All posts by : Chloe Shaw

In September 2023, Google ran its helpful content update, focused on improving the ranking of high-quality content. In preparation for the update we undertook an audit of our clients’ websites to ensure they were all meeting the mark. We analysed just how helpful the content was and where improvements could be made. So what were we looking for? And how can you make sure your content adheres to the ‘helpful content’ guidelines?

What is ‘helpful content?’

Helpful content can be summed up as content that is created for the user, not for the search engine. Humans are typing queries into search engines,  so the answers should be written for humans. If the answers have been written to serve an algorithm or a search engine, then the average user isn’t going to find that helpful or enjoyable. When done correctly, helpful content will boost your SEO because the information you provide will demonstrate that your pages put people first, not crawlers.

What did the 2023 helpful content update add?

A year after the helpful content update was launched, Google made some further changes. It’s important to have a clear understanding of what was added, to inform your SEO strategies. Whilst nothing too dramatic was introduced, there are a few things to be aware of:

• ➡️ The 2023 update demonstrated more of an openness to AI-written content, as long as it’s still providing value. Google specifically removed the words “written by people” and just wrote “helpful content created for people in search results.”
  
  So, no more is AI-generated content an absolute no-go. Go ahead and use it to support your content strategy, but proceed with caution and ensure the writing remains well-written and informative.
  
• ➡️ The update had an emphasis on User Experience, placing more focus on things like mobile-friendliness and website design. For Google to deem your site helpful, it might therefore be a good idea to give it a quick technical audit.

• ➡️ We saw a crackdown on third-party hosted content with Google warning against placing low-quality content on subdomains to try and improve search ranking. They said: 
  
  “if that content is largely independent of the main site’s purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.”
  
• ➡️ And finally, the update targeted the popular practice of updating content with minor changes and a recent date to appear fresh in search results. No shortcuts allowed I’m afraid guys.

Why is Google bothered?

Search has come a long way since the simple days of keyword stuffing. 45% of people using their mobiles online now use voice search and it’s no wonder. A whole generation has grown up with search engines as an everyday tool and we are now moving towards using search much more naturally than ever before. Google wants to make searching and finding what we want even easier, and is striving to understand meaning, context and intent far beyond a few keywords. 

The helpful content update is part of Google’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) masterplan. Essentially, Google wants to give users what they want rather than users having to guess which words to type to get the best results. The helpful content update ensures that websites and pages are providing the best, most informative content possible.

How to write helpful content

The easiest way to target this mammoth subject is to break it down into key areas:

• ➡️ The User
• ➡️ E-E-A-T
• ➡️ Semantics
• ➡️ Copy

1. The user (you, me, them, us)

No matter what you are writing about, always (I repeat always) remember who you are writing for. Understanding your audience is key to writing content that will be helpful to them. There is no use writing about the quality and composition of a leather dog lead if your client’s target market is price focused. To make that point clearer, here is how I would approach user intent when setting out writing content:

Industry/product/service: what does your client sell and what are the typical pain points when selling that product? Our client in the gardening industry sells high end garden furniture. People searching for garden furniture are likely to be concerned with quality, price and maintenance. So I would structure my content around these pillars:

Demographic: Our gardening client has an affluent target market and wants to hone in on the quality of their product rather than the final price. Therefore, their customer is less likely to be typing price related queries and more likely to be considering longevity and overall value. 

Possible queries: Now that you’ve broken down your user you can consider what they might actually be searching for. Tools like alsoasked or answerthepublic are great for researching real queries that real users are regularly typing into search engines. Even a basic Google search on something like ‘garden furniture sets’ can give you some direction.

This approach can be applied to all clients. Understanding the nuances of the end user enables you to write content that helps them find answers even if they don’t not know exactly what they are searching for.

2. E-E-A-T (aka friends don’t lie)

Much is made of E-E-A-T, or experience, expertise, authority and trust, not being a ranking factor. Not that I’d argue with Google, but the concept of E-E-A-T is intrinsic to helpful content so, for me, it follows that if you are creating expertly written, authoritative and trustworthy content you are being more helpful and, ergo, you will likely rank higher. 

When I set about integrating E-E-A-T into copy, I think about three key areas:

Bullet points and numbering 

This helps you to clearly set out your content and improve the user experience. The information held in these lists can be some of the most valuable on the page, allowing for featured snippet opportunities and, on a more basic level, setting the content apart so the user can easily identify it (remember what we said about writing for the user). It can be something as simple as a list of Do’s and Don’ts, but having these distinct sections of information demonstrates that you know what you are talking about and aren’t afraid to show it. 

Linking 

Linking is the pat on the back of the digital world. It shows search engines that you have mates vouching for you and it helps users to understand and trust what you are saying. Adding internal links to your content can direct traffic through a clear marketing funnel and allows you to utilise content pillaring effectively. Linking related articles together will form one big picture on your pillar topic and signal that you have plenty of expertise and authority in your subject.

And what about external linking? This is when you point to a website outside of your organisation and say ‘look they can back me up.’ It shows that you aren’t pulling information from thin air and can corroborate your points. In some instances, for example, Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) industries, external linking can be especially helpful because the subject matter requires an extra degree of expertise and trust. When researching your content, keep a list of any useful links and weave them into your final piece where relevant and appropriate.

But remember, with the 2023 update’s emphasis on user experience, it’s super important that these links are all working correctly. Tools like Google’s Lighthouse will assess the mobile-friendliness of your links, while Screaming Frog or Ahrefs will quickly identify any broken links.

