Content is king
When exactly did this little online coronation take place? And, more to the point, why weren't we invited?
Well, the truth is content has always been king (or queen) and always will be.
But what precisely is content?
Content is the reason the vast majority of people trawl the internet for hours at a stretch. Content is... well, content is stuff. It's the stuff people are looking for whenever they go online.
People are looking for intriguing titbits of information, they're looking to be enlightened, they're looking to be entertained and amused. They're looking for interesting and valuable experiences.
True, there are also people looking to buy products and people looking to buy your products, but these only account for the tiniest fraction of those online at any given moment.
Examples of effective content include blogs, opinion pieces, how-to guides, quizzes... in fact, anything which engages and interests the internet user. Audio, video, games and gadgets are also good examples of effective content but, being a content writer, I'm going to focus on text content. As you'll see a little later, text content is particularly valuable.
So, let's imagine you've created a content-rich website. What are the tangible benefits you are likely to experience? There are three core benefits.
1. Great content pushes traffic toward your site via search engines such as Google, particularly if your clever little content writer has provided you with keyword-rich text content. Your website will feature more prominently and frequently in Google's results. Why? Because Google loves content. Just consider for a minute what Google actually is. Google is essentially a piece of software that directs people toward the content they are looking for. Google is a vast and organically self-perpetuating directory of content. Not a directory of businesses or products or services: a directory of content. And Google receives hundreds of millions of search queries every day; that's hundreds of millions of requests for content.
2. The internet is a community, a community of users perpetually sharing information, perpetually sharing content. But only intriguing, interesting, enlightening and entertaining content. When internet users come across just such a piece of quality content, they share it. They link to it. They blog and tweet about it. You receive the invaluable gift of countless, relevant one-way links.
Sometimes, your content will 'go viral' and your website will experience an unprecedented surge of traffic.
All this traffic consolidates the value of your website in the eyes of Google and you receive an even more favourable position in those all-important SERPs (search engine results pages).
3. Great content gives your existing and potential customers a positive experience. It gives them a reason to come back, time and again. You don't want your customers only to come back when they want to buy something or when they need your particular service, you want them to come back every day so you can present them with your latest offers and keep your brand foremost in their minds.
So, the more content you add and the more frequently you add it, the more traffic you generate to your website.
I'll end with an example, to demonstrate the power of great content.
Let's take a look at Wine Library TV (http://tv.winelibrary.com).
Wine Library TV is essentially a business that makes money from selling wine and wine-related paraphernalia.
But take a look. Where's the shop? Where's the storefront? Instead of a relentless and soulless sales pitch we are confronted with masses of intriguing, interesting, enlightening and entertaining content. We see wine tastings and reviews, advice on buying, storing and appreciating wine and an encyclopaedic resource of all things related directly and peripherally to wine and viticulture.
But is it a successful business?
The Wine Library TV website has more than 100,000 back-links and a Google Page Rank of 6. It features prominently and frequently in a whole array of wine-related searches and benefits from a colossal amount of web traffic.
Wine Library TV was recently valued at approximately $45 million.
If you were to ask Wine Library TV's proprietor Gary Vaynerchuk if content is king, I think you'd be able to pre-empt his answer with very little difficulty.
Well, the truth is content has always been king (or queen) and always will be.
But what precisely is content?
Content is the reason the vast majority of people trawl the internet for hours at a stretch. Content is... well, content is stuff. It's the stuff people are looking for whenever they go online.
People are looking for intriguing titbits of information, they're looking to be enlightened, they're looking to be entertained and amused. They're looking for interesting and valuable experiences.
True, there are also people looking to buy products and people looking to buy your products, but these only account for the tiniest fraction of those online at any given moment.
Examples of effective content include blogs, opinion pieces, how-to guides, quizzes... in fact, anything which engages and interests the internet user. Audio, video, games and gadgets are also good examples of effective content but, being a content writer, I'm going to focus on text content. As you'll see a little later, text content is particularly valuable.
So, let's imagine you've created a content-rich website. What are the tangible benefits you are likely to experience? There are three core benefits.
1. Great content pushes traffic toward your site via search engines such as Google, particularly if your clever little content writer has provided you with keyword-rich text content. Your website will feature more prominently and frequently in Google's results. Why? Because Google loves content. Just consider for a minute what Google actually is. Google is essentially a piece of software that directs people toward the content they are looking for. Google is a vast and organically self-perpetuating directory of content. Not a directory of businesses or products or services: a directory of content. And Google receives hundreds of millions of search queries every day; that's hundreds of millions of requests for content.
2. The internet is a community, a community of users perpetually sharing information, perpetually sharing content. But only intriguing, interesting, enlightening and entertaining content. When internet users come across just such a piece of quality content, they share it. They link to it. They blog and tweet about it. You receive the invaluable gift of countless, relevant one-way links.
Sometimes, your content will 'go viral' and your website will experience an unprecedented surge of traffic.
All this traffic consolidates the value of your website in the eyes of Google and you receive an even more favourable position in those all-important SERPs (search engine results pages).
3. Great content gives your existing and potential customers a positive experience. It gives them a reason to come back, time and again. You don't want your customers only to come back when they want to buy something or when they need your particular service, you want them to come back every day so you can present them with your latest offers and keep your brand foremost in their minds.
So, the more content you add and the more frequently you add it, the more traffic you generate to your website.
I'll end with an example, to demonstrate the power of great content.
Let's take a look at Wine Library TV (http://tv.winelibrary.com).
Wine Library TV is essentially a business that makes money from selling wine and wine-related paraphernalia.
But take a look. Where's the shop? Where's the storefront? Instead of a relentless and soulless sales pitch we are confronted with masses of intriguing, interesting, enlightening and entertaining content. We see wine tastings and reviews, advice on buying, storing and appreciating wine and an encyclopaedic resource of all things related directly and peripherally to wine and viticulture.
But is it a successful business?
The Wine Library TV website has more than 100,000 back-links and a Google Page Rank of 6. It features prominently and frequently in a whole array of wine-related searches and benefits from a colossal amount of web traffic.
Wine Library TV was recently valued at approximately $45 million.
If you were to ask Wine Library TV's proprietor Gary Vaynerchuk if content is king, I think you'd be able to pre-empt his answer with very little difficulty.