FirstPageResults
Top Contributor
This guest article is written by Shane of Bait.com.au.
Original and good quality content can benefit your websites in a number of ways. The benefits range from improved rankings to improved conversions - and ultimately more profitable websites!
Please feel free to leave some comments.
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Benefits of good website content
Unless you have a portfolio of premium domains that get strong type-in traffic, to make proper money from your domains I believe that good content is the key.
Some of the SEO experts on DNtrade may disagree with this comment, but in my opinion good content is the most important factor in building profitable websites.
Before I go further into the benefits of good content, I’d like to set the scene with one of my own experiences.
Case Study
A few years ago I setup my business website in the rather competitive insurance industry. I built a decent website, and within a few months of launching I took on the services of a large firm that managed the SEO of some other very high ranking and well known insurance sites.
Despite paying them a considerable sum each month, I was told that position three was the maximum I could achieve for my main keyword, as my top two competitors were just too strong.
The SEO firm I was using concentrated mainly on link building, as they believed my on-page SEO was already pretty good thanks to my own work. They did provide some supposedly good SEO-friendly copy, but it was absolutely horrible and I made sure it never appeared on my site!
As I reached the end of my twelve month contract with this firm it became evident that position three was indeed the best ranking they could achieve for me. I chose not to review the contract, and instead decided to focus on creating good content for an hour or two each week instead.
Within five months of the SEO contract ending, I had moved my website up into position 2, solely through the consistent addition of good content. But what was more impressive is that number 1 position was a new site of mine, that I had built from scratch and loaded with good content.
So from having a large and seemingly successful SEO firm tell me that position 1 and 2 were unachievable, 18 months later I AM position 1 and 2!
Yes I did a small amount of link building, but I credit these results mainly to good content.
Crap Content V Great Content
I’ve heard about all of these “article-spinner” systems and other ways to obtain cheap and easy content. I’ve also heard all about the cheap content that can be obtained through services like elance, where people from developing countries will write articles from $10 or less.
As well as hearing about these methods, I’ve also read plenty of the content that they provide, including the rubbish that my old SEO firm provided me with. Seriously, I would be embarrassed to have that content on my website!
Sticking within my main niche, insurance, I have read some really diabolical content on some websites, including the websites of licensed financial advisers and insurance brokers, who it appears have unfortunately taken the advice of their SEO firm and used cheap overseas content providers who have no knowledge of the Australian market or our regulations.
Often the content is grammatically poor, and of most concern to me is that the content is often technically inaccurate. As a former financial adviser myself, it pains me to see high ranking websites that contain incorrect information. Maybe this doesn’t impact on your rankings, but it could potentially impact on someone’s life if they believe what they’ve read on your website.
Furthermore, if someone is reading your website who knows a thing or two about the subject, they will pick up on your errors immediately and will leave your site without having achieved your desired outcome, i.e. completing a lead form or continuing to browse before clicking one of your ads.
Are you a professional or an amateur?
Of course any of us can throw together a cheap website with crap content and make a few bucks each month. If you make enough from those websites you might even be able to make a living out of it.
But is that what you want? Do you want to have a portfolio of mediocre websites that rely on Google search for your traffic and Google Adsense for you your income? Websites that you know a person is only ever going to visit once and then disregard forever?
Or do you want to build websites that can become businesses in their own right? Businesses that make proper money, and can one day be sold for serious money.
If it’s the latter you want, then you have to build quality websites that people will want to come back to. Websites that other people will want to link to, and websites that provide real value to the visitors.
A good domain name and good design is obviously very important, but in my opinion good content is king.
Good content as ‘bait’
I like to think of good website content as an online version of fishing bait.
Google Bait – Your content should be good enough to attract the right attention from Google.
To do this it should be original, relevant to the subject and your target keywords, and going forward I also believe that it will have to be grammatically sound.
Client Bait – Your content should also be good enough to attract the right kind of visitors.
If your visitors read the first two paragraphs of your landing page and feel that the content is poor, chances are they are going to hit the back button and click on the next search result.
This leads to a failure on a number of levels, because they haven’t completed a form or clicked on an ad, and they’ve also contributed to your bounce rate which affects your Google rankings.
You need to have content on that first page, be it your home page or any other page indexed and ranked by Google, that grabs the visitors attention and makes them want to hang around.