Hard facts and figures 

Firstly, don’t make stuff up! This might be obvious but we’ve all been there – convinced we remember something only to find out it wasn’t quite right. For instance, if I’m writing an About Us page, I make sure to have an in-depth list of facts on the client to hand, so that my content has gravitas. 

Second to this, I always look to see where I can add value into my content with social proof, like reviews, featured articles or any accreditations. This might be a simple banner at the footer of a blog but it shows users and SERPs that the page, and therefore the site, can be trusted. Author profiling is another great way to double down on the information you provide so, where possible, include an author bio.

3. Semantic SEO (hey Bert)

Semantic SEO goes back to meeting your users needs. In short, it’s the use of keywords and phrases that relate to your chosen topic. Think of it as a natural way of speaking. If you were talking about your morning routine, you would naturally mention breakfast, showering and leaving the house. You wouldn’t veer off on a tangent and start talking about putting your pyjamas on. This is what Google refers to as salience.

In 2019 Google launched BERT, an algorithm which impacted 10% of all search queries straight away. BERT is an AI demo that will tell you how salient, and therefore relevant, your content is to your intended topic. So, as we touched on in the morning routine example, you should be using lexis that is relevant to your subject matter and shows your audience that what they have landed on is exactly what they’re looking for. Start off with some keyword research to identify your core keywords for your topic and don’t be afraid to use common sense as well! 

For example, if I was writing category copy for a piano retailer, I would use the top tier keywords around that specific piano brand but also talk about keys, pedals and soundboards to effectively demonstrate what the content was about. This is useful for content pillaring too, and those all-important linking opportunities. You can then run your content through BERT and get a salience score to see how it stacks up against other similar content.

BERT will also show you if it is a positive, negative or neutral piece of content. This doesn’t refer to its state of mind but rather its relevance to other similar articles. If you were writing content about the best apps for 2024, BERT should give you a neutral score as it isn’t an emotive subject. Or, if you were writing about how to be more motivated in the mornings, your copy may need to have a more positive sentiment score. Carefully consider the value your content offers, who it is targeted at and what needs they are trying to meet in searching for that content. This will help you achieve the right level of sentiment.

4. Copywriting (your English teacher would be proud)

Given half the chance, I’d talk about the virtues of good grammar and syntax all day long. Don’t underestimate the importance of simply writing well when it comes to helpful content. Readers don’t want to read overly long sentences with no clear end point. Think of every piece of content as a conversation. If you were asking someone for directions and they digress into how they used to live nearby, you would quickly forget the valuable information. So stick to the point and set out a clear beginning, middle and end before writing anything. I never start any article without drafting a brief first. Then, when I do come to actually crafting the content here are some of the basic rules I live by:

• H2 & H3 headings – long blocks of content are off putting and make it harder to find the info you are looking for so always separate with headings.

• Short simple sentences – ideally a sentence should be no longer than 20 words. If it is then commas are your friend.

• Follow questions with an answer – even if the answer is ‘it depends’ – give a definite answer first and then follow up with any variables.
  
• Use simple language – the average reading age for the UK is 9 years old. Of course, this can change depending on the topic and who you’re writing for (a professional audience might require more jargon). But the golden rule is to keep your content clear and understandable. Simple synonyms are a copywriter’s best friend.

In summary

Google will definitely thank you for setting your content out clearly and using good English. They will high five you if you have some good E-E-A-T signals and they will get down on one knee if you are meeting the needs of your users (sorry I got carried away).

Writing helpful content is mainly about matching user intent, and the 2023 helpful content update is just part of making search engines as effective as possible for the people using them – us. So perhaps the biggest takeaway when writing for humans is to be human. Don’t try to trick an algorithm into trusting you, just be trustworthy. There are SEO specialists and data analysts who can take care of the technical aspects of SEO, but as a content writer you should be focused on creating content that is enjoyable, valuable and genuine. So, to summarise, as a content writer, here are  the basic steps to get you started with writing helpful content: 

– Define your user and their needs

– Find opportunities for bullet or number lists

– Include internal and external links

– Fact check your content and ideally include evidence or social proof

– Research keywords and optimise for salience and sentiment 

– Use good English and grammar

– Write for your audience not a search engine (you should have figured that out by now)

If you need a hand writing SEO optimised helpful content, get in touch with us. 

Metadata – that stuff that makes up the bulk of what we see when scrolling the SERPS. Is it still important? How long should a meta title be? Is there such a thing as metadata optimisation? What does this all mean for SEO and, ultimately, my business’ sales?

These are questions that we’ll be tackling in today’s blog, which will run you through what meta titles and descriptions actually are, how to view and edit them and the impact they have on users and your SEO rankings.

But if you’re short on time, here are the key takeaways:

➡️ Spoiler, meta titles and descriptions are crucial for SEO! They help search engines understand your content and can significantly improve click-through rates

➡️ Search engines won’t always use the metadata you provide, but to make sure they do, ensure they meet the suggested character lengths, and accurately reflect precisely what’s on the page

➡️ You can optimise meta data, and you should! Target the right keywords, create a sense of urgency, and remember to always make each tag unique

Firstly, what are meta titles and descriptions?

Meta data is the snippets of text that appear in search engine results pages – in simple terms, what users read and click on to be taken to your website. As a result, they’re pretty important – first impressions count and they play a crucial role in how users perceive your site (and how likely they are to visit it).

So, let’s begin with the meta title. This is like a headline, or title, for your page. Displayed in bold font, it’s the first thing users will see. It’s also important for the search engines who use it to understand your page.

