In its 20+ year history, SEO has taken on a variety of forms – both good and bad. While black hat SEO has utilized unscrupulous tactics to try to trick the search engines into acquiring search relevance, white hat SEO has been used to honestly gain exposure for high-quality content. And somewhere in the middle is the average marketer who has noble intentions but may also be prone to chasing the latest rumors and fads to get a leg up on the competition, sometimes helping and sometimes hurting their cause.
But amidst it all, the importance of quality content has always reigned supreme!
High-quality content will always be golden because it appeals to real people and factors heavily into search engine algorithms.
But amidst it all, the importance of quality content has always reigned supreme!
High-quality content will always be golden because it appeals to real people and factors heavily into search engine algorithms.
Real People
People don’t want to read sales copy – they want content that fulfills their needs. Even when searchers are looking for products/services, they’re really searching for solutions to their problems, answers to their questions, someone to address their concerns, honest feedback, and affirmation of their own experiences.
- Informational Resources
People rely on stats, facts, and figures that they find online to learn about topics and reduce anxiety around purchase decisions. These can be as simple as product spec sheets and as complex as scholarly research papers.
Tip: Include informational resources to educate consumers about your offerings and closely related topics. - Reviews
Searchers place a lot of trust in real reviews from other consumers because they appreciate the organic nature of honest user generated content (UGC).
Tip: Encourage (but don’t incentivize) reviews from shoppers to help shape perceptions around your offerings and inform buying decisions. - Help Resources
Help articles and videos as well as step-by-step tutorials are some of the most popular content online these days. People appreciate self-help resources that let them get the information they need to solve a problem or complete a project in their own time.
Tip: Provide free help resources to consumers on your blog or elsewhere on your website and utilize a search box feature to give visitors a way to find them. Keep a catalog of these types of resources for customer service and sales representatives to provide on demand as well to help strengthen your brand position. - Case Studies & Whitepapers
Consumers appreciate the real-world examples included in case studies and whitepapers because they can expand their own knowledge of new topics. While these are not as commonly used as more general help resources, they definitely have their own niche audience, especially among industry professionals and B2B users.
Tip: Don’t use case studies and white papers solely as sales vehicles. Create these resources with the idea of providing perspective first and selling your experience and capabilities second.
Search Engines
Search engines like Google and Bing give a rank boost to high-quality content because it’s naturally more relevant to searchers’ queries than salesy content with forced optimization. This performance advantage is what makes high-quality content so lucrative.
- Value
Being helpful is how search engines provide value to users. They need to return the content that consumers are looking for when they conduct searches to increase searcher satisfaction, thereby maintaining their popularity. Informational help resources help them achieve this goal, which makes this type of content just as value to search engines as it is to consumers.
Tip: Always aim to help and support consumers first and let the rest fall into place from there. - Engagement
Quality content is more likely to be bookmarked, shared, and commented on. This engagement pattern inherently makes it more valuable to search engines.
Tip: Make it easy to find and share your content to get the most optimization mileage out of everything you publish. - Timelessness
Helpful high-quality content tends to be evergreen, unlike sales-centric content that has a much shorter shelf life. This timelessness makes it more appealing to search engines because it will continue to attract visitors and result in engagement for the long-haul.
Tip: Focus on evergreen content to maximize your time investment.
Need help generating quality content? Hire an experienced digital marketing company to create well-optimized content for your website or blog, Find out why we’re one of West Michigan’s top copywriting companies today! We’d love to chat about your content needs. We’ll provide a free, no-obligation quote to help you meet your goals.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Business Blogging and Web Copywriting. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and son and enjoys cooking, watching sports, and spending time together as a family. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about current marketing trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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