Regardless of what your desired outcome is, be it a subscription form, lead form or a clicked ad, the longer the visitor stays on your website, the better your chances of success.
Furthermore, if they really felt your website provided value to them, they are more likely to link to it or share it via social media.
A changing world
With the recent Google Panda updates, it became clear that Google is finally starting to favour quality over quantity.
People say that Google will soon start placing less emphasis on exact match domains, but personally I feel they are more likely to start placing less emphasis on the number of links. Or at least I think they should!
Everyone knows that the majority of links to most ‘optimised’ websites are artificial. I often check the link profiles of highly ranked websites, particularly those of my competitors, and most of the back-links come from spam blogs and directories.
Going forward, it is my belief that Google will focus more on the quality of the content within the website. If programs such as Word can check your spelling and even grammar on the run, then I see no reason why Google could not do the same.
Surely a website with poor spelling and grammar is more likely to be of lesser quality that a website with good spelling and grammar? I feel that Google will take this into account eventually, and that they will further punish the websites that try to fool Google with cheap content and spammy artificial links.
Content is king!
Link building will always be an important part of SEO, and not for a second am I saying that you should stop putting effort into it. In my experience however, great content has always been the key to good rankings and profitable websites, and that’s where the majority of my energy is directed.
I take the same approach with most of my websites – and that is to build them in a way that respects every visitor to the site. I don’t want to waste their time or mislead them with garbage content, because I hate when that happens to me.
Instead, I build each site in the hope that each visitor will get a little something from the content. And hopefully, depending on the site, they’ll have enough faith and trust in the site to complete one of my forms, or at least hang around long enough to click on an ad. If they really liked it, then a back link would be nice too!
Creating your own content
I’d like to believe that most people are capable of writing their own good content, but in reality some people just aren’t good writers. Personally I get great joy from writing, but not everyone is the same.
Often people don’t have a lack of writing skills, but perhaps a lack of technical knowledge on the subject, a lack of available time, or perhaps just a lack of interest since they can pay someone else to do the work whilst they undertake more profitable work themselves!
I encourage everyone to have a go at creating their own unique and quality content, but if that’s not you, then I can help...
Free plug!
I currently write quality content for a few different websites, including my own sites, a couple of DNtrade members and also a number of licensed financial advisers. For more information please click here.
Original and good quality content can benefit your websites in a number of ways. The benefits range from improved rankings to improved conversions - and ultimately more profitable websites!
Please feel free to leave some comments.
------------------------------------------------------------
Benefits of good website content
Unless you have a portfolio of premium domains that get strong type-in traffic, to make proper money from your domains I believe that good content is the key.
Some of the SEO experts on DNtrade may disagree with this comment, but in my opinion good content is the most important factor in building profitable websites.
Before I go further into the benefits of good content, I’d like to set the scene with one of my own experiences.
Case Study
A few years ago I setup my business website in the rather competitive insurance industry. I built a decent website, and within a few months of launching I took on the services of a large firm that managed the SEO of some other very high ranking and well known insurance sites.
Despite paying them a considerable sum each month, I was told that position three was the maximum I could achieve for my main keyword, as my top two competitors were just too strong.
The SEO firm I was using concentrated mainly on link building, as they believed my on-page SEO was already pretty good thanks to my own work. They did provide some supposedly good SEO-friendly copy, but it was absolutely horrible and I made sure it never appeared on my site!
As I reached the end of my twelve month contract with this firm it became evident that position three was indeed the best ranking they could achieve for me. I chose not to review the contract, and instead decided to focus on creating good content for an hour or two each week instead.
Within five months of the SEO contract ending, I had moved my website up into position 2, solely through the consistent addition of good content. But what was more impressive is that number 1 position was a new site of mine, that I had built from scratch and loaded with good content.
So from having a large and seemingly successful SEO firm tell me that position 1 and 2 were unachievable, 18 months later I AM position 1 and 2!
Yes I did a small amount of link building, but I credit these results mainly to good content.
Crap Content V Great Content
I’ve heard about all of these “article-spinner” systems and other ways to obtain cheap and easy content. I’ve also heard all about the cheap content that can be obtained through services like elance, where people from developing countries will write articles from $10 or less.
As well as hearing about these methods, I’ve also read plenty of the content that they provide, including the rubbish that my old SEO firm provided me with. Seriously, I would be embarrassed to have that content on my website!
