Google has spoken and SEOs are listening.

Google finally released their new SEO Starter Guide.

It was 8,000 words and now it's only about 4,000, so it's not a very daunting read for the value you will get out of it.

But I got a couple quick highlights I wanted you to know about before diving in to read it yourself.

But first, sponsors…

This AI Startup Investment is Winning

RAD AI has developed technology that transforms the $633B MarTech industry. Its award-winning AI tells brands who their customer is and how to best create content for them. 

Investors are taking notice, here’s why: 

1) $27M raised from 6,000+ investors, including VCs, execs at Google and Amazon. Backed by Adobe Fund for Design.

2) Dubbed “essential AI” for brands looking to attract new audiences and boost ROI. 

3) 3X revenue growth, clients include Hasbro, Sweetgreen, MGM and more.

83% Subscribed, Invest Before Feb. 16th, Closing Soon.

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for RAD AI’s Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.radintel.ai 

_{*sponsored post}

This phrase stood out to me… "Make your site interesting and useful"

And this is what I gathered:

• Text is easy to read and well organized

• Content is unique

• Content is Up-to-date

• Content is helpful, reliable, and people-first

The phrase people-first has been thrown around a lot and it is still annoying to see because it doesn’t really “say” anything.

Another point…

Ask "who, how, and why" about content, but I love the "WHY" in particular.

Are we creating content just for traffic? Or is our content there to help people and be useful.

I’ve been saying this for a while and still stick to it which makes me feel a little validated seeing it in the new guidelines.

“Using automation (AI) to produce content for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings is a violation of the spam policies.”

That should be a given. Do not spam with a rank and bank model to SEO… doesn’t work long terms. Do it to play around, but not on client sites.

Finally, the biggest takeaway for me because I was thinking totally differently about his one.

"Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, some users might search for "charcuterie", while others might search for "cheese board". Anticipating these differences in search behavior and writing with your readers in mind could produce positive effects on how your site performs in search results."

This is somewhat different to what I thought Google considered "SEO'd Content" after the HCU.

Seems like tools like ClearScope, Frase, and Surfer are OK as long as you are presenting the entities and anticipating user searches.

I’m so happy about that because I don’t post a thing on the internet unless I put it through Frase.

Anyway, those were just a few highlights; check out the full doc here.

Let me know if this new doc helps clarify anything for you.

Chat soon,
Chris Myles
Need help? Join my SEO Marketing Mastermind
Or let’s connect on Twitter or YouTube 👇