The goal is to be user friendly AND SEO friendly and create well written informative content that's good. And produce LOTS of it.

If a post starts doing great, THEN make it the "perfect" article. But before then, it's just about producing good content in large numbers that's SEO optimized and see what ranks and brings in traffic. You never know until the post is posted.
HauntedFew
The vast majority of search engine queries are questions. Google constantly tries to find the best way to find answers for people, but they can only do so with software and data, which is imperfect, so they set up a series of key items that the software looks for. Nobody outside of people at Google really knows what these are.

SEO is people using the results and data available to try and determine what Google deems as the right way to answer those queries, so in essence they claim to know a 'best guess' at what those 'key items' are. By looking at search results and how well Google seems to like certain things, they can infer what these key items are.

It's an imperfect system trying to figure out another imperfect system, and in many ways it's not fair, but I would liken it to trying to sell your car by shouting just outside of your house – if you really want to sell it then you get it on a website, on which you must provide a picture, and information, and a location etc.. In short you follow their rules to some degree.

Google themselves provide you with information on how to get your content seen, if you look for it: https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/
Yes people game the system and yes it's really not fair in some cases, but do your best to follow their rules and you'll do well. Then watch the forums and subreddits as Algorithm updates come out and decimate websites that took shortcuts.

noblepleb
I think Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keyword research are the effect of a blog post or article well done, not its cause.

Its always in retrospect. Most SEO articles I've read try to explain how an article got popular. The keyword researcher study the keyword density, etc. of it and try to correlate that to its getting page hits. But that's not how page ranking or popularity works, trying to associate good keywords with good content is like trying to associate human brain cells and DNA with human skills and emotions, we are a lot more than our cells/DNA just as our articles are a lot more than the keywords they are composed of.
ItsBlahBlah
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content quality should be seen as two sides of the same coin; they should work with each other, not oppose each other. It is possible to game the latest update and rank higher, but appearing on the first page of results is only the first step to building a loyal audience/customer base. If you rank high but don't provide quality content, you won't attract loyal readers.

Those sites that are generating huge traffic with low-quality content likely won't be as successful in a few years. Google is constantly updating their algorithm to learn how to spot sites with garbage content and automate ways to push them further down in the rankings. If you invest in good quality content now that also follows SEO best practices, you'll come out ahead in the long run.
OverFlow
These topics are not mutually exclusive. You can have great content that is, at the same time, optimized for search engines.

I personally haven't invested a cent in backlinks or any other SEO service. Just focused on writing quality content that targets keywords with moderate search volume (~ 500 searches / month), ensure my page loads fast, and that the content is readable and site easy to navigate.
droptheniceties
Having been a marketer for many years, I can tell you that good content is good SEO. Old techniques like keyword stuffing just don't work anymore. If you find blogs that are doing well with poor quality content, I am guessing one of the following is happening:
• they have been doing it for a LONG time and there are a handful of good posts on their blog that is bringing them 80% of their traffic.
• they are writing for a niche for whom quality is secondary. For example, a deals site has poor quality content but it gets visits because people are always hunting for deals.
• organic traffic is not their primary source. Maybe they are running ads.

bloggingguide
Viewing it as a fixed ratio of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): quality content is a misleading way to think of it.

While SEO plays an integral role in boosting content, it's efficacy is severely limited if the content is not original and ultimately useful to users.

Similarly, it is rare to be able to rely upon high quality content with no SEO. Readers need to be able to find your content, and articles with absolutely no SEO will almost never reach their full potential.

Even if you did try to reduce it all to a simple SEO: good content ratio, I think 80% is way to high. Maybe 50% AT MOST would be attributable to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Typically more like 30% in my experience.
iveredditall
Yup, it's definitely a quantity > quality game at first. I personally have struggled so much with constantly putting out content to increase SEO and couldn't good or affordable copywriters either. I just started using Copysmith which has been such a major life hack for real. It basically uses Artificial Intelligence to generate high SEO blog posts and articles and I've saved so much time and money, I can't imagine trying to write this much content by myself. They sent me a limited time free trial offer invite because as part of another group I'm in but I'll share it here in case it still works https://copysmith.ai/invitecode=598163. I think once you have a bunch of content especially if you don't have to spend time on it by using a service like copysmith, you can focus on ads and other aspects of the business which is also huge for a blog's success.
Gogrilla
Why do you think Adsense and Google Ads have anything to do with blogging?

With regards to SEO vs quality content. I think they go hand in hand. However, it depends on the niche. Ranking first on Google in the marketing/SEO space with crappy content is unlikely. But writing amazing content with zero keyword focus is not going to get you anywhere. The same is true if you go "off topic", even if it's interesting or useful. If Google doesn't think it's useful, you've got a problem if you want to get traffic.

I do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content writing pretty much full time for clients and my own websites. I've seen how crap content ranks well in some niches. Food bloggers that write beautiful prose with tons of additional information will fail if the SEO is "not optimized". Bloggers that do the basics with SEO in mind, will succeed. If you want traffic in the travel niche, it better be keyword-focused and well, kind of boring.

But of course, low-quality to Google might be excellent writing to the reader. And vice versa. Your definition of crap content might be exactly what someone else needs.

When I 100% focus on producing content that Google wants, I get great results. But what I consider my best writing, some of the most interesting (in my humble opinion) and thoughtful stuff, gets little traffic. The writing is solid but whether Google considers it to be a quality answer to someone's question is another story.
writershweta
I absolutely disagree with that. Google itself says that it aims to find the best, most informative content for its audience. Keywords are just to help it find the relevant content. After that it has to be good. Its algorithmic changes over the past couple of years do convey this.

When you come across content that is average, according to you, but getting tonne of traffic, it might be because you already know the topic discussed. you might be looking for intermediate or advanced level coverage whereas the blog is begginner.

There is absolutely no substitute for good content.

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