In 2011 we saw some big shifts in the way that Google and other search engines displayed and decided what to show in organic results. Some of these changes included:
- More local search engine results displayed for different types of queries (an assumption that location is a driving force in search results).
- More ads and larger ads at the top of the results page, thus dropping the organic results further down.
- Different display features like google+ author pictures being added, integration of google+1 recommendations and google places undergoing several cosmetic overhauls.
- Multiple listings combined into 1 listing (whereas it used to be much easier to get several pages ranked on page1, it is now unusual and short lived).
- Duplicate content penalties that affected a lot of websites.
It was a busy year for Google and for those of us who are trying to stay one step ahead of them…and 2012 looks to be another year of significant changes. On page optimization is more important than ever (Heading tags with keywords and descriptions around 140 characters) and local search continues to change the way we see organic rankings, especially with more users searching by location from their mobile devices.
However, the biggest factor related to continued top ranking in search engines is…….you may have guessed it…….UNIQUE CONTENT!
Why Unique Content?
As ads start to squeeze out results for short keyphrases, long tail search results (results that comes from people typing in very specific phrases) are bringing in more traffic for individuals who aren’t paying a ton of money for pay per click ads.
For example, let’s say you are a lawyer in Des Moines, and you write and optimize a blog post called “How to Choose the Right Lawyer in Des Moines” and someone searches for that string of keywords. The odds are that your article will pop up and they will read it and have the opportunity to contact you. If you hadn’t written that article, you most likely would not have captured that search opportunity – and that search is very specific, targeted traffic.
Imagine if your site had 50 articles or 100 articles that each captured one of these results per month. That is a decent amount of targeted traffic for a local business. Not to mention that Google gives your site more authority based the amount of content and pages, which helps with short phrase results as well, and new and fresh content is often favored in results.
New Content in 2012
To help your business grow in 2012, consider a New Year’s Resolution to add more new content. When you add it, make sure that it is optimized (title tags, description – keep around 140 characters, keywords) and throw in some media like a picture or video. Keep this unique content on your site (don’t share it with other sites) and see the results that come from it. Adding content on a regular basis will be the #1 factor that will help your site continue to rank through the changes that 2012 and beyond will bring.
