Why good content is the key to your website’s success

(originally posted 24/08/2017)

Have you ever been turned off a website by its poorly written content? Or do you ever notice yourself staying much longer at one site than intended because you’re really enjoying what you’re reading?

In this strange new world where people are absorbing more information than ever before and blogging is a legitimate career path, content is one of your most valuable resources.

If you’ve been in the web game for any length of time, you will have heard the phrase ‘content is king.’ As much as we all hate a cliche, it’s true. We guess cliches are cliches for a reason!

Ensuring that you have fresh, engaging and regularly updated content is really important for your website and business. Good content goes a long way (literally!).

Your content might be in the form of a weekly or monthly blog, or it might simply be the copy on your website. As long as it’s fresh, informative and regularly updated it will be beneficial to you.

So what can good content do for you?

SEO

Google is a big fan of good, original content. We all know that it’s important for your business to keep the search engines happy. There’s no hiding from Google, they know where you live.

So how does your content get found?

While you might understand that keywords are how your content appears on search engines, they are not the primary focus of the Googlebots. Many people make the mistake of jam-packing their content with their primary keywords as much as they can.

This might have been a good strategy a few years ago, but technology moves fast and Google caught on quickly to the tricks people were pulling on the keyword front. Things like adding two extra lines of your keyword and making it the same colour as your background (turning it invisible) will likely get you banned altogether these days.

There are a few core elements of SEO you can always use to keep your rankings high, but one of the biggest is regularly updating your website with good content.

Google’s algorithms will read through what you’ve written and assess whether your readers will be gaining valuable information by reading your content, based on the words they search. These algorithms also look at how often you post valuable content. Yes, keywords still play a part, but the bulk of SEO comes from informative content and an active website.

The Googlebots like genuine and UNIQUE content; they know when content is being repeated across websites and will cut out the repetitive websites from the ranking. The Googlebots are always searching your website and when you upload new content they can reassess your ranking against search terms.

Engaging readers, and getting them coming back

Understanding your audience is a big part of creating good content. As is understanding how people read content on the web as opposed to in a printed publication.

We talked about the fact that your content should be valuable in order to get search engine attention, the same applies in order to get some human attention too! Your content should be engaging and interesting, encouraging its readers to keep reading to the end and then to come back and read the next thing you post.

Your content shouldn’t be a waste of someone’s time or you will lose them in the long run. We’ve been living in the digital age long enough to be awake to clickbait traps. Luring people in with an intriguing headline question that they just can’t not know the answer to, only to give them a barely satisfying one-sentence response. Readers hate it.

Give your readers (or rather, potential clients) something that they actually want to take in. Solve a problem for them, or provide some education on an industry topic that’s going to improve their own operations. If people feel like they are getting value from your content, they will keep reading and they will keep coming back for more.

Communicating your services without selling them

If it’s a blog that you’re using to promote your content, you’ve got a great opportunity to sell your services to potential clients without giving them a sales pitch. People often don’t like in-your-face advertising or sales. This is one of the great challenges of marketing.

A blog is where you are able to communicate your services and expertise without specifically saying, ‘Hey! Come buy our thing!’ It’s bringing people into the conversation and allowing them to learn about the extent of your services on their own terms.

This kind of content is also really helpful in building relationships between you and your clients. You are able to answer questions for your clients and develop an understanding of your industry that will lead to clear and easy communications in the future.

Good content is shareable content

If your content is hitting home with your target audience, if they are really able to relate to it, they will want to tell everyone they know. When people share your content or content that refers people back to your website, that’s free advertising! That’s the dream!

Keeping your target audience in mind when you write your content will help you create shareable posts. It’s easy to get lost in what you’re writing, especially in long-form content. By creating a clear structure and plan for your content before you start writing, you can stop yourself from rambling or veering off course. By following a plan you can address each point with the fresh thought of what your audience wants to be reading.

One of the hard things to remember when creating content for your business is that you’re not creating it for yourself, you’re creating it for your audience. By doing this, your content is more likely to be shared around by the people who need to see it.

In the age of constantly changing Google algorithms and rapidly advancing technology, good content is the one thing that keeps us connected to our human element in a very digital world. The more information that is made available online, the more people want to know everything there is to know.

People no longer trust everything they read on the internet, but they do trust Google to provide them with reliable information from credible sources. This is why these algorithms make it hard for people to cheat the system with rubbish content. In order to get attention on the internet, and in real life, you need to know what you’re talking about and prove it.

Good content, and the regular delivery of it, is hugely beneficial for your business both online and off.

Originally published at https://hutsix.com.au.