‘Au Naturel’- It’s the Way Forward
So often used in the fashion or modelling industries, the term ‘au naturel’ can certainly now be used in relation to SEO. With Google’s black and white animal algorithm updates hitting hard in recent months, a new emphasis has been placed on natural link building and as a result, the term ‘au naturel’ can be bandied around the office in order to express the importance that we should all steer clear of unnatural linking and work as God (or Google) intended.
But how to act so naturally I hear you ask??
The easiest and arguably most effective way to achieve this is through content. Whether through articles on your newsfeed, a guest blog, your social media updates or blog posts on your own private network, keeping things as natural as possible is the best way forward. Gone are the days when articles were filled to the brim with exact match keywords; you now need to be much more careful and incorporate synonyms and branded links, with any exact match keywords strategically placed in the post and looking as natural to the reader as possible.
Basically, what you need to do is snap out of the habit you got into whereby you would write for the search engines and instead make sure that you are writing for the consumer. Keeping the underlying SEO tactics you know and love in the background, you are likely to be far more successful if you now appeal directly to the people who will buy or use your product or service, as opposed to the mysterious entities at the search engines.
Consider what the consumer wants or needs to know and you never know, your blog or article may appear in their search results. If you can achieve this and incorporate a high level of natural linking in everything you do, Google is likely to look on you far more kindly.
The final point I wish to touch upon is Guest Blogging, as what better way to act naturally than with an informative and interesting blog posted on an authoritative, industry specific blog? By choosing the right blog and writing something fresh and useful, you will automatically engage the reader and with your keyphrase and short description located in an author bio section, the SEO benefits of the high authority site will also help your rankings.
There you go, being ‘au naturel’ with SEO can be sexy - well sort of anyway! If you’ve had any positive experiences with natural link building through content, we’d love to hear from you!
