Good, Original Content Boosts SEO Results

Consumers want to find good, useful information on the Internet, not fluff or thinly-disguised sales pitches stuffed with keywords. Google recognizes this as well.

That’s why the search giant has been altering its algorithm in recent years to reward strong content while dismissing sites that provide no real value. After Google updated its algorithm in 2011, some websites that relied on traditional SEO tricks lost as much as 90 percent of their revenue.

In last month’s newsletter article, we discussed how routine SEO audits can improve a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). While that article addressed good functionality and practice, it didn’t address what brings eyeballs to your website in the first place: content.

Google’s updates continue to move in the direction of rewarding quality over quantity. That’s where content marketing comes into play on your website. Creating original, useful content that adds value will go a long way toward satisfying various criteria of the new algorithms.

Here are some quick tips to remember when developing content for your website.

• Develop longer content. This may be a little tricky, as Google recognizes the value of longer content – basically, content with more depth –  but you don’t want to turn off readers with a wall of text.
• Make sure the content is relevant. Stay around the general topic of the website so search engines will see a common, consistent theme.
• Include images and videos. Make sure visual elements support the content.
• Check for proper spelling, grammar and text formatting. You are writing for real people, not for search engines.
• Include links. Outbound links to high-quality sites and inbound links and social media shares from high-quality sources will improve your SEO score.

“Content marketing is definitely a key component of SEO,” said David Morrison, S&A Cherokee’s programmer/developer/SEO. “SEO is a long-term strategy, and can definitely benefit from regular postings of strong and relevant content.”

To discover how S&A Cherokee can help with your SEO and website design needs, contact us for a free consultation at (919) 674-6020.