How Important is Content for SEO?

Content is extremely important for SEO, without it search engines won’t have enough information to index your pages correctly and help you rank. If you don’t have a solid SEO strategy, then the pages on your website will never be seen or shared. They will just live online with no visitors and that kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it!? 

SEO content improves your visibility on search engines which drives traffic to your website and encourages people to purchase your products/services.  

By investing in SEO content, you can add real value to your business’ bottom line.  

What is SEO content? 

Content consists of written content, images, video and audio that you display on your website.  

Some examples of written content are: 

• Blog posts 
  
• Articles 
  
• Case studies 

• Whitepapers 
  
• And more! 

Search engines like Google want to deliver search results that are valuable and relevant to the user. What makes this SEO content is that it is created with search engines in mind.  

As a result, the goal of SEO content for Google to consider it valuable and relevant enough to be positioned on the first page of the search engine results page (SERPs).  

How do you write SEO content? 

Over the years Google’s search algorithms continue to evolve. Pay close attention to these changes, since they tell you how to get on Google’s good side and help your pages be in top spots on the SERPs.  

SEO content is not just any content, it needs to be high-quality and useful to the visitor. User experience is an important factor in how Google decides which content should rank in the search engines for top positions. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of bad content on the internet.  

For example, if you have a blog, the best way to rank your blog posts is to write content that approaches the topic from a different perspective or provides more value than other websites that have written about the same topic.  

In order to write SEO content, you will need to know a few fundamentals.  

Length – Longer content pieces (1000+ words) have been shown to rank better on search engines. However, it’s important to keep paragraphs short in blog posts and other website content. Break up paragraphs in 1-2 sentences or at most 3-4 sentences.  

Readability – Google prefers content that has a certain reading level, so that readers have an easier time understanding it. As opposed to dumbing down your content, it’s more about opening it up to a wider audience who can find value in it too.  

Tone of voice – Keeping a consistent tone of voice in your writing helps the reader to understand the perspective at which you’re writing from. These factors into readability as well. 

Formatting- The way you format your writing plays an important role in SEO. Using headlines throughout the article helps the reader navigate the content better. Using bullet point allows for easier listing of items that the reader should pay attention to. Ensure you had visuals to break up the content even further.  

Keywords– To discover what words are being searched by users the most, we rely on keyword research. Keywords help search engines comprehend that your content is about a certain topic. They can also tell you what specifically to write about, if there’s a higher search volume that means you’ll have a better chance of people reading your content.  

Linking– Google has said that internal linking to other pages on your website and backlinks from other websites can also improve SEO. This also provides credibility to your content, since you’re providing more resources. 

Alt text– Text that provides a description of an image for accessibility purposes. 

What are some common mistakes in digital content production? 

Targeting the Wrong Keywords 

The most effective keywords to target are longtail keywords (between 3-5 words) that have high search volume but low competition. If you’re searching for keywords with high competition your efforts will likely to fruitless. 

Using Too Many Keywords 

One focus keyword is ideal per page of your website. However, ensure you don’t stuff the page with this keyword, Google will penalize you if you do this. Instead maintain a reasonable keyword density, there are a number of free tools to check keyword density online. 

Duplicate Content 

Google values original content and doesn’t care much for copied or duplicate content. Ensure the content on your website was crafted with this in mind.  

Missing SEO Title Tags and Metadescriptions 

These tags help Google understand what a page is about when it is crawling your website. Ensure that you have title tags and metadescriptions enriched with strategic keywords. 

Missing Image ALT Tags 

Alt tags help with accessibility, for those who are blind or have problems with their sight, alt tags help them navigate web pages by reading the alt text to them over the speaker. All graphic images are able to have alt text, and Google prefers that your pages keep this in mind. 

Poor Linking 

Google likes when you provide sources for your content or additional resources that will help the user understand the topic better. Make sure you are interlinking between the pages on your website, to use SEO juice from other pages. 

Another linking strategy that is important is building backlinks. However, don’t turn to black hat techniques to get backlinks such as buying them. Instead build relationships with other websites and send a polite email asking if they will link to your content.  

Now that you know content is an important part of SEO, speak to an expert about how you can create the right content to help increase online visibility for your business.