Sticking within my main niche, insurance, I have read some really diabolical content on some websites, including the websites of licensed financial advisers and insurance brokers, who it appears have unfortunately taken the advice of their SEO firm and used cheap overseas content providers who have no knowledge of the Australian market or our regulations.
Often the content is grammatically poor, and of most concern to me is that the content is often technically inaccurate. As a former financial adviser myself, it pains me to see high ranking websites that contain incorrect information. Maybe this doesn’t impact on your rankings, but it could potentially impact on someone’s life if they believe what they’ve read on your website.
Furthermore, if someone is reading your website who knows a thing or two about the subject, they will pick up on your errors immediately and will leave your site without having achieved your desired outcome, i.e. completing a lead form or continuing to browse before clicking one of your ads.
Are you a professional or an amateur?
Of course any of us can throw together a cheap website with crap content and make a few bucks each month. If you make enough from those websites you might even be able to make a living out of it.
But is that what you want? Do you want to have a portfolio of mediocre websites that rely on Google search for your traffic and Google Adsense for you your income? Websites that you know a person is only ever going to visit once and then disregard forever?
Or do you want to build websites that can become businesses in their own right? Businesses that make proper money, and can one day be sold for serious money.
If it’s the latter you want, then you have to build quality websites that people will want to come back to. Websites that other people will want to link to, and websites that provide real value to the visitors.
A good domain name and good design is obviously very important, but in my opinion good content is king.
Good content as ‘bait’
I like to think of good website content as an online version of fishing bait.
Google Bait – Your content should be good enough to attract the right attention from Google.
To do this it should be original, relevant to the subject and your target keywords, and going forward I also believe that it will have to be grammatically sound.
Client Bait – Your content should also be good enough to attract the right kind of visitors.
If your visitors read the first two paragraphs of your landing page and feel that the content is poor, chances are they are going to hit the back button and click on the next search result.
This leads to a failure on a number of levels, because they haven’t completed a form or clicked on an ad, and they’ve also contributed to your bounce rate which affects your Google rankings.
You need to have content on that first page, be it your home page or any other page indexed and ranked by Google, that grabs the visitors attention and makes them want to hang around.
Regardless of what your desired outcome is, be it a subscription form, lead form or a clicked ad, the longer the visitor stays on your website, the better your chances of success.
Furthermore, if they really felt your website provided value to them, they are more likely to link to it or share it via social media.
A changing world
With the recent Google Panda updates, it became clear that Google is finally starting to favour quality over quantity.
People say that Google will soon start placing less emphasis on exact match domains, but personally I feel they are more likely to start placing less emphasis on the number of links. Or at least I think they should!
Everyone knows that the majority of links to most ‘optimised’ websites are artificial. I often check the link profiles of highly ranked websites, particularly those of my competitors, and most of the back-links come from spam blogs and directories.
Going forward, it is my belief that Google will focus more on the quality of the content within the website. If programs such as Word can check your spelling and even grammar on the run, then I see no reason why Google could not do the same.
Surely a website with poor spelling and grammar is more likely to be of lesser quality that a website with good spelling and grammar? I feel that Google will take this into account eventually, and that they will further punish the websites that try to fool Google with cheap content and spammy artificial links.
Content is king!
Link building will always be an important part of SEO, and not for a second am I saying that you should stop putting effort into it. In my experience however, great content has always been the key to good rankings and profitable websites, and that’s where the majority of my energy is directed.
I take the same approach with most of my websites – and that is to build them in a way that respects every visitor to the site. I don’t want to waste their time or mislead them with garbage content, because I hate when that happens to me.
Instead, I build each site in the hope that each visitor will get a little something from the content. And hopefully, depending on the site, they’ll have enough faith and trust in the site to complete one of my forms, or at least hang around long enough to click on an ad. If they really liked it, then a back link would be nice too!
Creating your own content
I’d like to believe that most people are capable of writing their own good content, but in reality some people just aren’t good writers. Personally I get great joy from writing, but not everyone is the same.
Often people don’t have a lack of writing skills, but perhaps a lack of technical knowledge on the subject, a lack of available time, or perhaps just a lack of interest since they can pay someone else to do the work whilst they undertake more profitable work themselves!
I encourage everyone to have a go at creating their own unique and quality content, but if that’s not you, then I can help...
Free plug!
I currently write quality content for a few different websites, including my own sites, a couple of DNtrade members and also a number of licensed financial advisers. For more information please click here.