If you’ve ever dipped your toes into the digital marketing pool then chances are you’ve come across the meme term ‘content is king’. It’s a fitting expression used to highlight the importance of content for search engine optimisation (SEO) and the success of your website.
There’s no doubt that content has always been important for SEO, but with Google’s all seeing eyes now paying extra close attention to the quality of your content, it is now absolutely crucial to get it right. Content has propelled itself from king to overlord, so we’ll highlight a few reasons why and show you what you can do to make the most of your content creation.
Google loves freshly pressed content
Just like you’d look favourably on freshly squeezed juice in the morning than that juice deprived ‘from concentrate’ malarkey, Google looks favourably on clean, freshly squeezed content. The latest Google updates have done their utmost to slice through the stagnant content community like a knife through hot butter. What you need to remember is that Google’s mission is to return relevant search results to its users, which is why those Google bots love fresh, relevant content. If your content hasn’t been updated in months, then you’re going to look outdated in the eyes of Google.
Humans love fresh content too
It’s true, fresh content doesn’t just please Google; it also keeps your human crawlers happy. Adding fresh content gives your actual readers a regular stream of useful information. If you have valuable resources added to your site frequently, then you’re much more likely to encourage that search traffic to keep coming back to your site, which, ultimately, will lead to more business.
Content is your online salesman
Well, this point really needs to be addressed. Time after time we have witnessed a business working so hard on other aspects of their SEO campaign that they’ve completely ignored the value of their content. To stop yourself from making the same mistake, drill this into your head now…CONTENT IS YOUR ONLINE VOICE!
Got that? Great! Now, let’s consider exactly why content is so important. Just imagine you typed a search query into Google and clicked on one of the sites it returned. What do you do when you’re on that site? You guessed it; you read the content that is on there. If this content is poorly written, doesn’t engage the reader, and doesn’t have a convincing call to action, then there’s little hope of converting that important search traffic into paying customers. Your SEO efforts are going to be futile if you can’t convert the traffic coming through.
Always remember that your content should be giving valuable and engaging information to your visitors. After all, it is the boundary between your business and the customer, and it is speaking volumes about your business, working hard to get those all-important sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Amazing content is SEO gold dust
This is what really makes content the overlord instead of the king. This year, Google have tried hard to create a ‘level playing field’ when it comes to the search results. They’ve clamped down on sites they deem to be ‘over optimised’ and they are trying to ensure that sites with great content rank well. What this means for any SEO campaign is that keywords are no longer your only worry when it comes to content (they really shouldn’t be anyway, given that keywords don’t directly sell your product or service).
Google also keeps a close watch on how long people stay on your site (or in tech terms, they monitor the bounce rate). If people come to your site and don’t become engrossed in your content straight away, then they’ll soon be leaving and your bounce rate will go through the roof. Google will then place a giant ‘NO’ next to your name in the relevance department, which won’t do any favours for your rankings.
Finally, quality content works wonders for natural SEO. If you have great content then people are going to want to link to your site, and if the content is that good, then a lot of people will be passing your info around the internet like it was the best thing since sliced bread! If you pair this natural linking with your own link building efforts, then you’ll soon be going up in the Google world.
Content is the true SEO overlord
If you’re not spending enough time considering your content, or if you have been oblivious to the true power that content has then you need to get up to speed now. There is no substitute for great content, whether it’s promoting your business or for more general SEO. Whatever strategy you have for your online marketing campaign, you need to ensure that creating quality content is at the heart of that strategy.
