Have you ever typed a search term in Google, saw a result and found, instead of what you were looking for, you got a page riddled with ads?

This is because a lot of savvy web developers looking for easy ad revenue load their pages with key word search terms and meta-tags to draw visitors. It does not matter if you make the mistake once of visiting because hordes of others will also make that mistake. From the web crawlers’ perspective, the keywords match the content so it is logical to bring them together.

Google developers have since grown savvier and more sophisticated about how websites are parsed by crawlers for relevant content. That is the key phrase for this piece, ‘unique content’; namely timely, relevant, informative, evergreen content that also takes into account visitors’ responses. So what does this mouthful mean? The crawlers now ensure that on-line pieces are specifically, not generically, written and while key words are a bonus, they are no longer sufficient enough criterion for searches. The piece must be fresh and timely; so if you are writing about a new mobile phone you bought, a restaurant you visited, or sharing knowledge from your industry, it has to be from an actual person concerned with the topic and not just a bot programmed to draw visitors’ attention.

The informational site also needs to needs to be updated frequently and Google web crawlers now check for that. Further, if the content you write does not date easily there is a term called ‘evergreen’ meaning the information stays relevant long after publishing. There are also other criterion that also help boost search rankings that are less important to ‘crawlers but more important to humans.

For example, tutorials are a strong draw, such as how to run a piece of software or install something at home. Answers to commonly asked questions also draw visits. Now, not all visitors may have the patience to read your answers no matter how relevant and useful, so you need to make your text easily scan-able, meaning broken down into sections with sub-headers so visitors can quickly locate what s/he is looking for. This approach is also liked by crawlers. Finally, enable feedback such as a comments section. Comments and responses to those comments also draw visitors and web crawler attention.

Keep these aspects in mind when writing your piece and watch the rankings to your search terms rise.