Then, the meta description appears just below the meta title; it’s a brief overview of what the page is about and can significantly improve CTR by grabbing users’ interest.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the meta description is the section beginning ‘protect yourself from the sun…’, whilst the blue text above is the meta title.

These days, search engines are very sophisticated, considering a wide spectrum of factors when ranking websites, and metadata is just one of them. But whilst not as important for ranking as it once was, this doesn’t mean your titles and descriptions don’t matter. A lot of people underestimate their importance but they do in fact still have a huge role in SEO. But why is that….

Why is metadata so important for SEO?

As we discussed above, metadata increases your click-through rate by providing an engaging summary of what your page offers. It allows users to make an informed decision about whether to click on your link, and often will include action words like ‘free delivery’ or ‘shop now’  to spark interest. So, why does this matter to you? Because the more clicks, the more traffic and potential customers!

High CTR is great not only for your conversions but also because it signals to Google that your page is valuable. Whilst there is no explicit confirmation that it directly affects search rankings, a consistently high CTR for a specific keyword might suggest to Google that your page is particularly relevant for that search term. Equally, a lower CTR is a red flag for Google, indicating that the content on your page isn’t matching user intent.

But that’s not all – meta titles and descriptions can boost your organic visibility because of keywords. Including the right, relevant terms in your metadata helps signal to search engines that your page is addressing these topics. It’s essentially a blueprint for the algorithms, giving them that extra bit of help needed to understand and rank your content.

How long should a meta description and meta title be?

It’s important not to get too carried away in your meta tags – keep them short, sweet and to the point, otherwise they’ll be cut short! 

Whilst meta descriptions can technically be any length, Google tends to snip them short between 155 and 160 characters. This advice is given by Google: 

It’s best to keep meta descriptions long enough that they’re sufficiently descriptive, so we recommend descriptions between 50 and 160 characters.

So, there’s your answer – but what about meta titles? Here, you’ve got less room to play with. Meta titles have a maximum length of just 60 characters and it’s generally agreed that the ideal length is between 50 and 60. 

Do search engines always use your meta descriptions?

No; I’m afraid that search engines can ultimately use whatever they see fit for your description. They prioritise providing the most relevant information to users, so, in some cases, this might mean generating their own title and description for your page.

You can avoid this happening by making sure that what you write is well-aligned both with the user’s search query, and the content on the page itself. Otherwise, Google will simply create a more fitting description for you.

How to optimise your meta titles and descriptions

In light of this, you may now be asking the valid question, “how can I make my metadata better?”  Here are our tips and tricks to write tags your copywriter would be jealous of:

💻Make your titles and descriptions super relevant. They need to be tailored carefully to the specific content on each page, so avoid using the same generic description across your entire site.

💻In fact, avoid duplicate content all together as this could get your pages penalised by search engines. It may be far less hassle to use identical meta titles across your website, but creating unique titles for each page will avoid this penalty.

💻Target the right keywords, but incorporate them naturally. Carry out in-depth keyword research to make sure you’re going for the most relevant terms, but remember the main aim of the tags is to tell readers what your page is about – not to see how many times you can fit ‘dog food’ into 60 characters.

💻Don’t just describe your content. Highlight its benefits and use these tags to clearly communicate what the users have to gain by clicking on your link. It can be good to incorporate a bit of urgency in the copy and there are a number of ways you can do this:

-> Time-sensitive language like ‘ends tonight’ or ‘limited-time offer’

->Use of action verbs, ‘start your free trial now’, ‘unlock your discount today!’

->Use of numbers – e.g. ‘only 10 spots left!’

->Using the seasons to say something like ‘last chance for summer deals’

So, the bottom line is, meta titles and meta descriptions do matter. They’re far more than just a button for users to click – optimised right, they’ll give a substantial boost to your site traffic, and help you rank for those important keywords.

If thinking of 30 different ways to say ‘shop now’ isn’t your strong point, why not leave it to the experts. Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning SEO agency, who’ll handle all the ins and outs of your SEO strategy, letting you focus on your business. If this sounds right up your alley, drop us a message at [email protected].

SEO has changed; long gone are the days of keyword stuffing working like magic, now search engines prioritise content that actually understands what people are looking for. Context is key, and a comprehensive, thorough understanding of topics will get you noticed by Google. In other words, SEO really is a matter of semantics these days.

But what does this all mean in practice for us SEOs and content writers? Maybe you’re aware of the notion ‘semantic SEO’ but don’t have a clue how to action it. I have good news for you, this blog will cover exactly that – practical tips and pointers to get you optimising your site with semantic SEO in mind. We’ll begin by giving you a quick dummy’s guide to semantic SEO, before explaining why it’s quite so important to increase your conversions and lastly, providing you with our practical guidance on how to do it.

Who’s this blog useful for? If you’re struggling to get your small business noticed online, writing blogs but failing to rank on page 1, or simply want to increase your company’s conversions, you won’t want to skip out on semantic SEO.

However, we know that time is of the essence, and if you don’t have a whole five minutes to listen to us rant about semantics, here are the key takeaways in advance:

🌐Post ‘Hummingbird’, ‘RankBrain’ and the Helpful Content Update, Google is prioritising understanding what users are really searching for. Your content needs to anticipate their questions and address a topic comprehensively.

🌐Create high quality, long, in-depth content that gives the user everything they’re after. This will keep them and Google happy, reducing your bounce rate and improving conversion rates.

🌐Don’t be afraid to enlist the help of tools like Salient to assess content relevance, or Answer The Public to accurately discover what users are asking.

What is Semantic SEO?

