If you ask me what is the most important key to search engine positioning, my answer is content.

Why? For a few good reasons.

After all, what search engines index are content. Over the years, we have witnessed how search engines algorithms are better and better in judging the quality of the page. I am confident that future search engines will reward good content more than anything else.

When people enter keywords in search engines, they are searching for content. The content is of little to no value if it can’t satisfy the thirst of information the visitors search for.

Content is Key to Success in SEO

Enough said. What makes people read is content. What makes other web publishers link to you is content. What makes big directories to consider your submission is still overall quality of your site or in other word, content.

People can build up their link popularity by buying links, but still at least they have to own solid content for visitors to convert.

Search engines are there to satisfy searchers. If what searchers want are content, then content is what search engines want from website owners.

Content Hooks Visitors

Visitors have shorter and shorter attention span. Why should they read your pages if other pages, probably those are more useful, are a hop or two away? In their head, they are thinking “What’s in it for me?” and pay no attention to you, how great your product is and how great your company is.

Know Your Keywords

Do research on what keywords or key phrases visitors used in history to find your sites or other similar sites in your industry.

Keyword should be natural to web pages nowadays. No longer you must have a precise amount of keywords and keyword density in a page. Contrarily, you should write naturally, add synonyms and theme keywords, scattered all over the content.

In other words, you should know your keywords, and write with that in mind but don’t force into stuffing too much keywords in every paragraph.

Introducing the Era of User-Generated Content

The time has come when not only web publishers have the capability to publish information. All web readers could as easily setup a blog and start posting.

User-generated content also become very popular nowadays. Think about amateur publishers who make a living by blogging and podcasting.

Readers can now participate in a more interactive fashion on websites by using blog comments. They can now add value, expound and rebut to any piece of content easier than ever. Used right, this can be a powerful force that will not only allow you to bond closer to your readers and audiences, but also shorten sales cycle.

Those are topics of another post though.

Content comes in different formats. Audio and video contents are here now. They are growing in record speed. Think YouTube. Perhaps, you can also add articles, frequently asked questions (FAQs), interactive games, tools, and so forth.

Conclusion

Good content is the only reason why your visitors want to dive in deeper to your website. Taking the time to constantly build useful content will pay off. Search engines will come more often to crawl more and deeper pages and you will get value in returning visitors.