Content Rules the SEO Realm

Drowned out by all the hoopla over link building, research, title tags, PageRank, modules, and content management love is the one thing that is the foundation for it all: content. Content is king, ruling over the realm of SEO. You link build to articles, made up of key-rich words that form sentences and eventually paragraphs. Title tags require keywords to be indexed up to their potential. I can go on and on with every element of SEO and how content/(key)words are the foundation for success, and trust me, I’ve got time. But I won’t. Here is a better and much more precise explanation.

Search engine spiders are, by and large, textual creatures. Search engine spiders index web pages for keywords, but they won’t index your website if it doesn’t have text on it. They want text in the way that radio wants sound and TV wants pictures. Developers have eventually figured it by slowly extinguishing their Flash-happy design approaches.

A great SEO company understands that not only is content and keywords the king of SEO, but that it is a naturally evolving language. Keyword research should be an ongoing process, not a one-and-done intensive checkbox for the launch meeting. A great SEO company has a sharp and witty writing department, or they outsource to reliable freelancers (keyword: ‘reliable’).

Without good content, you will struggle mightily. And without it, you may just choose to take a few “shortcuts” that don’t bring the long-term gains you hoped for. Or even worse, you could get busted for black hat SEO tactics and find your website in the Google graveyard, just in time for their 2009 Halloween logo.

Don’t get me wrong, all the other aspects of SEO are very important and deserve its time and effort. But if you don’t invest in the words of your campaign, you will be underwhelmed by the results.