Over time, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has developed and evolved, and it can be a bit difficult to keep up with the changing methods. Before, you would see ranking would be very reliant on keywords. It wasn’t only until the past handful of years that keyword intent and user needs were the focal point for SEO. While keywords are still a very important factor, it is clear that things are developing, and in 5 years, we’ll see yet another change - almost guaranteed!
Today, let’s look at one aspect of SEO which a lot of people need help with, and how to perfect something that may be a lot more complicated than you’d think!
Why is Content Important?
Within the last 10 years, Google has made content the top-most factor when it comes to ranking. You need to make sure that the content you provide is not only valuable content for the reader, but also is relevant and researched. There are several different factors which can affect content, but if you ignore this aspect, you may not get very far, especially with so many other businesses and competition incorporating proper SEO content.
While you may think keywords are the most important factor, there are at least 7 other factors to consider when writing or creating your content, not to mention a bunch of smaller factors. When it comes to SEO, nothing can be optimized enough!
Should Content be my First Priority?
Let’s take a quick look at SEO factors you should be focusing towards.
- High-quality SEO-friendly Content.
- Defining Keywords / Utilizing Keywords
- Mobile-ready and Prioritized
- Page Speed / Site Speed
- Great Page Experience.
- Internal linking on your Website
- External linking on other Websites
While all of these are very important, it’s also good to know where to start. Finding and defining your keywords is a base that most SEO companies use to begin their investigation on how to improve ranking. Some of the items listed above won't help ranking, but will help indexing, such as external linking. There is a distinction between the two, and it’s worth noting here.
Indexing is where your site is listed on search engines. Using external linking as an example, Google won’t know to index your page if they can’t find it. If you have it linked on an already indexed website, Google will access and index it.
Ranking, on the other hand, is what all businesses strive for. Have you ever tried searching for something specific and Google lists the same websites with a variety of keywords? Having that keyword linked to a first page result, even the positioning of the page, is what ranking does.
Both are important, but one without the other is like having a sandwich with nothing inside of it - nothing spectacular. It’s important to cover all aspects of SEO if you’re looking to optimize, index, and rank your website.
What is the Correlation Between This and SEO-Friendly Content?
Writing just SEO optimized content won’t do anything by itself. Now that we were able to determine what would be needed, it’s time to start learning how to optimize your content. Noting, this does take time - while most businesses may see immediate results, it does heavily depend on the product your selling and how tough your competition is.
1) Quality
If you built your business, it's likely you have a passion for what you do. With that, quality should come naturally to you. With good quality, it doesn’t only retain visitors who land on your website, but this also does affect SEO. Bad content will result in bad ranking, so investigating your competition would help with this.
2) User Experience
Who wants to visit a website with nothing but a huge block of text? Audio, video, anything that has been proven to improve user experience will rank higher on Google, and will increase the quality of the content you create.
3) Relevancy
If you have a website talking about how MySpace is the next big thing, it likely won’t rank well amongst social media type keywords. Make sure all content on your site is kept updated and relevant, which may take a lot of research - or possibly even a dedicated employee focusing on just this. SEO focused businesses always look for relevancy as well, as this is something that can be easily forgotten about.
4) Defined Topics
Does your content have clear, in-depth answers, or does it cover a topic thoroughly? Make sure that the content you make aligns to the title, or the theme of the business you run. Having something completely unrelated will affect your site, and how well it ranks.
5) Keywords
Too little keywords can cause issues. Too many, can also cause issues. Make sure that you have just the right amount to make it seem like a human wrote it. You don’t want to include “Apollo 11” ten times in a paragraph, if your site is involved with space. At the same time, you need to investigate and see which of your keywords your competitors are using, and find something that has a high search volume, while having medium to low competition. A lot could be elaborated on with keywords, but this is something that needs to be done properly, regardless of the content or services you’re providing.
Ready to Initiate an SEO-Friendly Website?
This will only brush the surface of the many things that you need to watch for when it comes to SEO. The more money you can put into SEO, generally the better your business will do - but most businesses do have financial limitations and need to only focus on what’s needed. As long as you follow these steps, you should be able to get a basic execution of SEO, and begin marketing to a larger audience in no time at all. As your business grows, so will your SEO strategies!
If you need assistance or an SEO audit, our company at e-dimensionz Inc offers everything you'll need, providing reports, keyword research, and prioritizing each company that wants to build a strategy. For more information, contact us.