Semantic SEO, in a nutshell, is the practice of optimising content for meaning, not just keywords. As SEOs, it’s about adjusting our process a bit, considering what users are searching for, and thinking about the overall context of a page. It’s a smarter and more comprehensive approach that goes deeper to ensure that Google understands our content and that it meets user intent.

Now I’m not here to give you a full lecture on search engine history, but there are a handful of developments to be aware of that might just help clarify semantic SEO.

➡️In 2013, the ‘hummingbird algorithm’ was launched, changing the way Google worked. It was a major deal, ushering in an era of prioritising user experience and actually understanding the meaning behind search queries. No longer was Google only looking for keywords, now it was also understanding the relationships between words.

➡️Then, 2015 saw another major leap with the introduction of RankBrain, a machine learning model that could analyse vast amounts of search and user behaviour data. Like Hummingbird, it was looking to understand the intent behind what they type into the search bar.

➡️The last update relevant to semantic search is BERT, arriving in October 2019 and using a new machine to better understand the relationship between words.

➡️So, fast forward to today, Google is in its prime of understanding queries. With the rise of Siri and voice search, the algorithm now delivers pages of relevant results from just a couple of idiomatic words said into a phone. And when it’s scanning our sites, it’s specifically looking for content that addresses a topic comprehensively. In response, our content needs to match the algorithms’ human-like understanding of meaning – foreseeing and answering all the related questions people will have.

What’s in it for you (and your business)?

We get it, this might all seem like a bit of a faff, and chucking a few keywords into your blog is far less complicated. But, we promise that it pays to put the time and effort into semantic SEO. Here’s why:

✅The biggest advantage of focusing on semantic SEO is that it’s a proven way to rank in the search results! From the algorithm history you just endured, it should be clear that drumming down on this semantic approach gets you in Google’s good books.

✅Not only will you rank high, but you’ll end up ranking high for more keywords. By covering a topic in-depth, you naturally weave in related keywords, making your content show up for lots more searches, and therefore reaching a wider audience of potential buyers.

✅Semantic SEO is also the secret to the coveted ‘People Also Ask’ spots at the top of the SERPs. With a semantic strategy, you’re anticipating user questions by covering all angles of a certain topic. This hugely increases your chances of appearing in those answer snippets.

✅Once the users have found your page, you want them to stay. And yes, you guessed it, semantic SEO also works in your favour here. Content that tackles a topic comprehensively keeps users engaged, so you’ll see a lower bounce rate. Consider this, if you’re answering every question they have and providing everything they need, they won’t be bothered about clicking off to go elsewhere.

✅Plus, this also sends positive quality signals to Google. With the recent Helpful Content Updates, Google knows if your content is helpful and you can’t trick the system I’m afraid. By focusing on semantics, you show Google that our content is not only relevant to the search query but also informative, engaging and worthy of those top positions.

✅But techy waffle aside, all this matters because increased user traffic, and lower bounce rate leads to… (drumroll please) conversions and sales! And that’s what you’re all ultimately after, right?

How to actually do semantic SEO

You work in marketing so I can already tell that you love your actionable takeaways – do not worry, the next section will be painfully practical. Let’s crack on with what your SEO team should be tackling day to day to tick the semantic boxes.

1. Work on understanding user intent

Not to be dramatic but if you don’t understand your target audience’s search intent, you might as well throw in the towel now. Google prioritises addressing user intent as closely as possible so, essentially, you need to become a mind reader. Put yourself in their shoes, picture your target audience, what do they wear, what do they eat for breakfast. Seriously though, what problems are they trying to solve and what questions might they have after reading your content. 

Let’s say you’re targeting the keyword ‘how to grow tomatoes’ for your greenhouse business. Not only will they be searching this question and similar semantically-related terms, but also:

~Ideal planting conditions for tomatoes. 

~Tips on watering and fertilizing tomato plants.

~Common tomato plant pests and diseases, and how to control them.

~Information on harvesting and storing homegrown tomatoes.

~Recipes that use fresh tomatoes.

You need to provide content tackling all of these areas of the topic, or the user will simply click off and find the answers elsewhere!

2. Create high-quality, in-depth content

Semantic SEO means creating in-depth, detailed and complex content. I hate to break it to you, but a 500 word, blog post is just not going to cut it. You’re likely going to need a couple thousand words to cover the topic comprehensively. I promise it’s not as scary as it sounds – begin with a substantial brief to ensure you’re addressing every angle, and to get a digestible structure planned. It might even be worth hitting up ChatGPT for some help here (gasp), just to help you spot anything you’ve missed. But please leave the actual writing to the humans in your team, quality trumps quantity and a long but AI-generated blog post is not going to do you any favours. 

3. What you should and should’t be including in this content

Focus on creating comprehensive content that incorporates related terms naturally but don’t sweat worrying about every long-tail variation. With Semantic Search, the algorithms recognise connections between similar long-tail keywords (like ‘how to tell when tomatoes are ripe’ and ‘are my tomatoes ready to be picked’). Google gets that these terms fall under the same topic.

Prioritise in-depth content that meets users’ needs and don’t forget to answer those People Also Ask questions. According to a study of 2.5 million search queries, this feature now shows up for almost half of all search queries, and this is often above position 1!

4. Schema

Schema, also known as structured data markup, acts like a translator, providing Google with a better understanding of your content. With schema, you’re essentially labelling the different elements to make it easier for search engines to understand the context. This could include things like ‘brand name’, ‘location’, ‘price’. 

