Exciting Trends in SEM - Thematically Relevant Content
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There are many techniques SEOs can employ to optimize a Web page. If this industry were old enough to lay claim to tradition, I’d have to say that on-page optimization has been its main focus, with heavy emphasis placed on tags and content components such as H1 headings and linked text as the all-important markers of good SEO. While these optimization techniques are not obsolete, by any means, there is a new trend emerging in the field of SEO and that is the focus on thematically relevant content for both on page and off page optimization.
SEO has typically focused on page optimization, as opposed to site optimization. It is, after all, pages that are listed in the search results and not entire sites. However it is becoming increasingly apparent that a well optimized page in and of itself is not enough to get you at the top of the search results. SEOs are beginning to put the site before the page. That is, a Web site that is structured around a common theme (e.g., travel) may start with this overarching topic of “travel” and hone its way down through a plethora of subtopics. The site might be divided into topics:
Travel
Flights
Travel Insurance
Travel Services
Hotels
Car Rental
The above structure was taken from an actual travel Web site and is an example of how the site starts with a broad topic and hones down to sections that are more specific. The above site is more likely to come up for the term “car rental” or “hotel information” if it has all its other SEO ducks in a row (good tags, optimized text, and exceptional incoming links).
As this article by Wayne Hurlbert suggests, the emphasis placed on thematic relevancy (which not only relies on a comprehensive site architecture but also robust, well-written content) is most obvious in Google. Google not only emphasizes thematic relevancy within a domain, but externally as well in terms of the quality (rather than quantity) of your incoming links. It is becoming apparent that links coming from Web sites that are part of your site’s topical “neighborhood” are given more weight than links from unrelated Web sites. Gone are the days of link swapping with unrelated sites just for the sake of benefiting from PageRank.
Yahoo and MSN currently appear old-school in terms of favoring optimization of pages rather than overall thematic relevancy of both on and off page elements. However, as algorithms become more sophisticated and search engines continue to compete for market share, this could change at any time.
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