SEO

Yesterday, Google launched its newest Panda (4.0) update, along with an update to their Payday Loan Algorithm (hilarious name!). Two major updates in one week. Yikes. It may take a bit of time for the impact to fully hit, but it’s coming.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE, if you’re a public relations professional, not a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist?

As content creators, knowing the technical side of SEO isn’t important, but understanding how it intersects with your content is. Clients and employers expect public relations to bolster their reputation and visibility, not hurt it. (click to tweet)

And in this case, what you don’t know CAN hurt you (and your client or employer).

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 20, 2014

Here are a few things you absolutely must know. None of them are difficult, but they help you stay on top of your game, impress your client/employer and earn that promotion.

1. Diligently watch for duplicate content. 

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Semantic search? What the h e double hockey stick is semantic search?

Okay, maybe Tuesday’s post (Is Semantic Search Enough To Help You Rank Well?) was a little too much geek-speak for some of you. Especially if you don’t really follow SEO trends.

But it matters, so here it is again, in plain English this time.

Google is learning to give people search results based on assumptions. “You asked for X, but you probably really meant Y. Plus, Z would really interest you, too… ” In the most simplified terms possible, this is semantic search.

It’s still in early stages, so why should you care? Because it should shift how you are creating content. Context now matters. A lot. Google is starting to rely on your existing content to add context to your new content.

Instead of ranking for one extremely literal keyword or phrase, which has been the focus of SEO in the past – Google wants to help you rank for variations of similar search terms. It impacts both search engine optimization and, especially, the blogging portion of content marketing.

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I love last week’s Wired article about semantic search – which is Google’s shift from only recognizing specific keywords and phrases to ranking content for terms relevant to a larger conversation. It’s the difference between ranking for one phrase, versus ranking for multiple phrases that are worded differently but all mean the same thing.

“Consumers increasingly expect search engines to understand natural language and perceive the intent behind the words they type in, and search engine algorithms are rising to this challenge. This evolution in search has dramatic implications for marketers, consumers, technology developers and content creators — and it’s still the early days for this rapidly changing environment,” states author Kerstin Recker (@MsKtia).

The changes are both a blessing and a curse, and I have concerns that the dialog happening is very one-sided. Without understanding the bigger picture and realizing the technology is still in its infancy, it is easy to be mislead and complacent that content will rank well organically with no added effort. 

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