Sisyphus, with a name that sounds a bit like a sexual disease, was a King in Greek mythology who used roll a big rock up a hill, only for it roll down every time he got to the top, so he would need to do it again, over and over again. Ad nauseam!
Actually, it’s a bit like working nightshift in Tesco too, but I have always had this in the back of my mind when it comes to ranking for big seo terms like “SEO”.
The word “sisyphean” means “endless and unavailing, as labour or a task”
Everybody wants to rank no1 for their main keyword, but to do so, you’ve got to work INCREDIBLY hard, show everybody you’re full hand when linkbuilding, show your competitiors your linkbuilding sources and tactics, and indeed show others how to do it themselves, and more importantly, for their clients who you might be competing with!
The competition is fierce for generic terms, and you’re in a constant struggle to maintain positions.
Why bother in such a competitive vertical?
The highest I ranked for SEO in Google (UK) was no3 (the spike below indicates the time) and the quality of leads I got wasn’t that great.
I dropped back to page 3 or something after a month of being no3.
I could have chosen to go for it again.
I could have chosen to throw everything at it and chances are I would be in a better position than I am today (who knows I don’t track it).
To be honest, to compete for such a keyterm I’d prrobably need to get spammy, go to conferences to pick up links, or spend a lot of time promoting my business in traditional news channels lol:
…which I just don’t have time for usually – I am a front-line seo that’s what I love playing with – and in all honesty I have no idea if I would have the time or skill available to compete against sites who had 50,000 links head start on me anyways and a competent seo at the helm.
Anyway it’s not as if my life depended on it…..
Iinstead, I decided to target the long tail of search by just adding more and more content to my site:
Result? I got nearly 6,000 seo-related visits to the website this month from over 2000 keywords from Google alone, all targeting seo related keyterms through a content based seo strategy that is more valuable, more defensible, more stable and more reliable in the long run – more than enough leads for this small company.
The end result of a content based strategy is your business doesn’t die if Google takes that number one away from you, and a nice side effect is you build an online brand for your company. You are also a LOT more likely to pick up lots of natural links JUST by publishing content on your site AD NAUSEAM.
You can always focus your efforts on ranking for keyterms you have a better chance of converting too:
If Google chooses to rank my site higher for such a generic keyterm like SEO, fine.
If it doesn’t, I don’t care. I won’t be spending time working on something like that. I don’t get paid to rank no1 for seo, I get paid to get more traffic to clients sites. I wouldn’t work for a year on something that a search engine can take away from me at the flick of a switch.
2011 is coming, and it’s all about CONTENT & BRAND AWARENESS (OK, you still need to back this up with some quality links) and if you want MORE TRAFFIC from Google, and any other source, that won’t disappear overnight, you better be thinking about how to add more content to your site, believe me.
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PS – Thanks to all subscribers who voted for me in the poll run by Holistic Search which got my company a mention in my local newspaper lol :)
That image of the news paper is priceless! Apparently some people still read them? Working with a book author who’s often written about by journalists, it’s very frustrating to get coverage in a major paper that either includes zero links, or only links to themselves with garbage auto generated internal links.
It is comforting to know that I read a blog by a well-respected search engine marketeer. The essential element in Sisyphus’ task was not that it was hard, but that it was meaningless. Have you read Albert Camus’ ‘The Myth Of Sisyphus’? He discusses man’s essentially absurd life in a universe devoid of meaning and that the realisation of this is the ray of light that lets in the satisfaction of knowing the truth – all the while still having to push the boulder up the hill. The copy editor in me notices that you have a missing ‘to’ before the word ‘roll’ on the first line and that it should be ‘your’ rather than ‘you’re’ before ‘full hand’.
I need a copy editor lol :)
Could not agree more about your content strategy, I’ve written 3 or 4 decent posts on our site in the last month or so and we’ve had more inquiries than ever before as a result. During this time, I’ve done approximately zero link building, yet we’re ranking well for terms we’ve never had before.
