Content is King: Why SEO is About Your Audience and Not Google

If you’ve done anything relating to SEO, you may be under the impression that it’s a dark art focused on appeasing the cruel and powerful Internet god, Google. Yes, Google does set the standard in modern Internet searches, but your SEO strategy isn’t going to work if you are targeting keywords more than you are targeting your audience. 

What is SEO?

SEO standards for Search Engine Optimization. It has to do with formatting content and using keywords that are going to get your website and your business noticed online (yes, even social media!). There are three main focuses of SEO, though the first two are often overlooked:

1. Security
2. Usability
3. Clarity 

When digging deeper into all these focuses, SEO experts will refer to likes and dislikes Google and other search engines. This is where the misperception that SEO is about Google comes from. 

Google’s mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” As one of the wealthiest companies in the world, it has all its resources–money and brilliant minds–focused on achieving that goal. So if we trust that Google is trying to connect every web user to the best information and resources, then following Google’s road map is the literal Google Maps on how to help your clients and potential clients find you.  

The Importance of Security in SEO

Security is the most important aspect of your website’s SEO performance. It’s easy to achieve but hard to regain if it’s been compromised. If your website was: 

• made in good faith (i.e. not intended to rip anyone off); 
• has https at the beginning of its web address, indicating that you a security protocol encrypting data sent between the users browser and your website; 
• and isn’t overrun with pop-ups, you are probably good.

It seems obvious that a safe website experience is best for your audience, and search engines agree. This is why security failures are so harshly penalized within search engine algorithms. 

To check your website’s security, test your website at Why No Padlock for free: https://www.whynopadlock.com/. 

Is Usability really that Important for SEO?

Another misnomer with the SEO focus is usability. In the last eight to ten years, Google and other search engines have taken a keen interest in usability, and accessibility for that matter. This SEO trait makes it imperative that you have SEO advisors involved when designing your website. They are going to ask questions like:

• Does your website have a clean design that also looks good on mobile? 
• How is the site speed? 
• Can users with a disability extract information from this website? Is there ample text, even describing visual content, should a user be seeing impaired? 

Usability has to do with the user’s experience on the website. If the user experience isn’t good, Google will devalue your website in the rankings. Google’s goal is to serve the best answers and experience to its searchers. If your website is clean, well designed and a user knows how to use it, they are likely to spend more time on your website and click around through multiple pages. Google tracks how long a web searcher spends on search results, and more time on site means you will rank higher the next time a user is looking for a business that offers what you offer.

You can quickly check your website’s usability with Google’ Page Speed Insights: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.

Clarity and the All-Important Keywords

• Keywords help search engines understand the content of a webpage, making it more likely to appear in relevant search results. Proper keyword use improves visibility, drives organic traffic, and aligns content with user intent, increasing the chances of higher rankings in search engines.
• Link-building enhances a site's authority and trustworthiness. High-quality backlinks from reputable sites signal to search engines that your content is valuable, improving search rankings. It drives referral traffic, increases visibility, and builds relationships within your industry, all of which contribute to long-term SEO success.
• Readability keeps users on your site longer, reducing bounce rates. It is advisable to write at a lower-reading level when writing for a website. This is nothing against the intelligence of your audience. People simply read faster on a digital screen (often a small digital screen) and complex sentence structure makes the speed difficult to achieve and users will abandon a website rather than change their desired behavior. 
• Multimedia increases user engagement with more dynamic and interactive content. Videos, images, and infographics can improve dwell time and reduce bounce rates, signaling to search engines that the content on your website is valuable. Multimedia also increases the chances of appearing in image and video search results, boosting visibility.
• Markup helps search engines better understand and interpret the content of a webpage. Structured data markup, like schema.org, enables rich snippets and enhanced search results, improving visibility. Proper markup also enhances the accessibility and usability of content, leading to higher rankings and better user experience.