Content Is The Boss In SEO

20th Dec 2017

One of the important aspects of SEO is content. Content and SEO go hand in hand. They are like the two sides of a coin, inseparable from each other. What constitutes content on a website? It includes all the blogs, articles, videos, images, and infographics on the website and are accessible to the user. When we talk of content it does not mean any content. The content has to be clean, original, interesting and informative. Below are the reasons why content helps in a major way in securing search engine rankings:

1) Content informs and educates: Content is king in digital marketing. It provides additional product information and education. If you just place the image of your product on your website it would not have much impact. But imagine adding product information, FAQs, informative articles, case studies and suddenly you are adding value to your product. People get more information and they are able to make an educated choice. It helps in improving the search engine rankings and thus it is said content and SEO go hand in hand.

2) Good content builds trust: Content can make or break a website. When I access a website and note that they have misspelled some words or have made a factual error I get turned off. If somebody can make that kind of simple errors, how can we trust their products. One or two minor mistakes are fine, but making a bunch of them throughout the website is unpardonable. Some unscrupulous, so-called SEO experts use excessive keywords in the content to make it rank better. Such keyword stuffed content looks awkward to read and can confuse the reader. If you use naturally flowing content as much as possible it helps in capturing the interest and the trust of the user.

3) Content facilitates traffic: Imagine SEO traffic flowing to a website and they find little or no content on the pages. The user would bounce out within seconds and move elsewhere. Content helps the traffic to stay on your pages and linger for a long time. They find something to engage with rather than empty pages with sparse content. Instead of content some websites use negative or bad SEO to attract clients. But those tricks do not work for long as the user immediately closes the pages and moves away.

4) Incorporation of keywords: When Google or any search engine wants to rank a particular webpage, it looks for keywords. Without content it is not possible to use keywords. They cannot be used in isolation. So content helps in the use of SEO keywords which in turn helps search engines to rank your website.

5) Content helps social validation: If your content is worth reading, provides value and solutions to problems and is interesting, it is shared by users on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other places. The more people share, the more people are able to access it and link to it. Your content helps you build an audience and create brand awareness. This indirectly helps SEO by increasing website traffic and promoting your content.

So now you realize how content is related to SEO. Though there are other factors also involved, content forms a major part of search rankings. You can create compelling content that attracts people by using:

  • Simple language: Your readers or users most probably are not noble prize winners or scientists. They are your normal average people who go to 9 to 5 jobs, have beer on weekends, and watch TV to chill out. Your website or blog language should be simple to understand for the lay person. No awkward SEO language, no difficult words, just plain simple English.
  • Fresh content: You need to regularly update your website or blog content. If there is no fresh content, readers will not bother to visit to read stale content. Also from the SEO perspective, search engines gives more value to fresh content as against text which has not been updated for a long time.
  • Attention grabbing headlines and subheads: People skim rather than ‘read’ on the web. They do not use the same focus while reading web pages as they do while reading newspapers. So having creative and appealing headlines and subheads helps readers grasp the context quickly.
  • Images and videos: There is a popular saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. Having images, diagrams and videos to further validate a point is a great way to create compelling content. They help to illustrate your topic of discussion and enhances the reading experience. But remember to use these elements if they are really helping the text—not just for the sake of creativity.