Why content matters in SEO?
We like to think we have what it takes to be considered the best SEO Company Cape Town has to offer! Our monthly blog posts aim to take the guess work out of which agency to trust with your lead generation and online footprint. Our posts aim to educate our clients on what they can expect from our diligent team, as well as educating those still contemplating hiring an agency to do their SEO. This month’s post focuses on content and its importance in the bigger picture.
You have probably heard that ‘content is king’ over and over again but what exactly does this mean? In terms of Search Engine Optimisation, content is a major ranking factor – if not the biggest! Google’s search bots crawl web pages for information and index them accordingly. If a user searches a particular keyword or phrase, these pages will come up if they are relevant to your query. If you have not included relevant content containing certain keywords in your website, you won’t be gaining organic traffic to your website as your content is absent the relevant keywords, resulting in Google not indexing your website for those keywords.
Many people underestimate the importance of well researched and laid out content when building their online presence. Often, we see people want to place material on their website without considering what effect this will have on their SEO efforts. Content should be appropriately added to a site in a way that is easy for users to find and then for ranking. In SEO, the user experience should come first.
We look at content and SEO as pieces of the same puzzle as the two are interlinked. Keywords would not exist without content and SEO would not exist without keywords. We often come across the disconnect in SEO and content when we take on new clients as many people don’t understand the value of a well written piece of content. Google does, users do and so do we! Now though the balance exists – include a certain keyword too much in your content and you will be penalised by the ranking powers that be. In short, the Panda Algorithm. This is why it is crucial to hire a reputable agency who absolutely understand SEO. Technical practitioners will know where the balance is needed, how the balance is acquired and get their copywriters to focus on these aspects.
Google looks for worthy content that users will rely on when performing searches on the internet. Content can be informative, factual, entertaining, or newsworthy. Great content should be ‘click worthy’ so that users click on your ranked URL when searching for something. Which brings us to the next point – a great title and description. This also requires the touch of a good copywriter; you only have the title and description to entice users online to click through to your site so you have to make it good and include the keyword.
When curating great content, set out to include the following ranking factors:
- Quality content: Write for the user, never copy content, and ensure your grammar and spelling is in tip-top condition.
- Keyword research: Perform in depth keyword research and compare what your competitors are ranking for. Include keywords relevant to your business in your content.
- Original content: Your content must be fresh, accurate and relevant to the topic you are writing about. Plagiarised content is a big no-no!
- Target audience: Remember who you are trying to attract when writing your content. Write for the audience and not for the search engine.
- Answer a query: If you come across a question that is frequently asked of you, it would be a good idea to use that question and answer in your content as you can expect it to be a popular search term.
- Include a design element: Images, videos or infographics which are useful. Good content includes a visible element such as an image, infographic, or a video. Remember to include the alt tags in your images too.
Our team focuses on content creation as part of our SEO offering, so you can be rest assured that your content needs are taken care of. To get in touch with the SEO Company Cape Town prefers, speak to us about our SEO packages today.