How does web
content really affect SEO? It's often said that
the answer is simply that content does not affect SEO
very much it's all about more technical issues.
Yet a website's content still plays an enormous and
fairly direct role in search engine ranking.
Of course, the whole goal of the search engines' ranking
schemes is precisely to deliver good, relevant content
to users. The mechanism for how search engines
select and reward good, relevant content is essentially
just a technical issue, though admittedly an extremely
important technical issue.
But even in purely technical, mechanistic, terms, web
content affects search engine rankings three ways:
1. inbound links
2. website mass
3. keyword optimization
1. Web Content and Inbound Links
Inbound links are the number-one factor in getting search
engine rankings. They also yield plenty of traffic
on their own. The importance of links is what
has led many people to say that content is no longer
important. But those people forget that content
really does play a big role in getting links in the
first place:
At the very least, good content will make potential
link partners more comfortable with linking to your
site. No one wants to link to a link farm, splog,
junk site, or even just an unprofessional-looking site.
Lots of good content gives other webmasters (and particularly
bloggers) a reason to link to your site spontaneously
without being asked.
You can allow other websites to post your content in
exchange for a link back to your site.
2. Web Content Mass
More web pages of content = more search engine traffic
Here s why:
Adding pages to your site is like putting out extra
nets to catch surfers.
Search engines see bigger websites as more prestigious
and reliable.
The more content you have, the more reasons you give
other webmasters, particularly bloggers, to link to
your site spontaneously, without being asked.
3. Web Content Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization used to be the most important step
in SEO. Now it matters little in ranking for highly
competitive keywords.
Still, keyword optimization can really help you get
traffic from searches not on competitive keywords.
While you may never rank number 1 for "finance," you
may still show up tops for a search on "household finance
rent federal tax deductions" if you have that phrase
somewhere in your content. Such non-competitive
searches make up a very large proportion of total web
searches.
Web Content Keyword Optimization Checklist:
There are four legs to keyword optimization:
* Research/selection
* Density
* Prominence
* Stemming/Variation
Keyword Research and Selection
You need to identify keywords searched on by your target
audience. Use tools such as those offered by WordTracker
and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture).
There are two big pitfalls to avoid:
* "Negative keywords" that look relevant but are not
really searched on by your target market. For
instance, "website copy" is a synonym for "website content,"
but most people searching on "website copy" are looking
for software that copies an entire website to the hard
drive for offline browsing.
* Impossibly competitive keywords that you have no realistic
chance of ranking high for them. How do you know
if a keyword is impossibly competitive? One rough
measure is to look at the PageRank of the webpages currently
ranking in the top three for that keyword. If
the PageRank of those pages is much higher than the
PageRank your site will likely have in the future, you
will probably never outrank those pages.
A pay-per-click campaign with Google Adwords of Yahoo!
Search Marketing will help you to find which keywords
really are searched on by your target audience.
Keyword Density
Keywords appear in the content the right number of times
for search engines to recognize the page as relevant,
but not so often that it looks like keyword stuffing.
The longer the content, the more times the keyword should
appear.
Keyword Prominence
Keywords appear in just the right positions within your
web pages for search engines to recognize them as relevant.
The page title, headings, and first lines of the page
are often considered the most prominent positions.
Keyword Stemming/Keyword Variation
* Using variations of the keyword will help ensure web
pages appear relevant to the next generation of more
sophisticated search engine algorithms.
* In the meantime, variations of popular keywords helps
your site appear for the "non-standard" searches on
variations of the keyword.
There are three main types of keyword variations:
* Word-stem variations. A stem of a word is its
base. For instance, "optimize" is the stem of
"optimized." Other stem variations of "optimize"
include "optimizing," "optimizer," and "optimization."
You can also shuffle the component words of multiple-word
keywords. Variations of website content
would be website content, web content,
content for websites, and site content ).
* Synonyms (such as web page content,
internet content, or writing for the web
for website content ).
* Related terms (such as internet,
SEO or web page ).
For many people, the SEO side of content feels like
a moot point. You need to create content for your
visitors even if no search engine spider ever notices.
But there is a case to be made that an extra page of
content is good not just for visitors but search engine
spiders, too. Every website budget, both of money
and time, is finite. If you're ever choosing whether
to invest in another link to please search engines or
another page of content to please your visitors, don't
forget: search engines still like content, too.
About
the author: Joel Walsh is a writer and owner of UpMarket
Content, a website content provider. Request a
no-cost, no-obligation proposal for your website content. |
