Content, Optimization, Links – Oh My!
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SEO is often described as a combination of art and science. Indeed, explaining SEO methodologies to clients and laypeople can be a daunting task. There are so many specific, drill-down details that it quickly gets confusing and overwhelming. Still, it’s not difficult for most dedicated SEO specialists to boil down the key elements of SEO into three relatively straightforward variables – content, links and site optimization. There are numerous articles online and off about all three of these elements, and this can make it easy to focus on only one or two of the three. Since all three are critical to achieving a high position on search engines, it is important to take a step back and understand how they work together to help your website rank well.
Let’s look at content first
The most important of the three, and in my opinion the most ignored, is content. Your website should start with your content and not with optimization and links. It’s easy to forget this. Websites that contain a handful of pages with little meaningful content, but lots of keyword repetition and link text abound. Likewise, e-commerce and other commercial sites that contain nothing but lists of products and/or services with “Buy Now” buttons are not as effective in terms of converting leads to sales as sites that provide detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, editorial articles and information and other juicy content. Websites that contain complementary information are favored by search engines because they are thematically relevant and are likely to be updated regularly.
I have seen many websites that contain a fair number of backlinks and on-page optimization, but very little actual content. Financial sites are a great example of this. For example, a site that sells mortgage loans may have five different pages with applications and/or contact forms which collect an individual’s information. These types of sites focus on lead generation. They want you to fill out something so they can get back to you with a phone call. Sparse information about the types of loans available is often provided, in addition to rate information, company information, calculators and perhaps a FAQ. Sites like these are missing a valuable opportunity to differentiate themselves in an extremely competitive environment.
A site that takes the time to provide detailed information about its area of expertise in the form of articles, current news stories, editorials and “how-to” guides or tips will not only differentiate itself from sites with little content, but also start ranking well in search engines for keywords contained in all that content. Content helps with conversion too. After all, from which site would you rather buy?
Adding content to your website seems like such a simple solution to me, but I often meet with resistance when I suggest it. That’s because it’s not always easy to update your website. You can start small by adding an “articles” or “information” page and linking to it on the home page and the site map without integrating it into the main navigation. It’s much easier to update one page than an entire site. Your articles page could contain links to all your articles, with each link accompanied by a short description of the article. Each article would reside on its own page. If you wrote one article a week, you’d quickly build up a nice collection of articles that could serve as a great resource in your industry (be it financial or otherwise), while also expanding the size of your site and providing regular fodder for site updates.
Next: Optimization is the icing on the cake >>
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