Fresh out of SXSW last week came some important SEO news. Google has announced that it is working on an update to penalize sites that are overly SEO-optimized.

Let that sink in.

Google is tired of seeing people game the system, and once again is looking to level the playing field. As always, they want to make sure you're following their cardinal rule: make great content.

Search engines are continually interested in making sure that people find what they're looking for. Whether your business fits that definition is based on how useful the website is to people. If that seems circuitous, bear with me.

Try to let go of the concept of your website "having good SEO." Instead, focus on "providing great content." There's 3 main reasons you should focus on content over SEO:

1. Existing and potential customers find great content a lot more useful. If they find it useful, they're more likely to return to your website or keep you in mind.

2. Good content can help to establish your company as an authoritative source that people respect and trust.

3. People are more likely to share good content, which in turn triggers good SEO. Remember, good sites linking to you is the harder and more important part of SEO. Focus on the above parts, and the rest will tend to fall in place.

Remember, search engines want to make sure that people find good content for their search terms. Having tons of keywords and meta-tags doesn't really indicate that, but having people link to you certainly does.

A good analogy is that of a coach. Focus on winning the game, and the stats take care of themselves. For website owners, focus on creating great content, and SEO will take care of itself.