The copywriter is faced with a whole bundle of new challenges as the year comes to a close. Google’s increased emphasis on local results and the ever growing prominence of social media in the search space has generated the usual wave of uncertainty that greets a major tweak to the SERP’s. It also reinforces the notion that Google has the power to rattle an entire industry with the addition or enhancement of a new feature. Just ask hotel aggregators how they feel about Google Places!
However, relatively new as I am to this game, it seems to me that SEO is all about adapting to an evolving environment and our ability to do that without claiming ‘the end of SEO’ is why clients want to pay for our expertise. Changes made by Google are therefore an opportunity not a threat. Good content, which it is my job to produce, will always be the common denominator in a successful digital campaign and as long as people are searching for that content and using keywords to do so then I see my role as getting more, not less relevant.
While I continue to learn the intricacies of SEO I’ll leave it to the analysts to delve into the specific implications and proactive strategies for dealing with the latest search developments. But it does strike me that it is this ability to strategise clearly and to distill that thinking into tailoring the content I produce is the key.
The digital age is nothing if not progressive, that’s why I got into the industry. So far I find the responses to Google fascinating, where a small alteration to the algorithm sees hundreds of companies racing to revise their tactics. You can understand the nerves that might jangle when a business depends on keeping their clients on top of an every changing SERP’s environment! But good content for the rights users, using the appropriate search terms, along with the ability to show versatility in getting this content on-page, seems to still be the objective. I for one am looking forward to what the next year will bring.