It paints a clear picture for search engines; semantic SEO focuses on the meaning behind the words on your page, but search engines still rely on code to interpret information. Schema bridges this gap by providing a structured way to communicate the meaning of your content.

Tools to help you out with Semantic SEO

There are a number of tools out there that come in handy with semantic SEO. Here are our tried and tested top 3:

• Salient

This tool measures the relevance of your content for certain target keywords, using a technology that replicates search engine algorithms, to show you what they’re likely to be picking up. It analyses the use of synonyms, related terms, and concepts within your content to assess if it comprehensively addresses the topic. Plus, the text comparison tool lets you see how edits impact your content’s relevance score. So, instead of relying on what you ‘think’ might work, this tool is your best bet to get a realistic idea of how relevant your content is.

• Answer The Public 

Answer The Public compiles data from search engines to show you the most searched questions around your topic or keyword, usefully grouped into categories like ‘prepositions’ and ‘comparisons’. This is great for semantic SEO because it lays the user’s intent out plain to see, allowing you to tailor your content to directly answer their questions and provide the most informative page for them. It will also help with showing you long-tail, less competitive keywords and by incorporating these, you can reach users who might be using different phrasing but have the same intent.

• Also Asked

Similar to Answer The Public, Also Asked pulls together data directly from Google searches to show you themost asked questions around a topic – all presented in an easily digestible mind-map format. Understanding your audience’s issues and questions is essential not only for semantic SEO, but for any successful marketing strategy – you won’t regret giving this tool a go.

So there we have it, your ultimate guide to semantic SEO that should leave you prepped and ready to create comprehensive, contextual, and converting content. Google won’t know what’s hit it.

Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning SEO agency with a proven track record of boosting online traffic and conversions for both small companies and large corporations. Want to leave it to the pros? We don’t blame you – drop us a line at [email protected]. 

For us SEO professionals, it’s well known that Google notoriously loves a good algorithm update, throwing rankings up into the air and sending everyone on LinkedIn into a frenzy. Whilst in the early days, Google only made occasional updates, they now make thousands of changes each year – and recently it’s felt as if new algorithms are rolling out practically every other day. This, understandably, can be stressful for those responsible for maintaining client rankings or their own website’s performance. With so many updates, it’s easy to feel lost in the sea of changes and unsure how to maintain strong SEO.

This blog post will break down the key updates implemented in recent months, explaining their impact on your SEO strategy and offering actionable tips to keep your rankings climbing amidst the algorithm shifts.

What is a Google Algorithm Update?

Google’s search engine relies on complex algorithms to sift through its massive index and deliver the most relevant results for every user query. These algorithms consider a multitude of ranking factors to determine which web pages deserve the top spots on SERPs. While Google constantly tweaks these algorithms, most changes are so subtle they go unnoticed.  However, Google occasionally rolls out major updates that significantly impact the SERPs.

These major updates, referred to as core updates, are designed to improve the overall quality and user experience of search results. So, they may be irritating but they come from a good place! However, because they often involve significant changes to how Google evaluates websites, this can cause fluctuations in rankings across the board. Even the biggest and most established websites are affected by core updates, experiencing shifts in their ranking positions and visitor traffic.  

Why you should care:

So, we’ve established that Google algorithm updates can significantly impact your website’s traffic and ranking – bringing new visitors or temporary dips. Understanding each update and how it impacts your SEO strategy allows you to adapt and adjust your strategy to regain lost ground. It’s crucial to keep up with the updates so you can align your content accordingly if necessary. This proactive approach will ensure you keep your website visible to its target audience.

2024 updates

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the updates we’ve seen in the past 6 months. We’ll work through them in reverse chronological order and provide some pointers for dealing with each one.

⚙️The March 2024 Core Update

You must be living under a rock if you’ve missed this huge update; as the longest-ever core update, it only finished rolling out on April 19th and was said to reduce unhelpful content by 45%! It marked a big shift in Google’s ongoing fight against low-quality content and signalled strong recognition of the wave of AI-generated content that’s hit the web in the past year. The update further refined Google’s ability to identify and penalise content deemed unhelpful, particularly targeting unoriginal AI content.

What did Google have to say? A spokesperson said this update has refined how it understands which webpages are “unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.” This “could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries”. As a result, websites with content that lacked value, originality, or depth may have seen ranking declines.

What does this mean for you?

This just means more of what we already know – we need to be writing helpful content for people, and not just to rank in search engines. There are no big new changes you should implement, or secret hacks to rank well in this update – just more of what you’re (hopefully) already doing.

The algorithm update also means that you should see better quality results when you’re using search engines. The web has recently seen a surge of AI content that lacks accuracy and authenticity. This update should cut down on that and improve the overall quality of what we see on the SERPs.

Been hit by this update? Approach recovery by, first and foremost, working on the quality of your content. If you’re experiencing a traffic loss for queries you used to rank for, there’s probably an issue with your content (if you’ve already confirmed there’s no technical problem). Look at the competitor pages now ranking for this content and work out why Google’s seeing it as preferable. Is it more relevant? Longer-form? Demonstrating expertise through author profiles? Video or image content rather than written?

Whilst Google hasn’t given us a lot of new advice in the aftermath of this new update, it might also be useful to look at their previous list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. Work your way through and identify the areas where your content could be improved.

⚙️The March 2024 Spam Update

At the same time as we faced the March Core Update, Google also rolled out a hefty Spam Update, taking 15 days to complete. It took action against new types of spam, particularly scaled content abuse and expired domain abuse, which we’ve been seeing an increasing prevalence of.