Shaun: I share your sentiment exactly. Almost an exact mirror across the pond for being on Page one for SEO, top ranking achieved “#4″, it took 2 years to get there, was getting an average of 65 visits per day for that keyword, but it was more of an ego boost and sales validation method for proof of concept for our sales team, but 78% of our traffic came from long tail click throughs. I am with you on the uber competitive keyphrases, they are allot of work and can convert, but why dedicate all of your time to that alone, when a content development strategy can eclipse that from diversity and focusing on market share vs. keyword domination. Great post as always… Jeffrey
Concur wholeheartedly and testify that this tactic works as well in B2C narrow niche markets as well. Have replicated results in several industries for clients. However, I still find it a difficult concept to sell to people with a herd mentality who chase after the buzz words or those who are more concerned with appearance (in the old marketing model) than content. My inspiration continues to be the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Or…eat my dust! Michael
I really like your strategy of creating massive content, probably because that’s what I’m best at. Funny how that is. Lately I’ve been a bit sidetracked on posting. The meme running around the problogging camp is that one shouldn’t post every day. Supposedly creates less engagement with readers, who become annoyed at all the content. Whatever. I need to step it up.
They could have at least mentioned my name rather than refer to me as ‘a spokesman’. :) Think 2011 is going to be interesting looking at some of the changes coming through now
Shaun this is really great to hear- Content and Brand Awareness. It really means that the competition is really great, and that people have a choice. And when there is a choice…there is competition…there are better products…and more creativity in the marketplace! Even when it is tough, it is much better in the long run, than stable calm boring kind of situation. Just imagine…new businesses will be coming to light and new tremendous opportunities for us and our clients. Just one word…SUPERB :) thanks!
I always thought the content is more important than rank or position on google. If there was no google all think differently.
hi Shaun, I often feel a bit like Sisyphus, except that not only does the rock keep rolling back down the hill, it often rolls over me on the way back down. Ouch! As I’ve mentioned in the past, another Greek myth that I think nicely describes the “challenge of seo” is the “Sword of Damocles”, which for anyone that wants to google the phrase, aptly describes the predicament of being on page one, or (momentarily) at the top of the hill. BTW, I hope you don’t mind me temporarily resurrecting my original moniker from when I first discovered Hobo… apparently I didn’t comment enough under it to make it stick. :) Steve, aka the ninja, aka mr. trade show booths
Shaun, What are your thoughts about the long term effect of Google Suggest Tool Vs. long tail content building strategies? My concerns are we spend hours of each day building mountains of content, only to have Google train people to rely on the suggest tool. Do you believe people will all use the same words in the near future simply because Google tells them to? I hope this question makes sense to you James~ PS, I love your blogs and I believe you are successfully branding yourself in your field.
Good post this one. It shows perserverance pays off. Good to see that content overcame link spamming as it is a solid reliable way to get traffic. As long as its all relevant I guess you can never be adding too much! Though Google suggest has recently had a large effect on the long tail which can actually be useful for SEO people just starting out too.
The best strategies are often the simplest. This is one of those strategies. However, simple doesn’t mean easy. The hard part is in the execution. You have renewed my commitment to bang this drum ever more loudly to our clients.
James, my two cents on your question. The Google Suggest Tool is great for suggesting content. Seriously, I think the mountains of content are the answer to your own question. Doesn’t more content, particularly more variety of content, address the problem?
Congrats on winning the poll Shaun! Posts like this are a perfect example of why you are respected and have many loyal readers (which the creators of the poll felt oddly compelled to mention in the results… o_O). You say content works and provide the graph to prove it. Simple but powerful! My only issue with the long tail is that I find it difficult to present progress with the long tail on a week to week, month to month basis. Over the longer term, the increases in traffic are indeed pretty dramatic.
Content has always been a king, i agree with Shaun Anderson, Craig, Claudio, Nicole and others. I didn’t know, however that google shifting more and more to content though. Thank you, I read this blog often to re-align myself with direction of the google/internet for the new, upcoming year.
good post there. i never guaranteed no.1 like most of my counterparts in the industry as i find it lame to give such guarantees. for me the importance of SEO coupled with social media power is better to give a wider spread of exposure around the internet. rank is something of the past, spread is more important these days.
You all say that content is a primary text concern and I agree with that for most cases, but what if you have site with website templates or something that doesn’t imply having much text on landing pages. I can add articles or blog or whatever with relevant text content, but the truth is that most visitors don’t need that, they need your non-text content. And there is nothing else you can do except over optimizing pages and doing Sisyphus’s work over and over again.