SEO today: user-centered and quality content
A comprehensive web marketing strategy necessarily involves more activities, often complementary to each other. Under spotlight today is the programmatic approach and the increasingly notorious Big Data and artificial intelligence. And other disciplines, such as SEO? Search engine optimization is a constantly evolving subject that fits more and more not only into algorithmic updates but also to user behavioral variations.
User-centered approach in keyword choice
There are several factors that are leading to a more and more decisive modification of search methods on Google and similar: it is the search engine itself that prefers long-tail queries (that is, formed by multiple terms concatenated properly, including articles and prepositions) with a structure closer to speech than the synthetic juxtaposition of dry keywords used until a few years ago.
Just think of, for example, vocal search, which necessarily pushes in the direction of a more “real” and colloquial language.
That’s why it is essential, already from the keyword search phase which is core of an SEO strategy, to focus not only on individual terms with high search volumes for a specific industry, but also on the long tail keywords that every user is more inclined to type.
This is not a cold collection of high-potential terms, but a true “sociological” search, which is able to understand the behavior of an online user when he or she searches for a product or service to get informed before a purchase.
Search Intelligence: season trends and contents
It is not only the user behavior that changes following different modalities: it changes also during the year, following product and service seasonality. This is crucial especially for those who want to build editorial plans of high-quality content through Search Intelligence, which are easily ranked in SERP, monitor search trends to follow interests of internet users. For example, if you want to plan a solid recipes editorial portal, it will be necessary to adapt it based on search volumes of the ingredient of the month or of the most popular topics of the moment: from Christmas menus in December to carnival in February, up to detox recipes before summer and pumpkin-based recipes in autumn.
SEO means to be able to mix technical expertise – on how machines work – and also have the strategic vision, in addition to an analytical approach that includes monitoring of the reference market and data analysis.
Artificial intelligence, search engines and SEO
If algorithms behind search engines develop to embrace a more “human” perspective, it is probably not the case that artificial intelligences will substitute human skills. CMSs and platforms able to enhance user-friendly content creation can be a valid support, but cannot replace human creativity.
“It’s hard to think that an artifact created by an artificial intelligence can capture all the semantic nuances and contextual details of the cultural superstructure of a people, a sector, a community of individuals – comments Pasquale Gangemi, SEO Specialist and Head of Operations of Pro Web Consulting – on the other hand, a well written Italian text, well-formatted, optimized, informative and helpful for a particular subject, designed by humans for humans, will be valuable also in the eyes of machines, like search engines.”.