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Get a Quote Today!The Importance of Consistency Throughout an SEO Campaign
Consistency is an important part of life. Some might find it boring, but it’s true. Whether you’re a player in a sports team, a worker in a local fashion store or a business owner conducting an SEO campaign in order to increase the profitability of your company, consistency is key.
The Changing Face of SEO
Search is a very dynamic industry, with constant changes to Google algorithms, SEO best practice, and that which we believe to be true on a daily basis. In addition, all of these areas are open to various interpretations, which is why search generates so much discussion and debate, and why it is easy to find a handful of articles discussing the same topic, but all with wildly differing points of view.
The biggest changes in the last two years have been the implementation of Google Panda and Google Penguin. These algorithms have inspired numerous feelings in SEO agencies, webmasters, and business owners the world over, from hope that their sites will finally get the rankings they deserve to fear that indulging in link building will sink their website and business.
What You Do Know About SEO
What we do know about SEO is that a handful of things are currently remaining consistent. The two main factors are:
SEO activities should be focused 100% on the end user – the customer or the reader.
High quality content is the most important SEO factor.
Both of these points feed each other. Your potential customers or readers want you to give them the very best information. As a business, you cater to the needs of those groups, which online means creating high quality content, thus completing the cycle.
Quality & Consistency
By now, most people, including those who carry out minimal SEO processes on their website, understand that they need to be publishing content on a regular basis in order to maximise their SEO potential. However, quantity should never take precedence over quality. If you’re unable to create quality content in the time you have, then outsource the writing to a pro who can deliver your objectives.
Producing high quality content demands consistency. This should run through the tone of the article, how your branding shines through your written content, and later, in the way in which you share your content via social media streams and interact with anyone who offers feedback. Whether you’re writing your content yourself or you’ve hired a copywriter, don’t place any pressure on numbers. Rushed content is, almost without exception, lower quality content, and SEO benefits, as well as the consistency of your branding and message, will be easily lost.
Your Brand Name Away From Your Site
Despite what some people believe in the post-Panda and post-Penguin world in which we now live, you can still contribute guest posts, build links, and enjoy the SEO successes that these practices bring. In fact, these are essential functions if you’re serious about increasing your brand visibility online and diversifying where your traffic comes from.
However, a shockingly large number of businesses don’t seem to put the same level of care into their content marketing when it isn’t on their own site. Why does this happen?
The biggest reason is that companies are still guest posting to build a backlink, not to take advantage of the opportunity to share their expertise and views with a new audience, members of which will potentially become customers in the near future. Consistency drives all of this. To this end, you should decline guest posting opportunities where you have to amend your style at the request of the host. Yes, you might have to make a tweak here and there to ensure your writing is as attractive as possible to this new audience, but you shouldn’t water down your content messages or branding in any way.
Treat such an opportunity as if you’re writing on your own blog. Your name will be associated with authority and excellence by those who regularly interact with your brand, and your reputation, as well as your SEO performance, will increase over time.
Avoiding Irrelevance
Think carefully about any guest author opportunities that come your way. You might have the opportunity to write on a great site with an audience in the thousands, but it might not be right for what you do. For example, if you’re selling luxury cars, writing on a blog related to luxury motorbikes, although it is easy to draw similarities, is pointless, as the readers are interested in motorbikes, and it might even hurt your reputation when it becomes apparent you don’t sell them.
While you might think that businesses would be mindful of inviting such different authors to write on their blogs, this is a widespread practice, so you need to be able to police yourself rather than just saying yes to every guest posting opportunity that comes your way. It might seem like a good idea, but Google will notice the lack of consistency and not give you any credit, and perhaps even penalise you!
Consistent Content
Publishing content on a consistent basis is key to a robust SEO strategy. However, the real consistency needs to be in the quality of what you produce. Not only will this boost your on-site SEO, but you’ll also start to earn a much greater number of natural links as people link back to your high quality content.
Use an editorial calendar to plan your content workload, and be clear on who does what, so that your content marketing, branding, message, and overall SEO is coherent, consistent, and delivering results.
If you’re struggling with consistency in your content marketing or with any part of your SEO strategy, Bough Digital can help. Contact us now to discuss your needs, how you can make your content marketing more consistent, and give yourself a better chance of increasing your sales.