Is Content Still King Of The SEO World?

2 February 2020

Content is an absolute crucial element when it comes to SEO marketing and strategies – but it is not the only one. To understand the question, though, we’re going to have to break down a few points.

 

What is content?

When people hear the word content, they think of text populating a page. Text is content, but it’s only one aspect of it. Content actually includes anything that relays a message such as images, graphics, videos, audio or infographics to name a few. When you look at the bigger picture – pardon the pun – content is a lot more than the words on your screen.

Going beyond websites, content also includes mediums such as e-newsletters and social media posts. These all go a long way in strengthening your brand awareness, but they also indirectly affect your SEO. If a user clicks through to your website from a social media post or ad, then Google’s RankBrain will pick up on that.

 

RankBrain sees all and knows all

RankBrain is Google’s third most important ranking signal and spoiler alert – it’s very smart. Google used to just search pages looking for specific keywords to bring you results. With RankBrain, Google can now understand what you’re searching for by associating those words with similar words – the same way a human would try and understand something if you asked them – and brings you much more accurate results.

When it comes to content, RankBrain doesn’t just look at the size of the content and how relevant the keywords are. RankBrain assesses user satisfaction by reading dwell time and how many bounces the page receives. It’s also no longer about including the specific keyword x amount of times throughout a page because RankBrain will search the content for associated words to ensure that the content as a whole is relevant.

RankBrain helps Google algorithm to decide which signals are more important for which search query.

Beef up your title and meta description

It’s all about getting that first click – so you’re going to want to make your title and meta description on google as attractive as possible. This means using exciting and emotive language where possible to draw in more clicks. If your content is engaging and the user finds what they’re looking for then they’ll stay, or dwell, on the website.

RankBrain picks up on this. If your content is engaging and relevant then based on how long a user stays on the page, it will bump its ranking up. If your page was only viewed for a short period of time and the user went back to the Google results to try another page – then RankBrain will bump you down. Here’s a good example of a great title and meta description.

 

 

Content that matters

Your content has to be good. It has to be original, well written and rich with relevant information. It all links back to RankBrain tracking dwell time. If your article is answering a question, then put the answer as high as possible. Then the user can continue to read more in-depth.

The structure is also an important element. No one wants to read a block of text – break it up with visual graphics, sub-headings and small paragraphs anywhere from 50 – 100 words. The better structured it is, the easier it’ll be for people to read it and engage with it.

Higher engagement = more dwell time = RankBrain ranking you higher.

 

Content is King

At the end of the day it all comes back to content. Backlinking is important and plays a big part but without solid content there’d be nothing to backlink to. Every good SEO strategy starts with relevant and reliable content. The only thing that’s changed is how you incorporate keywords and how RankBrain now uses different methods to rank your page.

It relies on human experiences and interaction with your page and uses that to rank instead of exclusively looking at the content. Visual media, user-centred UX and rich graphics all go a long way in engaging users and keeping them on your page as well. This turns it into more than just another post – but a visual journey.

 

Need someone to produce great content?

At AWD Digital we live and breathe digital marketing. Our SEO strategies are paralleled only by our web-design and development team. If you want to take your Google rankings higher, then you’re going to need a solid SEO strategy along with some smart, quality content.

Get in touch with us to organise a free 30-minute consultation session by calling 03 9001 6255, or filling out the contact form on our website.