Responding to a Reddit question about location names, Google Search Advocate John Mueller advised content creators to lean on their own research instead of suggestions generated by search engine optimization (SEO) tools.
Here’s the question from Reddit:
“I write for and manage the blog of a Vietnamese travel agency catering mainly to American and Australian tourists.
Many of the article H2s contain the actual Vietnamese versions of words (such as location names) because a few uses of the accented version (e.g. Quảng Bình vs Quang Binh) tend to show up in Surfer SEO’s suggestions.
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? Or do accent marks not matter in Google’s eyes?”
The original poster wanted to ensure that they only included content and keywords that Google Search would rank high in its results. So, should they have accent marks when mentioning Vietnamese locations?
Mueller, in typical fashion, says it depends:
“Write in your audience’s language – for the head(ers), 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.”
This advice is consistent with Google’s prescribed approach to ranking content: put people first and algorithms second.
While SEO tools like Surfer SEO, Ahrefs and Semrush are great companions, their insights are not the end-all and be-all of content creation. So, lean more into your expertise and understanding of your audience. It’s no longer just about links, keywords or any specific ranking factors.
Instead, you should look at the bigger picture and ensure you produce helpful content for your audience.
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