Scaled content abuse is a tactic where spammers create vast amounts of AI content aimed at manipulating search rankings and tricking Google into thinking they have the answers to popular searches. Whilst Google has always fought against this practice, the advancements in AI have called for a revamp of their strategy.

Then, expired domain abuse is where someone exploits the reputation of an expired domain. They purchase the domain and repurpose it to boost the rankings of their low-quality content. It misleads Google and users into believing that the new content is associated with the older, more reputable website. 

It goes without saying that if you’ve seen a change to your traffic or rankings after this update, ensure you’re not violating any of Google’s spam policies, even accidentally.

Other recent updates

⚙️November 2023 Core Update: This was the final core update of 2023, beginning on November 2nd and completing on November 28th. Like most core updates, it resulted in many sites seeing ranking volatility – particularly in ‘Your Money, Your Life’ verticals.

⚙️October 2023 Core Update: With this core update, Google began handling backlinks differently. The reputation and relevance of the linking site was more important than ever before and a single link from a high-authority site now carried much more value than lots of lower-quality links.

⚙️October 2023 Spam Update: October also saw the release of a spam update, designed to clean up several types of spam that Google community members reported in Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese.

Are any more updates heading our way?

In the past week, we’ve seen the beginning of a site reputation abuse update rolling out. This will target something often referred to as “parasite SEO”; sites found to be practicing site reputation abuse will face drops in rankings and even deindexes of pages. 

But what exactly is site reputation abuse? This is when websites with significant authority exploit their trust to push low-quality, irrelevant content. According to Google, the update will be going after “third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner to be spam.” They used the example of a third party publishing payday loan reviews on a trusted educational website to gain ranking benefits from the site:

“Such content ranking highly on Search can confuse or mislead visitors who may have vastly different expectations for the content on a given website.”

Has your site been hit? We can help

Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning SEO agency based in Manchester and we have extensive experience helping our clients to prepare for and recover from algorithm updates. Our team of experts has an advanced understanding of what Google wants to see, and possesses the strategies to help you rank in the top positions, and stay in them.

Get in touch with us today to learn how we can optimise your SEO for long-term success.

Link building has long been a popular part of SEO campaigns and is the process of building links from other highly authoritative websites to your own to highlight to Google the value and authority that your website represents, and to build your own authority. 

Why does it matter?

Links can significantly improve your website’s performance as they contribute to your key E-E-A-T signals, which can play a crucial role in search engine rankings across many sectors. In some instances, they are seen as a vote of trust and are a way of building your reputation and showcasing your expertise. This can potentially lead to higher rankings for your target keywords which means more traffic and more conversions – the good stuff. 

The benefits stretch beyond SEO. Link-building will also directly increase your site traffic by sending visitors your way, and improve brand awareness by exposing your site to a wider audience. Essentially, it’s gold dust if you want to give your site a boost in visibility. But, link-building hasn’t always looked like this. It’s undergone a drastic transformation in the past 5-10 years, driven largely by Google’s efforts to combat dodgy tactics. 

A quick link-building history

In the early 2010s, when ideas of SEO were just beginning to be thrown around, marketers focused on securing as many backlinks as possible, regardless of their quality. Building a large backlink profile was pretty easy – anyone could boost their ranking by buying links or using techniques like blog commenting.

Google’s Penguin Update in 2012 put a stop to all this, penalising websites with a suspicious link profile. This forced SEOs to shift their focus to acquiring high-quality backlinks through creating valuable content. 

Now, in 2024, it’s more important than ever to have a solid strategy for link building to support SEO – and – it’s important that these links have direct relevance to your clients. This is because:

🔗Google’s algorithms are getting scarily good at identifying high-quality content. As you’ll know, it feels like they’re undergoing updates every other day, and their recent ‘helpful content updates’ place a huge priority on relevant and trustworthy sources, over merely the number of backlinks.

🔗It’s getting harder and harder to stand out. If you know about link-building, that means all your competitors probably do too. Your strategy now needs to be bigger and better if you want to win those backlinks over your competitors.

🔗Online brand awareness is playing an increasingly vital role. A strong brand presence helps you cut through the noise and establish yourself in a crowded marketplace. Plus, social media platforms are now a key place for consumers to discover new brands. For the first time, online content has the power to not just grab readers’ attention, but also nudge them directly towards a purchase.  Consumers are way more receptive to positive online influences that guide their buying decisions.

The different types of Link Building

Deeper linking

Building links to your website is a crucial SEO strategy, but simply acquiring links isn’t enough. To maximise the impact, you need a strategy focused on where those links land. Many people prioritise building links to the homepage, but this often misses out on valuable opportunities.

In most cases, the pages with the best user intent match and the ones you truly want users to visit, reside deeper within your website. These are typically product or service pages – the areas that directly impact conversions and revenue. Link equity passed from the homepage to these sub-pages can be valuable, but it’s far less effective than linking to them directly.

This is where deeper page linking comes in as a popular solution. By building links directly to these relevant sub-pages, you signal to search engines that these pages are valuable, boosting their rankings in search results. Improved ranking can in turn lead to increased organic traffic, conversions, and ultimately, revenue.

E-E-A-T link building

Google has over 200 ranking factors but the increasingly most important factor is E-E-A-T or ‘expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness’. For Google to see your site as valuable and send organic traffic your way, you need to be sending out these signals. This is especially important for websites falling into the ‘Your Money, Your Life’ category, which deals with topics that can significantly impact users’ lives. For YMYL sites, building strong E-E-A-T signals is extra important to establish credibility in the eyes of Google.

