If your business or organization reaches out to public audiences online, you are probably familiar with the marketing term SEO. Short for “search engine optimization,” SEO can help ensure that your organization appears near or at the top of relevant queries on Google or other popular internet search engines.
Something of an art, as well as a science, SEO, relies upon a number of factors to produce quality results. However, those who want to launch and maintain an exceptionally successful SEO campaign simply cannot underestimate the importance of optimized content creation. Read on to learn why content is important for SEO.
The Relationship Between SEO and Content
To define the term “content” within the context of SEO, the specific focus provided by Search Engine Journal is extremely helpful. In short, content furthers SEO by offering high-quality, useful information in a manner that is both relevant and solicits engagement/emotional connection. This content can come in text, audio, and video form with an intent to inform, entertain, or enlighten the people who consume it.
No matter what form it takes, far too much internet content fails to meet quality standards, provide pertinent information, or engage with audiences in an effective and relevant manner. Good SEO content does all of the above while simultaneously improving online visibility, boosting organic search engine rankings, and driving more traffic to your website.
The Importance of Content to SEO
Social Media Today couldn’t be more right in its condemnation of marketers who fail to capitalize on the many interrelations between SEO and content campaigns. Far too many approach SEO and content marketing as two separate, distinct, and unrelated marketing strategies. Savvy digital marketers know, however, that these two campaign elements are quite interdependent, interrelated, and complementary to each other.
As just one example of the connection between quality content and SEO, consider the fact that Google and other search engines look at the total time that each visitor spends on your website (a digital marketing metric called “time-on-site” or “TOS”). They rank websites with higher-than-average TOS rates closer to the top of online search results.
By providing what Social Media Today calls “relevant and useful” website content, you can motivate visitors to read information more thoroughly, watch videos to the end, click through more pages, and generally stay around far longer. This boost in TOS significantly enhances your SEO efforts and makes a positive impact on your search rankings.
Here are four other ways that optimizing and updating your content can improve SEO and send more people to your website:
It Generates High Click-Through Rate
In addition to keeping track of your website’s TOS, Google and other search engines consider click-through rate (CTR) as an important factor in the results ranking process. In terms of on-page content SEO, the CTR metric is a tabulation of all clicks that users make on your various website links. In short, the more you get users to click on your website links, the higher your CTR will be. And websites with elevated CTR rank at the top of relevant online searches.
From effective web page layout to eye-catching fonts and script color, many elements can have a beneficial influence on CTR. However, nothing can compel a user to click a link quite like compelling and pertinent content. By ensuring that your content is entertaining, informative, and consistently updated, you can boost your CTR and your search rankings as well.
It Provides a Great User Experience
Although modern digital marketers have discovered just how important it is to SEO, online content has long been considered the bedrock of user experience (UX). Briefly defined, UX is the sum total of the ways in which users encounter and interact with a website or another online platform.
To make the most out of both the UX and SEO benefits of your website content, make sure that all elements are optimized in all areas and at all levels. For example, well-written content can boost UX and SEO by making your website easy to navigate. When expertly composed, the meta tags (HTML and XHTML) used to describe the content on each webpage can also help online algorithms and AI automatically connect users to the content they want.
It Can Help Generate Backlinks
If you have high-quality content, other websites will want to link to yours as a source of reliable information and/or compelling entertainment. These links are called backlinks, and they are one of the best ways to improve your overall SEO results.
Google and other search engines regard backlinks from reputable sources as accurate indicators of a website’s general credibility and trustworthiness. Therefore, if you have a large number of high-quality backlinks, you are significantly more likely to rank first in a consumer Google search.
It Allows You to Include Keywords
The keyword is another extremely important element in the world of SEO. Briefly defined, keywords are the words and phrases that users are most likely to enter when looking for something specific on Google.
If you don’t include relevant keywords in your website content, your website will not rank high on the average list of search engine results. To make matters even more complicated, these keywords must appear in the right places and with the right overall density.
The strategic use of keywords in written content is one of the most important aspects of effective SEO. Without content that is optimized for keywords, you will have a hard time beating your competitors online.
Get the Help of a Credible Digital Marketing Agency
If you have further questions as to why content is important for SEO, the experts at Cleveland, Ohio’s Marketing Done Right can explain exactly why content and SEO must complement each other and work together. Contracting with a quality digital marketing agency such as Marketing Done Right is absolutely essential if you want to ensure that you are constantly updating your business website and social media platforms with compelling content that is written with an SEO emphasis.
