Why Content Matters The Most In SEO Strategy

The importance placed on content in the world of online marketing is actually a good thing. Why? Because the internet demands quality content, which means everyone gets - quality content.

The thing that people often forget, however, is that content is not just on your website. A good SEO strategy requires you to publish content elsewhere on the web, while also having great stuff on your own site. Try and attempt a link building strategy with lousy content, you likely won't get very far.

Why is content so important? There are a few reasons which we will look at in this piece of quality content, but we'll give you the hot tip straight up; people choose businesses they trust. If it comes down to you and your competitor, but you have lots of quality information available, and they don't, who do you think is best situated to get the sale?

Search Engines Love Good Content

Search engine ranking algorithms give higher preference to links that are shared and liked than those which aren't. Whether that be a video or blog post, search engines want to offer the best possible results.

They determine that links which are shared a lot in social media must be worthwhile and providing people with benefit.

SEO And Content Are Intertwined

You may hear about SEO and content marketing as separate things, but are they all that separate? SEO and content marketing go together, and it's bad news if they are not integrated.

In reality, they overlap where people often make the mistake that content marketing eliminates a need for SEO. In actual fact, successful content marketing needs SEO, but many people experience a disconnect between the two in their digital marketing strategies.

The Difference Between SEO And Content Marketing

There are two main elements that distinguish SEO and content marketing which are:

1. SEO is more technical
2. Content marketing is broader

They assist each other because the goal is to make your SEO broad by channeling it into content marketing. This, in turn, helps you content marketing thanks to SEO techniques. SEO sets the rules, and content marketing fulfills them.

What SEO Requires

SEO essentially demands the content that content marketing provides, in fact, SEO doesn't really exist without it.

Content is very much king; this is a undeniable fact of the SEO industry. SEO needs keywords which is one of the staple uses of content marketing. Keywords are a fundamental component of SEO, and they are used strategically throughout your content.

Linkbacks

Another crucial element of SEO is linkbacks which content provides. The best way to build linkbacks is with great content which other sites choose to link back to. If you want continual success in your SEO strategy, this is vital and impossible without the content.

Technical Optimization And UX

Another SEO demand is onsite technical optimization, and good content also requires yeser experience (UX), something many people often forget. SEO is more than just content, it needs technical aspects like enhanced metadata, and a strategic sitemap.

Technical optimization exists for the good of the user; it affects the user experience with SEO components in place to promote your content. It would be best if you had an excellent sitemap so potential customers can easily access your content, and optimization allows search engines to find your site, and share your content with readers.

Consistent Output

Google gives significant preference to consistently updated, fresh content, which it favours with indexing, and registers higher in SERPs. This is especially effective when it comes from a site with historic authority.

To achieve this consistent output of content, your content marketing strategy needs to be ongoing. It's never set and forget when it comes to digital marketing; you need to adapt as quickly as everything else online.

The Case For Content Over Keywords

Google algorithms are now refined enough to pick up on unnatural language and lousy formatting, two things that significantly diminish your ranking ability.

This is one of the reasons why content quality is taking over keyword importance. The top search result may now not even feature an exact match keyword in the text body. A study showed that 18 percent of the top 20 domains didn’t feature the keyword in the text. What they did include however was:

1. High website visits
2. User behavior signals
3. Large number of links to the content

The result? A high ranking website. Why? Google determined that users like the content.

Google doesn't quite stop there, however, it will also sift through content itself to find further signals of quality.

What Defines Poor Quality Content?

What makes content good or bad? Google offers some pointers as to what to avoid in your content to prevent a bad ranking:

• Keyword stuffing or irrelevant keywords, especially if they’re irrelevant
• Copies of other material
• Spelling and grammatical errors
• Long sentences or paragraphs
• Zero formatting
• Irrelevant links
• Keyword lists
• Short content

Content Marketing And SEO

So why does content matter so much in an SEO Strategy? They are made up of one another. Content marketers needs to be well across SEO and vice versa.

An SEO campaign will likely fail unless there is a significant content marketing element worked into it. Just like your content will be much harder for potential customers to find without SEO.

About the Author:

James Silverwood runs a digital marketing agency in Australia. In an effort to expand the agency even further he recently relocated to Bahrain and merged with another agency to provide Best SEO services to clients in the middle east. .