The relationship between SEO (Search Engine Optimisation*) and content is a tight one. Think of them as the digital Ant & Dec, if you will. You can’t have one without the other and, if you do, it’s just not as effective (Holly Willoughby did a fine job on I’m a Celeb that one time, but I think we can all agree it wasn’t quite the winning formula we’ve experienced before).
If your content isn’t written for SEO (or ‘optimised’), it isn’t going to have the impact on your search rankings that you’d hoped for. They need each other for it to work.
However, SEO is more than great content. Yes, optimised content is a very important part of the SEO puzzle, but it is just one of the pieces.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they can pull together some keyword-heavy copy and whizz out some fresh content now and then and then sit back and bask in their SEO glory. Sadly, that’s not the case. I always advise clients looking to improve their SEO to look at other factors in addition to the optimised content I will be working on.
There are over 200 different factors that search engines use to determine if your website is worthy of a good ranking. That’s a bit overwhelming, so let’s break it down to the three main areas (not ranked in importance).
- Technical
Google and other search engines look at how secure your site is, how fast and responsive it is, its structure, how mobile-friendly it is and how easy it is for the search engines to ‘crawl’, along with many, many other things that a good digital/SEO company can advise you on. I know a few if you need a recommendation.
2. Back links
These are links to your website from other websites. The more reputable and respected that website is, the better. It’s about quality, not quantity. Google will use relevant back links as a measure of your reputation and trustworthiness. Again, a good SEO company can advise you on this.
3. Content
This is really key. Content must be high quality, fresh, and optimised for relevant keywords in order for Google to index it higher. It’s not just words on a page, describing what you do. You must have well-strategised, purposeful content to achieve good SEO. This is where I come in!
My content work includes content audits for current sites, keyword research, content strategy and planning, writing and delivery, ensuring your site has all the content it needs for SEO success.
My next blog will look at SEO content in more detail so watch this space…
*In simple terms, SEO is the process of improving the visibility (ranking) of your website in relevant searches within a search engine like Google.