The good news is that E-E-A-T link building is not rocket science! If you’re already utilising Digital PR tactics to acquire links, you’re likely on the right track. By nature, effective Digital PR generates genuine, high-quality links that showcase your website’s expertise. However, there are specific link-building tactics for building E-E-A-T friendly links and maximising their impact on your site’s organic traffic….

1. Newsjacking to put your client at the centre of the conversation

Newsjacking offers a great approach to building external E-E-A-T signals and driving organic traffic. This technique involves capitalising on trending news stories and offering fresh insights from your in-house expert. This valuable content can then be pitched to journalists for inclusion in their articles, or used to create a standalone piece showcasing your client’s expertise. 

By providing authoritative commentary on a trending topic, you position your brand as a thought leader in the field, attracting high-quality backlinks that boost your website’s SEO and signal trustworthiness to Google.

For example, we recently newsjacked the Easter tablescaping trend, outreaching expert tips on decking out your table from our spokesperson at Alliance Online. This content was then distributed to relevant journalists, resulting in backlinks from authoritative outlets. Each of these links sent a positive signal to Google, indicating that our client’s website deserves a higher ranking in search results.

2. Thought-leadership to showcase expertise 

Similarly, thought-leadership content is a powerful tool to build trust and add organic value to your site. It’s pretty straightforward; leverage in-house experts from your client’s business to share their expertise through interviews. Having readily available bios that highlight their credentials and experience is also crucial to demonstrate their authority to journalists and Google alike.

Beyond reactive approaches like newsjacking, a proactive strategy is essential. Stay informed about upcoming events and special days for opportunities to strategically position your client’s experts in front of the media. This can lead to features in high-profile publications, generating valuable backlinks that significantly help out your website’s E-E-A-T signals and organic reach.

Another thought-leadership tactic is guest blogging on relevant sites within your client’s industry – this involves creating informative and valuable content for other established blogs or publications. The blog post would ideally include a bio of the author and a link back to their website. This not only establishes credibility, boosting your SEO, but also drives valuable referral traffic.

3. Analysing data for expert content

By gathering your own data, or analysing publicly available datasets, you can create valuable content that demonstrates your client’s expertise and understanding of the field. This data-driven approach not only positions your client as an expert but also generates valuable resources that journalists are likely to reference. Combine your data analysis with clear visualisations to make your piece super linkable for journalists who want to provide their readers with reliable and engaging information.

Beyond individual data pieces, consider employing a Reverse Digital PR strategy. This involves creating content hubs on your client’s website –  comprehensive resources fit to burst with data and analysis. These content hubs are the gift that keeps on giving, becoming valuable destinations for journalists seeking information. They have the potential to attract numerous backlinks over time that significantly boost both E-E-A-T signals and on-site SEO. Plus, a well-designed data-hub will not only drive traffic by attracting backlinks, but also through boosting your on-site SEO.

Let’s wrap up with some key takeaways:

➡️Link-building matters more than ever in 2024, if it’s not prioritised in your SEO strategy, it should be! It’s a golden ticket to build a strong online reputation and help Google understand why it should rank your website.

➡️Within your strategy, focus on building links to deeper, user-focused pages like product or service pages.

➡️And to get those links? Implement E-E-A-T link-building practices:

->Newsjacking: offering expert insights on trending topics

->Thought-leadership: share expertise through interviews, guest blogs and data-driven content

->Data-hubs: build resources rich with data to attract valuable backlinks

Need a hand getting started? Cedarwood Digital are an award-winning Link Building Agency with the media contacts and techniques to land you top tier, 100% earned links. Drop us a line today.

Six months ago, I entered the marketing world as a slightly terrified graduate who thought engagement was something that happens before a wedding and long-tail was a type of monkey. These days, I like to think I’m a bit of a copywriting whizz (on a good day). If, like me, you’ve entered your first SEO copywriting role with little marketing experience, I’m here to help. I spend an inordinate proportion of my life putting words onto paper and have picked up some tips along the way. 

So, without further ado, let’s get into the SEO copywriting lessons I’ve learnt in my first six months that’ll make your content impress your manager and Google.

1. SEO copywriting is unlike anything else you’ll have ever written

Something I gathered days, if not hours, into my new role is that SEO copywriting is unlike anything you’ll have ever written. It’s drastically different from academic writing and pretty dissimilar to press releases and journalistic style content. It requires a far more analytical approach and is definitely a skill that has to be developed. But I think, 6 months in, I’m getting there… just.

It will all feel like a foreign language at first, and you’ll spend many hours removing jargon and complex sentence structures. But practice makes perfect, and it’s crazy how quickly SEO copywriting becomes second nature.

2. It’s all about the prep

There’s a lot more to copywriting than just getting the words down. A vast proportion of my time is spent doing the necessary research required for SEO content – scouring search volumes, analysing the SERPs, determining user intent, and deciding on headings and subheadings. 

Take your time for keyword research and SERP analysis before you even think about writing. You need to get inside the target users’ heads – what are they searching for and what are they clicking on? What do I need to address to make sure I’m producing genuinely useful content that answers their queries? It can be easy in the content world to lose track of what really matters – the customers and what they need. Remember that blogs aren’t just for brand awareness, and product descriptions are more than just a keyword dump. 

3. Copywriting is hard and some days it just won’t happen

SEO copywriting is tricky! Alongside the analytical skills required in the research process, the actual writing requires a lot of creativity – and it’s impossible for us to be creative 24/7. Every day will be different. Some days I can knock up a thousand words in an hour, and on others it will take me all day to get a mere couple of hundred out.

