The content factor has become an important concern since Google has rolled out its major updates like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird in the past few years. Also there are few updates like Google authorship and in-depth articles which has impacted the significance of the content on the website. And because of that the role of content on the website has emerged on high note.
It is said that “Content is King” since Google started updating its algorithm to get rid of spam. I want to emphasize on the factors affecting of the content for the overall website performance at the search engine rankings.
Thus, below are some important factors of the content which I want to highlight with some key point and describe their significance.
1 Keywords
Old time optimization techniques like adding keywords in the content to increase the keyword density has come to the end after Google started considering keyword stuffing as spamming which has usually leads website to top rankings in the search engines. As of now the whole keyword usage in the content has become very tentative topic for the webmasters.
After Google major updates like Panda and hummingbird it is clear that usage of excessive keyword won’t make you rank on the top of SERP’s. One more difficulty to face is the increase of not provided data in the Google analytics which has made webmasters handicap for the specific keyword optimization.
Though, usage of keyword in the content is still important as you can use the technique like latent semantic indexing and could turn out to be the significant method to improve the keyword optimization.
I read the discussions on the websites & forums about the change of keyword optimization techniques after Google Hummingbird update. It has certainly changed the role of short tail keywords and long tail keywords in the content.
The new update has empowered the conversational topics over keywords where you need to consider on the user intent than the targeted users.
2 Quality
What if a content article is quite lengthy but not well written and with no added value for the users?
I do consider most of the times that the content with more word count than the average content article word count will make difference unless and until it is well written & with added value to the user.
It is the tendency of the users to become a regular reader unless & until they find something interesting and valuable on regular basis on the website.
You will find in-depth articles section in the Google search results for some search queries. These in-depth articles have detailed information on the topic searched and they do add some value to the users. If you want to write about something which has in-depth knowledge and detailed information then your article can get chosen in the in-depth articles section on Google.
Writing quality content is the first job for the all content marketers by which they get good response from it. I would like to mention about grammar, inclusion of list or sub headings and conversational content which are the core factors about quality content.
3 Freshness & Ad placement
Google gives value to the websites who frequently add fresh content to the website. The actual benefit of this is to increase the indexing and new users or subscribers of the website. There are many major brands who really kept their users feeding with the new information and updates in the form of content on their online platforms.
Hence, it gives them boost in the user engagement and readership and ultimately constant customers for their brand.
The first and the major devastating update from the Google were to target the thin and duplicate content. Google Panda is still rolling out its series of updates to improvise the search results to give the users proper results in the form of quality & fresh content websites.
Hence, adding fresh content frequently to the website will ensure constant visibility to the users. This happens until & unless you add valuable and quality content for the users.
Google Panda update has affected websites ranking in the SERP’s which kept too many ads in the first fold of the website. Since, the ad placement has become important factor in order to keep the user engaged and stays away from the filtration from the Google search results.
Keep the information on the website in such a way where user found it easy and make sure your ad placement does not cause any interruption in the navigation.
4 Engagement
What if the content on the website is not engaging the users?
Yes! The answer of this question will solve the mystery behind the unsuccessful content websites. When a user comes to the website for a particular search query and found the website with quality and valuable content then the average time gets improving and the bounce rate more often decreases.
I do want to embassies on the social engagement for the content published on the website. A quality and valuable content has a potential to get shared across many online platform for the longer period.
Engagement for the content can be determined in the form of comments, social shares and mentions. It also helps in the search engines ranking from the social share counts and mentions.
The Google has brought authorship which has claimed by many authors across the world. This is the significant change in the content marketing which gives the trust factor to the users in the search engine results.
Claim the authorship for your content if you haven’t. Write a quality & valuable content on regular basis for your website to bring the best results out of the search engines. Add you review on the content factors in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr
Above content is guest blogging from Darshan.
About guest blogger
Darshan Beloshe is SEO professional and Blogger. Read more posts on his blog where he writes on his favorite topics and experiences. Currently he works for the company Justdial limited which is also known as JD.
