SEO: Content 2
Continuing our series of SEO blog posts, today we consider HOW to write good content for your site.
Note that this post follows on directly from our previous post entitled SEO: Content 1.
Please remember that we do not consider ourselves to be SEO experts. In this Beginner’s Guide to SEO we are simply aiming to demystify SEO for our members and to pass on some tips and information that we have picked up over the years.
(i) Content and SEO – how are they related?
To explain how Content and SEO are related, let’s take a traditional example… Let’s think for a few minutes about two writers, Sam and Jess, who are both publishing BOOKS on the topic of “Beginner’s Guide to Computers”.
Background
- Sam (Poor Content, but Great SEO)
Sam puts no effort into the book. He repackages old and out-of date information that will not be useful for anyone. However, he launches a fantastic marketing and publicity campaign for the book. He has a snazzy modern cover for the book designed which disguises the old information the book contains.
Jess (Good Content and Good SEO)
Jessica writes a good beginner’s guide book and launches a complementary marketing campaign to launch the book. Jessica’s book does what it says it will do!
Results?
- Sam (Poor Content, but Great SEO = DISASTER!)
Many people may pick up Sam’s book in the store, but if they flick beyond page 1 it’s unlikely that they will purchase it. That said, Sam may achieve some sales due to the heavy marketing campaign, but his readers will soon realise that there is no substance to the book. They will NOT be fooled into buying Volume 2!
Jess (Good Content and Good SEO = SUCCESS!)
Jessica, on the other hand, has combined a well-written guide WITH a solid campaign to let the public know about her book. People who buy Jessica’s book are also likely to consider buying any future books she publishes too!
Conclusions
- The above example illustrates the importance of good quality content. In the same way that a badly-written book won’t hold your interest, a poor quality website won’t keep your attention either.
If your website is poor, the best SEO in the world won’t help you.
Sure, you may manage to get a temporarily high listing in the Search Engines, but it won’t last. In addition, listing highly in the search engines won’t help you increase conversions on your site. For example, your visitors won’t buy something on your site just because your site is #2 in Yahoo! Your visitors will only convert on your site if your site is useful and helpful to them.
Remember, in trying to fool the Search Engines with SEO tricks, you really only end up fooling yourself…
(j) Search Engines – What do They Think of Content?
As far as Search Engines are concerned, the more basic TEXT content the better. Search Engines love text because this is what they analyze.
The more text on your page, the easier it is for Search Engines to figure out what your page is about; the more confident the Search Engines can be that the content is useful; the more chance you have of relevant visitors finding you.
IMPORTANT! The text should, of course, be relevant and easy-to-read for your visitors too.
Listing reams and reams of keywords on your webpages in small or invisible text is not a good idea. It makes your site look shoddy and cheap and counts against you if the Search Engines find out about it too. After all, if your site is good and of value, why do you need to resort to tricks to promote it?
(k) But Adding Lots of Text Content will ruin my Website Design!!
If you have a very clean, minimalist-style website, you may not want to add extra text to it… That decision is, of course, entirely up to you but you should note that by using images only you are not giving the Search Engines much to work with.
After all, what good is a beautifully designed site if no-one visits it?!
If you fall into this category, you COULD consider keeping very little text on your homepage, but including plenty of text content on the inner pages of your site for SEO purposes.
(l) Ok, so HOW do I Create Good Content for my site?
If your site is “informational” (e.g. a database of recipes and cooking techniques) it is relatively easy to focus on content and creating it.
What do you do however, if like Carol’s (fictional) site, you sell woodcraft products?
(You can read about Carol’s site in section (f) of our previous SEO: Content 1 post.)
All that is required is come creative thinking!
Almost any topic you name can be written about and since your site is an extension of you or your business, you should be well-qualified to write about it!
First, Carol could make sure to write detailed descriptions of all the products on her website. (Remember Carol’s visitors can see the pictures on her site, but Search Engines can’t!)
Next Carol should consider writing other articles for her site. For example:
- how best to care for and protect wooden furniture;
- explanation of the different types of wood and the climates they suit;
- woodworm and how to prevent it;
- sustainable forestry;
- removing stains from wood;
- how to conduct simple repairs;
- the history of wooden furniture;
- the different woodworking techniques available;
- how to prevent wood from warping….
With a little effort, Carol could put together a helpful and valuable resource for visitors to her site, which will also act to help her site move up the Search Engine rankings. It’s a win-win situation.
And if Carol can do it… you can too! 
(m) Good Content – TOP TIPS!
- Focus on creating the best site you possibly can. Create quality and the rankings will follow. To quote John from our Good Content example (see section (e) of our post entitled SEO: Content 1), if your content is GOOD, people will want it … and if people want it, then the Search Engines will want it (and list it highly) too.