On those days, don’t push it – move over to research tasks and leave the more creatively demanding work for another day. It’s a good idea to take this into account when structuring your time. Give yourself plenty of time for a big piece of writing, to allow for those writer’s block days where it’s just not flowing.

4. Write for humans

When you do get down to the actual writing, write for humans. I know everyone says it but it’s so important if you want to produce content that’s engaging and SEO-effective.

Ask yourself, would you enjoy reading this piece of content? Would you find it useful? Would your best friend? It’s easy to get lost in all the technical details of keyword research and search volumes but at the end of the day, what is your average Joe going to want to read? Write for humans and Google will reward you as a side effect.

Something I learnt that really stuck with me is that the average reading age in the UK is 9! And remember that your audience will have different levels of reading ability – ensuring that your content is accessible is crucial. Not everyone is a copywriter like you; in fact, the vast majority won’t have read a book in the last year. As much as it’s fun to add in niche vocab and fun sentence structures, your content needs to be digestible and readable. Use short words, sentences, and paragraphs and save the rambles for your Instagram captions.

5. Make use of AI! (It’s not out to steal your job)

I’ll admit, I used to be a real ChatGPT hater – rolling my eyes when people raved about what it could do. “There’s no way writing can be automated, and why should it be?” But I confess, it’s been growing on me. AI can be super useful as a little personal assistant. It’s great for giving you alternative words or phrases if you can’t remember exactly what you’re after – and super useful if you need a more concise header.

However, be careful not to rely on it too much! The capabilities of these tools may well be very impressive but do not rely solely on AI to write your copy – as tempting as it might be. Everyone can see through it, and it will kill off your creativity; you got this job for a reason, keep exercising and developing that skill.

My favourite tools for SEO copywriting 

There are so many tools and software now for all things SEO and when you’re new to the scene it can be tricky to work out which to choose. Lucky for you, I’ve narrowed down my favourites over the last six months:

📍Ahrefs

A jack of all trades, Ahrefs should really be your go-to as an SEO copywriter. Keyword research, content gap analysis, user intent, it does it all.

📍AlsoAsked

You’ll have seen the ‘People Also Ask’ list that appears in Google’s search results – it shows you the, often amusing, top queries the population are asking. Well, AlsoAsked puts all that data in one place. You enter a topic or question and receive a full mind-map of the most asked queries. This is a goldmine for writing FAQ sections, coming up with headings, or simply to get a better sense of what the target audience is wanting to know.

📍Salient

This tool emulates Google, showing you what’s being picked up as the most important features of the page. It’s helpful to show you if your copy is successfully targeting the relevant topics, giving you a clue into how Google will rank it.

📍Grammarly

An absolute classic, and a must for copywriters. Add this extension to your browser and it will make sure every piece of work, every email, and every LinkedIn caption is error-free and perfectly punctuated. Because is there anything more icky than a copywriter with incorrect grammar?

📍Gemini

ChatGPT’s lesser known cousin, Gemini is Google’s own AI assistant and I find it to be a better alternative. One thing it’s great for is proofing. Simply insert your piece of work and it shows you any errors, places for improvement and even some ‘what went wells’. Got to love some validation from a chatbot. 

How to upskill in SEO copywriting

If you’re new to marketing and SEO, you’ll want to be catching up fast. There’s a lot to learn so here’s how I got up to speed:

> Consume lots of writing, and make it good writing. Follow copywriters on LinkedIn, subscribe to newsletters, rediscover the joy of reading that got sidelined at university. If you want to write great content, you need to read a lot of great content.

> Attend webinars and marketing events. There’s so much going on, particularly here in Manchester, and many of these events are free! There’s no one better to learn from than the leaders in our industry – and the free pizza never goes amiss.

> Want to feel slightly more productive on your commute? Choose an educational podcast rather than your favourite Made in Chelsea Stars. Here are some of my faves:

• ‘Always Take Notes’ = each episode interviews a diverse range of established novelists, journalists and publishers. They have fascinating conversations and it’s a great place to mine writing tips and seek inspiration.

• ‘MozPod’ = with the tagline ‘learn best practices from real SEOs’ this is a podcast focused on sharing lessons from SEO experts.

• ‘Girls in Marketing’ =  a fun one for women new to the industry, offering advice to help you get started.

My top tips for SEO Copywriting

I’ll finish with some quick-fire top tips to send you on your way into the world of SEO copy:

1. Want to be a good copywriter? Competitor analysis is essential. I spend so much time on competitor sites I’m probably responsible for half of their page views – try to really work out why they’re ranking and how you can do the same but better.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you haven’t been given a style guide by a client, ask! This will save you all time in the long-run.

3. Study the client’s work closely, immerse yourself in it and know their tone of voice inside and out. You need to be able to mimic their style exactly, no matter how niche it may be. I like to make a document of ‘stock phrases’ and general comments on tone for each client, to refer back to every time I write.

4. You will receive criticism, and some of it might hurt, but try to reframe it as a learning opportunity. It’s easy to take feedback on our writing personally but just see it as a chance to improve and get closer to writing exactly what the client wants.

5. Sleep on it… then proof. For every piece of work, I’ll schedule a quick proof the morning after. With a fresh outlook I’m able to spot errors I completely overlooked the day before, and can often think of additional points to add.

So there we have it, the diary of an amateur copywriter who knows slightly more than she did six months ago. Hopefully these tips can help you to avoid the rookie mistakes and get you creating top-tier content.

Need some help with your SEO strategy? We’re happy to assist. Get in contact today to find out how we can help you improve your online visibility.