Top 2 Reasons Why Content Is Key to Winning the SEO Game

Search Engine Optimization. SEO.  Search Results. Page Rank.   All of these terms point to one thing:  getting found online. It’s an essential tactic for marketing success.

Improving SEO is on nearly every tech consulting firms marketing short-list and a high priority for most marketers.  According to Hubspot, 61% of marketers claim it’s their top inbound marketing priority.

SEO is more than just on-page content and optimizing for keywords. It also includes purposeful, informative, and action-oriented content.  Not just written content, but content in the format of video, images, audio, and interactive tools (think checklists and quizzes).

How Do You Win The SEO Game With Content?

Winning the SEO game with content will require several related facets: quality content, understanding visitor intent, and signalling to Google that sending their customers to our site is the right choice.

Note: In this article, Google is synonymous with “search engine.”  While it might be “correct” to include other systems (Bing, etc.) in the mix, it’s honestly more effort than it’s worth.  According to Net Market Share, Google accounts for over 75% of all global desktop search traffic and nearly 90% of mobile search.

The Top 2 Reasons Why Content is Essential for SEO

1. Informative and Educational Content Engages Visitors

Great content encourages visitors to engage with your website. Rather than close the session and return to Google, you want search visitors to review your site, spend time reading and to watch content.

SEO in this sense is closely related to customer experience (CX) or user experience (UX).  It requires an understanding of what the visitor is hoping to achieve by selecting your site in the search engine results page (SERP) list.  

• Are they attempting to build awareness of a suspected problem or symptom? Informative and education content keeps their attention.
• Are they coming to your site looking for solutions and alternatives? Give them the tools and content that will build their confidence in finding a solution.
• Are they looking for specific services or solutions like “How to configure NetSuite OpenAir”? Don’t just list that in a bullet point list of your services, include case studies, webinar content, and instructions that keep them clicking on more of your site.

As they interact with your site, time on site goes up; page views go up, and bounce rate goes down, which are all signals to Google that they have sent their customers to the right place.

2. Good Content Builds a Great Backlink Profile

Search Engine Land reported that Google announced that backlinks and content are the top two factors for content ranking. Google also wants to send its customers (search users) to content that others think is useful, credible, and valuable. 

Is your content of such a high quality that other sites point to is as an authority or respectable reference?  If not, your content will fade into the dark abyss of B2B content, where ordinary, same-as-everyone-else content naturally floats to the bottom versus what you want; rise to the top. 

To be clear, if your website contains content that is poor or merely relays information that can be found elsewhere, it does nothing to enhance SEO value because no one will be interested in linking to your content.

To ensure your content gets Google attention and backlinks from reputable websites you have to develop well-researched, in-depth, authoritative, and thought leader quality content.

Additional Information: Does Content-Length Matter In SEO?

Brian Dean of Backlinko and Search Engine Land state that the average article listed on Google first page results has a length of 1,900 words.

Quality, long-form content tends to rank better for a couple of reasons. Primarily, the articles provide more information and appear to be more relevant and useful. 

But don’t fall into the trap of “long-form content” = “quality content.”  Quality content can be both long and short.  If your emphasis is on quality first, then length, you’ll be far better off in the long run.

Are you interested in getting better content for your tech consulting firm?  Better marketing results?  Let’s talk.