Content marketing seems to have stabilized over the past few years. Originally, as part of an SEO strategy, content was solely intended to be a means of holding keywords. Search marketers would optimize keyword-stuffed articles in the hopes of getting enough presence to land a high ranking for that particular keyword. As search algorithms evolved to detect such black-hat practices, search marketers retracted their keywords to comprise only two to five percent of their total content. The popularity of quality content marketing skyrocketed, flooding the market with gimmicky sites and entrepreneurs blindly writing large volumes of content to join the bandwagon.
Today, content marketing is still extremely valuable, though the significance of specific keyword inclusion has dwindled to almost nothing. It has also diminished in hype, allowing it to mature from a popular buzzword to a familiar strategy that almost every website uses.
Content marketing is a constant at this point. Even though search engine algorithms are still updating regularly, putting a new focus on advanced elements like HTTPS encryption and site speed, content marketing is and will always be valuable because it provides information to users. The elements that make “good” content are consistent, regardless of technical search engine changes, so it’s somewhat surprising that a new direction could one day shape the way we think about content.
A concept known as “semantic search” is starting to emerge, though it’s currently in the early stages of development. Semantic search would look at the intentions and meaning of the words a user enters into a search engine, rather than the words themselves. For example, in a traditional search of “how do I make a grilled cheese sandwich”, a search engine would pick out keywords like “how,” “make,” and “grilled cheese sandwich,” then find content that contains those words. A semantic search of the same query would look at the user’s intention—producing a grilled cheese sandwich, probably at home—and display results that allow the user to achieve that goal. In the former case, you might get a handful of how-to articles and an encyclopedia entry for “grilled cheese sandwich.” In the latter case, you might get several how-to articles as well as options for cheese and bread.
The Future of Semantic Search and What It Means for Content Marketing