- Try to regularly add new content to your site – the more often your content is updated, the better. (Make sure the content is relevant and good quality though!) Think about it. A site that is regularly updated is almost bound to be more useful and relevant to visitors than a site that hasn’t been updated since 1996!
- Remember that Search Engines can (generally) only see text! Use a text based webpage viewer to see your site through the eyes of the Search Engines. This will help you to establish if you are telling the Search Engines everything they need to know about your site. Make sure to describe your site and what you do. Here’s one viewer you can try.
- Think about the phrases that people would associate with your site and make sure to USE these phrases early and often in your content – but don’t overdo it! Think of Carol in the example above – initially her site didn’t actually mention the products that she sells anywhere! This meant that the Search Engines had no idea what her site was about. (You can read about Carol’s site in section (f) of our previous SEO: Content 1 post.) In the revised site content, Carol used “limited edition wood creations”, “wood creations” “handcrafted wooden products”, “furniture”, “bowls” – these are all terms that people might use to search for a site like Carol’s. Now the Search Engines can tell what Carol’s site is offering! (We’ll be covering more about keywords in a later SEO blog post)
- Use your creativity to turn your site into a useful resource which will be valued by your visitors and hence by the Search Engines – write as much useful content as you can! See section (l) for ideas. Aim for 250 – 1000 words of relevant, useful text content per page.
- Do NOT forget that rankings are NOT your aim, a more successful site is! (e.g. more sales, increase sign-ups etc)
- Do NOT get caught up in trying to work out SEO tricks. Your time would be far better spent creating more content for your site.
- DO use headlines, bolding and italics to emphasize relevant parts of your content. Your visitors and many Search Engines will consider highlighted text to be important and so will place greater emphasis on it.
Related Posts:
(1) SEO: Intro
(2) SEO: Content 1
(3) SEO: Content 2
January 26th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Still traffic from good SEO and poor content = disaster as it was written here.
People search for content, not SEO, not design, just content.
And if content is worth 0,000 people just go away.
In my case (most of my job is adult WM), most sales are made by returning visitors. And first time visitor become returning when he finds unique quality content and updated on regular basis. Updates should be atleast 2-3 times a week.
This way I want to ask Statcounter stuff to update blog as people from statcounter have lot of knowledge to share with us. This blog (based on number of webmasters using counter) can be huge success, something admins can be proud of and it might bring some extra revenue.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
[...] SEO: Content 2 26 January 2009 1 views No Comment Continuing our series of SEO blog posts, today we consider HOW to write good content for your site. Note that this post follows on directly from our previous post entitled SEO: Content 1. Please remember that we do not consider ourselves to be SEO experts. In this Beginner’s Guide to SEO we are simply aiming to demystify SEO for our members and to pass on some tips and information that we have picked up over the years. (i) Content and SEO – how are they related? To explain how Content Read the original post: SEO: Content 2 [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
[...] original post here: SEO: Content 2 cT=”0″;nc=”#444444″;nBgc=”#FFF7DE”;nBorder=”#F5E5A9″; [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
[...] more here: SEO: Content 2 cT=”0″;nc=”#444444″;nBgc=”#FFF7DE”;nBorder=”#F5E5A9″; [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
No doubt, Content is the most important part of any SEO campaign and If you are able to Write good SEOed Contents, you can easily dominate Search engines and Generate tons of traffic for your site and money making. Really great post.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
great advices
thanks
January 26th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
About “bolding and italics to emphasize relevant parts of your content” not really agreeing but good article…
“Content STILL the KING”… Now and for ever
January 26th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Thanks for the sound advice again. I really appreciate what yall are doing. Hopefully I can implement some of your ideas on my site.
Keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to SEO: Content
January 27th, 2009 at 7:44 am
content still the queen, google always the king!!!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Nice tips there!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Sound SEO basics with some good points made, especially about the fact it’s not just about ranking no.1 but having content that will convert visitors into sales.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
[...] Read more from the original source: StatCounter Blog » Blog Archive » SEO: Content 2 [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Charlie, its actually true that googles (and posibly others) algorithms do take notice of Bold and Italics when figuring out what the page is about and wot keywords are relevant to the page. H tags are more important though.
Excellent article by the way SC
January 27th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] See the rest here: StatCounter Blog » Blog Archive » SEO: Content 2 [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
These are great examples of how quality content and simple SEO techniques can take your website to the top of the search engine rankings……..good work guys at StatCounter !
January 27th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
You’re right content is king. Good content is always good.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
All the tricky SEO in the world will not go as far as good, relavent content!
