Google lays down the hammer – No more keyword based SEO!

Google gives the hammer

By Vincent Wondra

September 30, 2013

No more Keywords

I checked my Twitter feed this morning and found that the SEO world has been turned upsite down.

Google made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity — except for clicks on ads. This means we will no longer be able to see keyword data for searches in your website analytics.  Marketers are no longer able to identify which keywords a person used to find a website through Google

When asked by Search Engine Land, Google reportedly confirmed the switch, saying the following:

“We added SSL encryption for our signed-in search users in 2011, as well as searches from the Chrome omnibox earlier this year. We’re now working to bring this extra protection to more users who are not signed in.”

Say Goodbye to Keyword based SEO

What does that mean to BBS’s customers?

While we are a WordPress development and design company, we do advise on SEO best practices.

We have always maintained that nothing beats good content that is engaging and that people want to share online via social media.  Google has been beating this drum for years, and has always said they want people to focus on good content, not keywords.

content_is_king

Please continue to write at least 1 blog a week (if not more) about your company, your activities, your services, and your products. Maximizing your keyword visibility should never be and should never have been the focus of your website.

The focus of your website should always be the content.

If you have good content that is relevant and usable, you will rise in search engine rankings naturally.  Please dont try to game the system, the house always wins.

BBS will continue to provide tools to make sharing your content easy, like social media sharing buttons (Like, Tweet, +1, etc) and offer social media auto-publishing to help you get the word out to your customers.  We will continue provide tools on all of our websites like the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast to help optimize your website for the right keywords.  Tools like this help Google to understand what your page or post is about and will continue to play a roll in what keywords people can find your content with,  but with Google removing the ability to see which keywords have worked the best in the past, keywords should no longer be the sole focus of your posts.  The quality of the content  should be.

I, for one, applaud this move by Google.  By removing the keywords from your analytics, the focus will change from marketers looking at what keywords are working, to what content is working well.  The focus now is on better content, and that will result in a better internet experience for all.

 

I'm the Founder & President of The BBS Agency & Prebuilt Sites. I have been building websites since the mid 90's. I fell in love with WordPress many years ago and today help companies leverage it's power. I'd love to help you next!