As SEOs, we spend a lot of time making small changes and adjustments that don't make much difference by themselves, but they all add up to better rankings.
Or that's the idea.
It is, however, possible to be so court up in these incremental changes that you lose sight of what really matters: Making the content better.
That's one of the main messages from Barry Schwartz, internationally acclaimed SEO expert and the man who keeps a watchful eye on the changes in the SEO space for everyone in the industry.
He's also on our list of Global SEO Frontrunners of 2023 and participated in an interview with founder of SEO.ai, Torbjørn Flensted, recently.
Global SEO Frontrunners 2023 represents a selected group of SEOs we believe are the most innovative and influential of 2023. These are the frontrunners shaping the future of search engine optimization and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. They make our community better.
Watch the full interview below to hear Barry Schwartz explain everything himself, or read on to get the condensed version.
Many SEOs spend too much time on the little things
"People in the SEO space are just too in the weeds," Barry Schwartz says with a smile and goes on to explain that while weeds, all the little things, the small changes, are important, focusing too much on them won't make the content any better.
For Google, though, it's all about the content.
"It sounds corny, but it’s really about how can I write the best content, how can I make the best website."
It's a bit of a bad habit in the SEO industry to focus on specific ranking factors and according to the SEO expert, It's just a bit too much.
"If your site is a second slower or a fraction of a second slower, it’s really not gonna matter that much - If your content is more relevant and much more on topic for your users."
Instead of focusing on those specific ranking factors and going hunting for SEO tricks to bump up your rankings, Barry's recommendation is to take an extra look at the actual content.
"I know it's boring that there isn't a kind of tag you can add to make your content rank no. 1, but it doesn't work that way," he says.
Really, it comes down to making the best website with the best type of content.
"Sometimes it means producing new content, sometimes it means updating old content, but again - it’s all about content."
The old days are gone - There's no "magic bullet" anymore
Years ago, there were SEO tricks, magic bullets that would make your content jump to the top almost with a snap of your fingers. And the sites would stay there for months, sometimes years.
That isn't the case anymore.
"If you look at all the Google updates from the past 20 years, all of them, or almost all of them, have been focused on ranking the best and most relevant content for the users," Barry Schwartz says.
"Google doesn’t want to rank websites that are tricking search engines and tricking users, they don’t want low quality there."
As a contributing editor at Search Engine Land and by running Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz writes between five and 10 stories a day. He covers all the small changes and updates that affect SEO, mostly from Google, and with his finger on the pulse, he can see where Google is headed.
"When you look at where the small things are leading towards, it all leads back to the content – How you can make your content better: The core algorithm update, the helpful update, the reviews update - it all leads to content. Content content content!"
Need help optimizing your content? SEO.ai is an AI-powered tool that make creating and optimizing content easier. Try it out yourself!
Of course, that doesn't mean that there aren't any tricks that work, but they only work for a very short time before Google "plug's the hole".
So, if that is your strategy, you need to find something new all the time.
The only long-term strategy that works, according to Barry Schwartz, is to focus on the quality of the content and your website as a whole.
"The only way to be an SEO is to love change"
The only true constant is change. It's true in life, but perhaps especially when working in SEO. Updates to search and changes in the industry mean change for every SEO professional, and often times these changes result in someone announcing the impending death of SEO.
"The only way to be an SEO, or in the SEO community, is to love change, and I’m always surprised and annoyed when some other SEO is like, this is gonna kill everything," Barry Schwartz says.
Which, by the way, hasn't happened yet.
"It's funny because SEOs are really good at adapting to change, but yet they are also very loud whenever there is change – they are scared of it."
Right now, the fear is caused by generative AI and how it can change everything, and Barry Schwartz has no doubt it will.
"AI is going to be the most significant change for the industry now and in the future. But you have to take the attitude of - Alright, AI is here, and it might change search results in a big way, and it might change how I do my job, but you have to be one of the first to adopt it," he says.
Start using AI, see how it works, what it can and can't do. Make your mistakes early.
"This way, you can say: I got better because of AI, I’m using this to my advantage, as opposed to it destroying me."
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