search engine itself, and the results).

Fol­low­ing the mean­ing behind the algo­rithm update helps us plan for what’s going to be impor­tant to search engines like Google.

A strate­gic pro­fes­sion­al looks to the his­to­ry of Google updates to fore­cast what will con­tin­ue to be impor­tant in the future. Because user expe­ri­ence is often at the fore­front, if you’re opti­miz­ing for your audi­ence, then you’re on the right path.

Go Where Google Is Going

It’s crit­i­cal to pay atten­tion to where Google is head­ing.

Ulti­mate­ly, there is no way to stay ahead of the hun­dreds of changes to Google’s algo­rithm. The best way, then, to stay ahead of the algo­rithm is to stop try­ing to fig­ure out the algo­rithm.

As a dig­i­tal busi­ness, you must try to under­stand and focus on why Google shows the results it does and how it dis­plays the search results rel­a­tive to your audi­ence, the key­words you’re track­ing, the peo­ple you’re tar­get­ing, and the intent.

The search results dis­play is a unique lay­er on top of the algo­rithm. Based upon where a per­son search­es from, what they’re look­ing for, their search his­to­ry, and how Google is inter­pret­ing what they’re try­ing to do, Google may pick any num­ber of dif­fer­ent pieces of infor­ma­tion to dis­play to an audi­ence.

Try­ing to game the algo­rithm won’t get you any­where. Where you’ll find the great­est organ­ic search oppor­tu­ni­ty is in under­stand­ing why Google thinks a piece of infor­ma­tion, or the way the search results are dis­played (e.g., inclu­sion of images, news, or shop­ping), is impor­tant to your audi­ence.

Google has done a pret­ty good job over time fore­cast­ing their direc­tion, if you pay atten­tion. It’s fool­ish to decide that “you haven’t been caught yet,” so you won’t make any changes.

Take some time to under­stand the mean­ing behind some of the more infa­mous updates in recent years, and you’ll begin to see a pat­tern of what’s impor­tant to Google.

Audience First

You may have heard that the key to rank­ing #1 in Google is to cre­ate an amaz­ing web­site filled with infor­ma­tive and valu­able con­tent.

For­get all the junk about “rank­ings”. Talk to your audi­ence through your con­tent in a way that is best for your audi­ence.

Google always tries to put the user first. They want their search results to include the best con­tent for their audi­ence. Cre­ate the best con­tent so

Google sees fit to dis­play it to their audi­ence. You must learn how to talk to and write for your audi­ence, espe­cial­ly if it’s a niche audi­ence (e.g., PhDs or mom­my blog­gers). You should­n’t care if you don’t speak to a wider audi­ence.

Brands or busi­ness­es that fail to cre­ate valu­able pieces of infor­ma­tion in a way their audi­ence can con­sume should expect poor results online.

Create Valuable Content

You want to cre­ate con­tent that’s right for your audi­ence and dis­trib­ute it through the appro­pri­ate mar­ket­ing chan­nel. Don’t wor­ry about dis­trib­ut­ing through all chan­nels. Talk to and through the rel­e­vant chan­nels.

Con­tent might not be writ­ten words. If your audi­ence is large­ly on Pin­ter­est, then cre­at­ing valu­able Pin­ter­est boards might be the way to go.

Con­tent aids con­sumers at every stage of the pur­chase fun­nel – from dis­cov­ery, to lead nur­tur­ing, to con­ver­sion. To cre­ate life­time val­ue, think in terms of the entire deci­sion jour­ney, not just those in pur­chase mode.

In the end, the algo­rithm will do what­ev­er the algo­rithm does and the search dis­play will do what­ev­er the dis­play does. But if a query is a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of your audi­ence, and the intent in which the audi­ence is try­ing to dis­cov­er is rel­e­vant to your brand or busi­ness­es, and you do that well, you’ll be able to ser­vice an appro­pri­ate lev­el of your audi­ence through rank­ings.

Forecasting Change And Moving With It

If your orga­ni­za­tion isn’t pre­pared for the com­ing changes, you will con­stant­ly be chas­ing the algo­rithm.

Focus instead on how you can bet­ter under­stand the needs of your audi­ence. Fol­low where the tech­nol­o­gy is tak­ing us. Plan to be a part of that.

Look at the way soci­ety is evolv­ing, and how younger gen­er­a­tions will shift the online expe­ri­ence with their expec­ta­tions. Do this, and you can pre­pare a brand that is rel­e­vant online for years to come.

Final­ly, always aim to be in com­pli­ance. Search engines like Google are mass dis­tri­b­u­tion mod­els that sus­tain many busi­ness­es. To be a part of that, you need to play by their rules. Remem­ber, your brand or busi­ness is ben­e­fit­ing from their audi­ence.

Key Takeaways

• Most of Google’s algo­rithm updates are aimed at improv­ing the user expe­ri­ence and the prod­uct itself: the search engine. Com­pa­nies like Google aim to have a rel­e­vant and use­ful prod­uct for its users.
• By under­stand­ing what’s impor­tant to Google and where tech­nol­o­gy is head­ed, you can make strate­gic, proac­tive deci­sions in dig­i­tal busi­ness.
• Fore­cast­ing change that will affect your strat­e­gy goes beyond the search engines. Think about where tech­nol­o­gy is head­ed and how users want to search and inter­act online.