Let's explore the importance of content in SEO and how it contributes to search engine success.
Content is the core foundation of SEO. More specifically, it is one side of the SEO relationship. A core function of search engines is to connect users with the information they are looking for. That information can be product listings, reviews, news, images, or videos.
User retention is another core function of a search engine.
Search engines retain users by ensuring they trust the results they display. Over time, they build the expectation that using their platform is a safe, streamlined experience that quickly leads users to what they want.
SEO success depends on your target audience finding what they are looking for and consistently providing a satisfying user experience based on the context of the queries they enter into search engines.
1. Search is built on content
The core function of a search engine is to help users find information. First, search engines discover websites, parse and display them, and then add them to their index. When users enter a query, the search engine retrieves relevant websites from the index and then “ranks” them.
Search engines need to know what pages are about and what content they contain in order to serve the right content to users. Conceptually, they do this quite simply: They examine the content. The actual process behind this is complex, performed by automated algorithms, and evaluated by human feedback.
Google constantly tweaks and updates its algorithms with the goal of ensuring it delivers the most relevant content to searchers.
This relationship between searcher, search engine, and website has defined the internet experience for most users. Unless you know the exact URL of the website you are trying to visit, you need to find it through a third party.
It could be social media, search engines, or even exploring a website offline and then typing in. This is called a "referral,” and Google sends 64% of all website referrals to Microsoft US, and Bing sends the second largest number of referrals, followed by YouTube.
Getting discovered by people who don't know you yet depends on search engines, and search engines depend on content.
2. SEO Value of Content
Google says it prioritizes user satisfaction.
It has been implicitly confirmed by Google that user behavior impacts rankings. Therefore, you must prioritize user experience and satisfaction, as this is the key indicator of SEO success.
Written language is still the primary way users interact with search engines and the way algorithms understand websites. Google’s algorithms can interpret audio and video, but written text remains the core of SEO functionality.
Attracting clicks and engaging users through content that satisfies their queries is the foundation of SEO. If your pages can't do that, you won't succeed.
High-quality content and a good user experience aren't just important for SEO; they're prerequisites.
This is true of all advertising and branding. Entire industries and jobs are built on the skill of fine-tuning the right message and getting it to the right people.
3. Proof of the SEO value of content
Google emphasizes the importance of content in its “SEO Fundamentals” document. The document advises that Google’s algorithms should look for “useful, trustworthy information that is primarily created to benefit people” and provides details on how to evaluate high-quality content itself.
Content and how relevant it is to the user's needs are among the core positive and negative factors in Google's ranking system. Google has updated its system to reduce content that Google deems useless and prioritize content that Google deems useful.
In fact, Google’s content analysis can determine whether a page is eligible for ranking in its index. If you work hard to provide a good experience and serve the needs of your users, search engines have more reason to show your content and may do so more often.
A 2024 study in collaboration between WLDM, ClickStream, and SurferSEO found that the quality of content covering a topic is highly correlated with rankings.
4. User Content and Behavior
Recent developments in the SEO industry, such as the Google leak, continue to highlight the value of both content and user experience.
Google values user satisfaction in determining the effectiveness and quality of websites and appears to use behavioral analysis in ranking websites. Google also focuses on the user's intent when querying and whether a particular intent is served by a particular resource.
User satisfaction is closely related to SEO performance, if not directly determining it.
Many factors influence user experience and satisfaction. Page load speed and other performance metrics are one part of it. The intrusive elements of the page on the experience are another.
However, content is one of the main factors that determine whether the experience is “good” or "bad.”.
- Did users find what they were looking for? How long did it take?
- Is the content accurate and complete?
- Is the content trustworthy and authoritative?
This makes content important not only for your search engine optimization efforts but also for your website’s performance metrics. Delivering the right content to the right users in the right way will impact whether they become leads, converts, or returns.
Researching quality and experience is a total win-win. Good experiences lead to desired behaviors. These behaviors are strong indicators of the quality of your website and content. They lead to positive results for your business and correlate with SEO success.
5. What type of content do you need?
Successful content will vary depending on the specific goals and queries you target.
Text is still the foundation of online content when it comes to search. Video is extremely popular. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world. However, in terms of referrals, YouTube only sends 3.5% of referral traffic to websites. Additionally, videos have titles, and most of them are now automatically transcribed. These text elements are important for discovery.
That’s not to say that videos and images aren’t popular. Video, especially “shorts” style videos, is an increasingly popular medium. Cisco reports that video will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022. So you should definitely consider images and videos as part of your content strategy to best serve your audience and customers.
Both can enhance text-based websites and stand on their own on social platforms.
But for SEO, it’s important to remember that Google searches send the most referral traffic to other websites. Textual content is still the core of a good SEO strategy. Multimodal AI algorithms are getting very good at translating information between different media types, but text content is still important for a number of reasons:
- Plain text is highly accessible. Screen reader accessible and easily resizable.
- Text is the easiest way for both humans and algorithms to analyze semantic connections between ideas and entities.
- Text is not dependent on device performance like videos and images.
- Textlinks are a very powerful SEO tool because they convey meaning directly along with the link.
- It's easier to skim through text than it is to skim through video.
Text content still dominates when it comes to SEO. But you shouldn’t ignore other types of content. Images, for example, make powerful link-building assets because they’re engaging and shareable. Text accompanying images and videos appeals to a wide range of user preferences and can help grab attention when plain text might not.
Like everything else, it's important to know what best serves the user in each particular situation.
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