Those in the SEO space know that John Mueller is the closest thing Google has to an authority. When a new update rolls out for Google’s search algorithms, it’s often Mueller who makes clarifications on what does and what doesn’t help your site rank. Having taken to Reddit, Mueller recently gave more advice about what businesses writing content should do when their SEO ambitions seem to clash with writing conventions.
The Value of SEO
For online businesses, SEO is valuable to make sure your product or service stands out from the crowd. As the largest and most powerful marketing platform in the world, an internet presence is useful for modern businesses and SEO is the key to grabbing people’s attention. It’s especially important for online businesses such as e-commerce or iGaming, industries that exist through websites.
The more your site ranks, the more traffic you should get. Similarly, it helps build powerful brands for services, whether it’s an e-commerce marketplace or offering slingo games at Paddy Power. Appearing in search is good for business, so many online businesses try to put their best foot forward when it comes to Google’s ranking algorithms.
However, the above presupposes that the content is good enough for people to enjoy once they get there. While large brands don’t struggle with this, new entrepreneurs sometimes place dry algorithm metrics over quality content. Over the past few years, Google has been on the warpath to ensure that their algorithm aligns with valuable, human-interested content that is satisfying to real people, not lines of code.
This has been the mission statement of Google’s helpful content system, dispersed through updates and tweaks throughout 2022 and ’23. The bright minds at Google are essentially figuring out how to capture user intent and satisfaction in their metric guidelines, bringing human-first enjoyment and SEO success in line with one another.
Mueller’s Advice
With that context, Mueller’s advice comes as standard from Google’s most public-facing search analyst. His most recent advice came in the form of a Reddit reply, where an entrepreneur running a Vietnamese travel agency had a question. Using a tool to optimise SEO writing, they were concerned that certain Vietnamese place names might not rank since they have accents that aren’t typically found in English words. The entrepreneur asks “Am I correct in my assumption that the accents should not be present because the target audience (tourists) will not be using accent marks in their searches?”
Mueller’s response from his u/johnmu account was quick and thoughtful – “Write in your audience’s language – for the head, body, & soul (whatever the soul of a webpage would be, I had to squeeze that in somehow, sorry). Don’t rely on SEO tools to tell you how to write – do your own research.”
Writing in the audience language is standard SEO fare, it’s the second sentence that makes a bigger statement. Mueller jumps over the entrepreneur’s question entirely, to remind them that they shouldn’t prioritise SEO when creating content. Good content is key and then SEO considerations can come later and will be compatible with that good content. All things equal, the good content will beat the bad. Appealing to human interests is also great for word-of-mouth and community building, which can ensure ranking success in the future.
Mueller’s statement against keyword stuffing fits with Google’s push for human-first content. It’s the latest in a long line of helpful statements he’s given to the SEO community, collated by sites like Search Engine Journal. Almost in response to the question on Reddit, Google’s Search Off The Record podcast discussed overall quality and SEO tools, and how they can exist in harmony.
