I always thought content is king, well after the March update. One of our keywords has dropped from top 5. We have the best content
It sounds like a very subjective assumption. I am sure that most publishers would say the same about their own content, but there are only 10 spots (or less) on the first page.
an 8k word article, it is well written cost us upward of $350
No hard feeling, but It doesn't mean anything. And as for the price, lot of so-call ghost writers are charging based on the number of words.
even after that it was proofread by myself and my partner and numerous other friends.
May be you should check advises from third parts and not just relatives and friends who will always be kinder in their review.
By far this is the best content, as mentioned by users leaving comments on it.
And how many users are leaving comments? (compared to the number of people reaching your page?) If you get 10 positive comments from 100 visitors, then, it can also be interpreted as 10% only of people found your content good...
Since the update, I see articles in the top 5 with about 500 to 600 words, there is no way you can get this topic understood with such low word count.
But may be users are getting the information they want within these 500/600 words. If they don't, then they'll just check on the next link, and so on. So your ranking is one thing, but if users are not ending on your page, it means they found what t hey wanted "above" you. So a the end, it means the content ranking above did the job.
Well, most of these are aged news sites 14+ years. Our website is 5 years old.
Older sites might have more authority that younger ones. I don't mean it's true, but if a site is covering a subject since 14 years, and is still here, and getting visitors, then you can guess they are doing a good job.