Why digital content is King, Queen and State on the web.
It’s no big secret that here at Digital Polish we love content, but why should you? Well there are two main reasons:
1. Increase search engine ratings
2. Build relationships with your online consumers
Firstly, SEO — search engine optimization. If you own a website it’s pretty hard to escape those three letters. Whichever way you look at it, search engines rule the web and the daddy of all search engines is Google. Where a website ranks in the search engines affects the number of visitors it has, and as a result how successful the site is for its chosen purpose. Up until recently, to get your website to the top of Google’s search results you could apply some sneaky tricks such as high keyword density (cramming a lot of popular search phrases into one page) or developing linking schemes (creating pages with hollow content that link to your website to increase the volume of links going to the site). But Google has always frowned up on these practices, and this year took affirmative action to combat these SEO webspammers.
Google launched a black and white webspam fighting duo in the form of their Panda and Penguin updates. Panda’s superpower was zapping websites that used duplicate content to boost search ratings, while Penguin launched a war against the keyword hustlers and the rogue back-linkers. The aim was to produce a more authentic search rating system and reward quality content producers.
Now, Google have taken one step further in their campaign for better content. It was announced yesterday that it was publicly launching its Google Analytics Content Experiments. In short, the new tool allows website owners to create multiple versions of the same page with different content that are rotated per visit. Google then records the data linked to the page to show how each content variation effects visitor conversion rates. Very handy if you’re running an online business!
So that’s the SEO argument for digital content, but what about building consumer relationships? All content stems back to the user. It’s what they want to read, see or watch. Sites like The Next Web, Mashable, and the Huffington Post have made big names for themselves on the web by producing interesting, engaging and entertaining content which keeps visitors coming back to the site and builds a loyal following. It’s a much more straightforward philosophy along the lines of “if you build it, they will come” and it keeps the likes of these sites at the top if the Technorati Top 100.
But which option should you choose when it comes to developing a digital content strategy? Our view? Both! Google championing original content combined with our innate thirst for information means SEO and building online consumer relationships go hand in hand.
At Digital Polish we pride ourselves on creating content that will get people talking and help you stand out on the web. If you want to know more about how we can help you to produce authentic and engaging digital content why not drop us a line?
photo credit: Arthur Chapman via photo pin cc
