What the heck is content? Is it a 400-word article? A piece of text that's 'above the fold' of a page? Is it an image or a video about a specific topic or subject? What the heck is content? With Google's roll-out of their Helpful Content Update, I want to share with you a unique way to view content, a way that's different to the article-word-count metric that some SEOs share on the internet. The way you view content will affect the way you produce it. Hear me out and consider what I say when I breakdown the definition of content - from an SEO point of view, of course.

You know, I often say that SEO is for users, real, actual people who visit your website. SEO is not for search engines, it's for users. As SEO continues to grow, as more and more people are aware of it, there is a tendency to try to 'game' the search engines, namely Google. As such, Google must respond, targeting those who seek to manipulate organic search. They have now rolled-out their Helpful Content Update. Here is my take on this algorithm update.

You know, SEO is used to improve your website. This improvement is for users, not search engines. When you regard your SEO as a channel that helps you improve your website for the purpose of serving the users you aim to acquire, you’ll realise that the improvement of your website goes beyond search. The improvement of your website with the SEO channel helps other digital marketing channels improve their performance. This is why SEO is the core of all digital marketing channels.

You know, thinking SEO takes 3-6 months before you see results from it is very misleading. A short timeframe as such, is unrealistic. It'll take you the best part of a quarter to analyse, strategise and get the business onboard with SEO. By the time you implement changes, another quarter would have gone by. It will then take another couple of weeks (at least) before Google readjusts its algorithm. Realistically, this is another quarter. SEO is forever. Thinking it takes 3-6 months before you get results is a disservice to your business.

SEO strategy documents may be of little use to you. If you're not in the position to implement your strategy, documentations may be completely useless to you. A top-down approach to your SEO may not be what you need to make progress with your SEO. Let me explain.

With the state of SEO, these days, and where it's likely headed, you'll need to place more focus on your equity pages than on the keywords you target and rank for. These days, you'll really want to get in the habit of treating pages as assets, with the goal of managing and growing the assets. Let me explain.