Google Doesn’t Want You to Smother Your Burger with Ketchup

I’ve never put much stock into what Google wants.

Ever since I launched my content writing business 10 years ago, I’ve been telling clients that their top priority should be to write for their audience. Provide the information they want using language they understand.

I was always frustrated by content that was overstuffed with awkwardly placed keywords. I never understood the point of driving people to a web page, only to find content that had to be butchered to get you there.

That whole approach is like covering both sides of a burger and the outside of the bun with ketchup. I love ketchup, but too much ruins the burger.

For me, the burger is perfect when ketchup is carefully applied to the top of the meat, preferably in a spiral pattern from the center to the edge. This ensures equal coverage and the right amount of ketchup in every bite.

I also don’t like when bacon hangs over the edge of the burger. I tear off the overhanging ends and put them on top of the meat so I get bacon in every bite.

My wife laughs at me, but it’s totally worth it.

I’m that particular with marketing content, too. Because it should be equally appetizing.

Fortunately, Google no longer requires you to smother your content with ketchup to reach the top of search results.

About five years ago, I wrote a product review for an online tool that was designed to help writers create more search-friendly content by making minor tweaks instead of reinventing the wheel.

I remember that simply moving a keyword from the end of the headline to the front of the headline could get your SEO “score” from the yellow zone to the green zone. Adding a single keyword in the first few lines of content could boost your score from the 50s to the 70s.

I also remember thinking that if it was this easy to beat the system, there must be something wrong with the system.

That tool no longer exists. Because the system has changed.

Search isn’t just about keywords, and it hasn’t been for years. The most recent advances are far more sophisticated.

Today, artificial intelligence is playing a bigger and bigger role in search results. Of course, the concept isn’t new.

Remember A.I. Artificial Intelligence , the Steven Spielberg movie with Haley Joel Osment? Osment played a childlike robot-droid-cyborg that could feel emotion. That movie is 15 years old.

I guess you could say RankBrain plays the role of Osment’s character in the world of Google search. Without getting into technical minutiae, which I’m not smart enough to explain anyway, RankBrain is the artificial intelligence platform that helps Google deliver relevant search results for long and often vague queries.

In other words, RankBrain takes your long and winding query and, in real-time, figures out what you’re looking for. It’s a form of machine learning. In many cases, the machine can give you an answer before you’re done asking the question.

According to the  Content Marketing Institute  article that inspired this post, Google uses more than 200 search signals to rank websites and content. RankBrain is now the third most important of these signals.

It’s a critical part of the shift from text-based search to semantics-based search. Instead of giving people what they type or say, anticipate what they want and need.

Those are the words of David Ogilvy, the original Mad Man.

The key takeaway here is that the most effective way to make a connection with your target audience is and always has been to write content as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation.

If you need another reason to write like people talk, consider the fact that more and more people search like they talk.

They don’t just type keywords and locations. They don’t get hung up on figuring out exactly what they should tell Google so they get the most relevant results.

Today, people just ask questions. Specific, natural-sounding questions that require specific answers. Questions that Google and other search engines have gotten really good at answering.

Actually, you can just tap a button in your browser and speak your query. In some cases, the results will be spoken back to you. More proof of the importance of speaking naturally in your content.

If you’ve always written content that provides valuable, relevant information and speaks the language of your target audience, keep up the good work. You’ll love the way search works today.

If you’ve always tried to game the system and changed your approach to content writing every time Google announced an algorithm update, you probably wasted a lot of time. But all is not lost.

I hope the trend towards natural, conversational queries – and the ability of search engines to understand them – will convince you that focusing on the needs of your audience and using language they understand is no longer just an algorithm-proof strategy.

It’s a strategy that’s supported by today’s search algorithms.

Yes, keywords and links still matter. Social signals are helpful. You need a mobile-friendly site. Pages should load quickly. Longer content seems to rank better, although I believe content should be as long as it takes to make your point powerfully and thoroughly. Not a word longer.

Honestly though, I still don’t care what Google wants. I care what the reader wants.

But after years of white hat, black hat, penguins, pandas and hummingbirds, Google search results are more closely aligned than ever with the wants and needs of its users. People who rely on your business for helpful information and solutions to their problems.

You don’t have to smother the burger in ketchup. Use just as much as you need to make your content appetizing and let Google deliver it to your audience’s table.