The Tip of the Iceberg
When you go to ‘google’ and search for something, why do the articles that appear on page 1 beat out all of the other articles? Why are there sometimes seemingly unrelated articles to your search or those that just don’t answer the question you have exactly? What is happening!?!
The answer is: Expertise, Authority and Trust.
As search engine crawlers become smarter and content developers become more in-tune with their audiences, the natural improvement to the benefit of both the content provider and you as the consumer, is the right answer gets provided.
This isn’t by accident! It’s an all out battle for the top by content providers with online business marketing strategies. The attention of the consumer rarely leaves the first page and almost exponentially drops even from position 1 to 2 and further still for those articles showing up at the bottom of the page.
The nitro that propels articles to the top, the tip of the iceberg? The answer: Expertise, Authority and Trust.
Expertise
So, what is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the connected web of content and context that sits underneath of the tip of the iceberg, pushing it above the surface and making it available for the consumer (searcher).
If you want to demonstrate to an online shopper you know what you’re talking about you need to provide content that demonstrates expertise. “Listies” articles are a popular and easily crawlable format. If you were a construction company then, for example, you could have content on the ‘Top 5 Materials Used to Build Homes.’ If you are a website developer you might have ‘The Top 10 Factors Google Considers for SEO.’
Each of these article demonstrate knowledge, i.e. expertise in a the material.
Authority
If you have a product or service you want to stick out from the crowd then you need a Brand Content Strategy and you need to get your brand out there and go big! This is authority. Think of your favorite sporting goods store and then think of their reputation. There are onesie-twosie mom and pop sporting goods stores out here but typically is a big brand.
You need content that is connected between sites and social media and in daily feeds and simply put, spinning a web of authority that greatly outweighs the simple, often single article that protrudes the surface of the water. This is huge part of SEO. It’s technical. It’s quality and quantity. It’s multiple platforms. To win in today’s business you have to be seen and heard.
Trust
Reliability and accountability. Not words you often hear tossed around anymore. Virtues of the 1950’s? Nope, they’re still around but instead they’re embedded online. Confidence ratings and the “star system” are how we measure trust now. Has a company ever burned you in the past? What kind of a review did you give it? We are social creatures and that’s simply your way of communicating the risk to the next consumer.
Social rating factors are considered in not only Google’s algorithm but also on smaller affiliate sites like www.yelp.com as well.
In summary, all of this “connected-ness” creates a very large iceberg underneath the surface. That large iceberg is necessary to push the single article answering the single question up towards the sky and at the top of the search list. This, is SEO.
