Exceptional Content is Still Essential for Website Rankings

You can break SEO rules and still rank well, but you can't engage in black hat SEO and expect to do well in the SERPs for very long. You can break the hard and fast SEO rules that say you have to engage in link building campaigns, do keyword research or write long-form content in certain cases though and still rank well. The rules may not apply depending on your industry and the number and quality of competing websites.

Let's start with link building. If you're in a sector with little competition, you may be able to rank well with great content. You'll naturally earn links if you concentrate on creating the best content in your industry. Creating videos, infographics and other content, and then posting them on social media, will help you earn links as opposed to engaging in a tedious guest posting campaign.

You don't always have to keyword research if you know the words people will use to find a site like yours. Your knowledge can come from being in the industry or searching for your competition. Google's RankBrain for search queries can determine people's intent and learn as it operates. You can use long-tail keywords naturally in your content and you receive visitors without stuffing in exact keywords which can sound awkward.

Creating long-form content, over 700 words, is also a rule you can break. While some websites, health or legal sites need well researched long-form content, others do not. A celebrity gossip or a trivia website would only bore readers with long articles. Most other sites can get away with using short-form content occasionally to increase their posting frequency or to avoid using filler language when there isn't anymore to discuss.

There is one hard and fast SEO rule you cannot break; feature exceptional content on your site. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/ebcytj/whataresomehardandfastrules_youve/.