January 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Content, content and more content. The first three things any pro SEOer has to look at! After quality content is in place, go after relevant backlinks!
January 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Good content is a start but you can be sure, in most cases, that your competition also has good content. This is where quality SEO takes over and utilizes the content to beat the competition in the SERP’s
January 28th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Wow – this has to be one of the best SEO articles I’ve come across. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Excelent
January 29th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Thank you for the very informative SEO articles……..I’m sure they will be helpful for beginners as well as advanced webmasters.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Your information is good…..
January 29th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Good resource and well written post on seo, which unlike a lot of sites i have seen, this one makes sense. I still cannot work out search engine optimisation as google seems to change it every other day.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Content is key to any success in SEO and only great articles will keep your clients/visitors returning for more. Create content for the users and the SEO will take care of itself.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
You have put many good points across in this article. In fact it seems very straight forward what needs to be done.
I think too many people get caught up trying to improve their Pagerank and alexa ranks and forget that content is king!
God work. I look forward to the next post!
January 30th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I have learned much from these posts and articles. Thanks!
January 30th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Ooops – I mean’t ‘good work’!
January 31st, 2009 at 1:03 am
Excellent content here and a nice writing style too – keep up the great work!
January 31st, 2009 at 7:43 pm
In addition to lots of quality content, relevant backlinks are the bread and butter of SEO!
February 1st, 2009 at 7:16 am
I like your article about seo that helps me alot. I also love stat counter. Keep up the good work.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 am
Great article on SEO here. I run an article site so I am always looking for
ways to help my writers succeed and good content plus good SEO is clearly the way to go. I am just learning about Stat counter.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I think content has always been and aways will be the most important part of getting good rankings in the serarch engines. Obviously there are many different factors but good content is king, as you have rightly pointed out.
Thanks for another insightful blog post. I look forward to the next part!
February 5th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Great article. Two things I would like to comment on. If you do use images, always use alt text to tell what the images are.
Second, I think using HEADING tags can be beneficial when used correctly. I like using HEADING1 to emphasize the main point of each web page. Do you guys agree?
February 5th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
definitely worth it. Just subscribed to your feed. Doing something very similar at this very moment.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Just subscribed to your blog. I’m using your tips to optimize my website to promote testing for radon gas. This is a non-profit, grass roots campaign aimed at reducing lung cancer risk caused by residential exposure to radon and to promote radon mitigation efforts in the U.S. Thanks again!
February 8th, 2009 at 1:08 am
content is king, bakclinks are queen
the more site linking to you the better
write content regularly and you can control the search engine
February 8th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Heading tags are important, but don’t overdo it or it will appear spammy. An h1 and a few h2’s and possible an h3 are sufficient
February 10th, 2009 at 10:43 am
[...] SEO: Content 2 [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 3:44 am
stimulating and informative, but would participate in something more on this topic?
February 12th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Great Article Tanks You!
February 13th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I believe quality backlinks actually trump content…
February 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
You guys should blog more. Been a customer for like 4 years I think. More seo blogs would be nice =D
February 17th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Your are Great. And so is your site! Awesome content. Good job guys! Interesting article, adding it to my favourites!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Wow! I saw today, you help us for SEO knowledge also. All information are very usefull for improve our website.
Thanks a Looooooot.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Very USEFUL information for non tech Webmaster like us, for Self SEO.
Long Live STATCOUNTER.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:28 am
Its all very well saying that “quality backlinks actually trump content” but search engines need keywords from your content aswell to know what your website is all about.
So, Titles, links, content, descriptions.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Good content is always the best technique. So, just focus on what you can provide for your visitors.
February 25th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Another great post. Most people that optimise their websites really should concentrate on adding content and getting a few backlinks. I think trying to over optimise a site is a common mistake
February 25th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Good post, it gave me good info to start my SEO in my site.
thanks
Marc
February 26th, 2009 at 7:36 am
As an SEO myself, I cannot stress more on the importance of good, keyword rich content(be careful not to pollute though, your chances of being banned from search engines will increase). Believe me, however good your off page efforts, if it is not complemented with great on page optimzation, your efforts are more or less wasted.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
We run two online stores and have put all our IT resoures into professional SEO. Patience is the key word, but it is well worth the wait as both sites now have high natural Google listings. Unfortunately there are no short cuts. Google is no fool!
March 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Your are Great. And so is your site! Awesome content. Good job guys! Interesting article, adding it to my favourites!
March 15th, 2009 at 1:27 am
This is a great series, thanks so much!
March 15th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Content & backlinks rules for sure, but for my online auction for-cent.com I also use articles.
think it’s more important