Is Content Still Important for Internet Success?

Most people who tried to start or market a business online are familiar with the mantra, content is king. Fast forward to 2012 and the question is, “Is content still king?” The short answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. 

Content will always be important, after all, without content what would your site be saying? Not everyone wants to wait on videos to load. However, content alone is not enough to bring visitors to your site. In the past, you might have been able to post just about anything on your site and still be found and indexed by search engines. This is no longer the case.

To be relevant today, content must focus squarely on quality. This is what Google’s Panda effect is all about. It is all about raising the ranking of sites with the best information over those with trivial offerings. Branded sites or those that cater to a niche are more likely to succeed than generic types.

An important, but not often used way to improve your website ranking is to get high-ranking sites to link to your content. Of course, this will only happen if, yes, you guessed it, you have valuable and informative content. If you are offering a special service or product, make yourself an expert. Know what it is you are doing – become the ‘go to source for all things to do with that product or service’. 

If you are involved with a web content writing or management company, then become the best web content provider you can be. One way to be the best is to keep learning and growing in your area of expertise. Remember that the web is a dynamic creature that keeps changing and you need to keep abreast of or ahead of all the changes. One way to do this is to visit sites that impact your business. I visit Google quite often to read news from the company’s headquarters; this way I know what is happening with one of the biggest influencers of online success. 

So, what do you think, is content still the most important aspect boosting your prospects online?

Do I need to Pay Someone to Write SEO Articles?

Anyone who owns a website and hopes for high traffic will need quality content. There are many ways to acquire content, with the most common means being:

• Buying it from someone or somewhere. Some SEO writers will say that it is a requirement to pay a professional to write website content.
• Write it yourself
• Use content from free content sites

Many owners of start-ups are in that delicate position where every spending decision must be carefully weighed. So paying content writers is not at the top of the list even if the website is lacking in quality content. For them, the second options are the most attractive if not always the most effective. 

Of course, it is not always about money, as you may want to be in complete control of the information on your site or blog.  Writing content yourself is possible, but there are some fundamentals that must be followed when writing good SEO articles. Luckily these can be learned, and thankfully there are lots of sites online that provide useful information. Another thing that anyone writing their own content should know is how to recognize bad SEO writing. 

Recognizing Bad SEO Content

Anyone who uses the Internet regularly would have come across articles that are so bad it almost hurts to read them. Aside from poor grammar, other ways to identify poor SEO content include:

•  Articles which feature heavy keyword usage with very little thought given to clarity
•  Articles which seem to have little relevance to the nature of the website
• The use of a long list of related keywords in an attempt to get search engines to index the site 

One of the main challenges facing business owners with an online presence is finding time to follow the changing SEO landscape. In this context it pays to be realistic about what you can accomplish. For example, you can stay on top of what’s happening with your blog while paying a competent SEO writer to generate useful, traffic building content.

The business owner will still have a responsibility to learn about SEO content and what constitutes good practices. This is the best way to know whether you are getting quality work and value for money. Remember, bad SEO practices can be worse for a website than no SEO at all. Some search engines will penalize a site for using keyword stuffing and other ‘bad hat’ practices. Ultimately, the decision to buy a professional SEO writer to produce content or not will depend on your needs, budget available and what you want to achieve.