When it comes to search engine optimization, content is king. That’s why I am writing this blog post–I mean, other than to share my searing insights about SEO, SEM, web analytics, and PPC. The team at Triple Canopy Media has drunk the content Koolaid, and we understand that, assuming a sound website architecture and conformance to other industry standards for website design, nothing can impact your site’s SEO more than an expert use of content.
Why is this? Why is content on the web so important?
The answer is simple: Search engines are in the business of delivering high-quality search engine results. If they falter in pursuit of this objective, they will lose market share. When they lose market share, they lose the ability to attract advertising dollars. Advertising revenue is the lifeblood of the search industry. So search engines have an inherent interest in protecting the quality of their search results. That is why they penalize tricks and reward sites that deliver good content–as measured by bounce rates, dwell time, bouce-back-to-SERP rates, etc.
The search engines don’t really “know” whether the content on your site is any good. They rely upon proxy variables such as the ones cited above (e.g., bounce rates) to infer whether a searcher is finding what they are looking for. If someone clicks on a search engine result that links to a page on your website, but then they immediately hit the back button in your browser before visiting another page on the site…well…Google infers that they didn’t find what they were looking for. In our experience, achieving a very low bounce rate is a great way to enhance search rankings quickly. One of the best ways to achieve this result is to provide good, relevant content on your website and to continue to do so until the cows come home (hint, they never come home).