The phrase ‘Content is King’ is fast becoming another cliché. But what does it mean for business owners and why does content play such a vital role in the ‘searchability’ of your website? We take a closer look.
What’s the hype about all this Content?
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google in 1998 this was their mission:
Organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
With 3,5 billion searches per day, Google remains the king of all search engines. Google essentially sees links to a website as ‘votes’ for that website. The more links a website has pointing to it the better its reputation with Google. Every piece of content on your website is another opportunity for attracting links from other websites. Meaning that each piece of content is another entry point to your website.
If you have a website with 10 traditional pages, then Google can only index those 10 pages, and your prospects will only find you in Google if one of those 10 pages rank in their searches. Now if you add 20 blog posts and 2 landing pages and 1 resource page, Google will have 33 “pages” to index, and your prospects will have more opportunities to find your site.
“Content and SEO. At their best, they form a bond that can catapult any website to the top of search engine rankings. …when content is optimized, it drastically improves your visibility”. (Search Engine Journal)
Not All Content is Created Equal
Quality content is content that’s valuable to the target audience of the website. It’s pointless posting high quantities of content that has no value or relevance.
“Give visitors the information they’re looking for…Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic.”
—Google: Steps to a Google-friendly site
Google recommends creating content that is:
- Useful and informative
- More valuable and useful than other sites
- Credible
- High quality
- Engaging
When these elements are in place, you maximize the potential of the SEO value of your content. Without them, however, your content will have very little value.
(Image credit: onlinemarketerblog.com)
The Technical Content Puzzle
Creating great content isn’t the only piece of the puzzle. There’s a technical side that you need to be aware of as well. Elements to consider here include:
- Keyword choice and intent
- Headline
- Body Copy
- URL or Slug
- Meta Data
- Link building
(Image credit: Flock Associates)
What’s Your Strategy for Content and SEO?
The best SEO results come from producing high-quality content. Where does content fit into your SEO strategy? If you’re not confident about it, contact us for help improving your content and SEO. We are specialists in optimizing websites for SEO and at creating bespoke and relevant content for your specific target audience.
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