Unfortunately, creating earth-shattering content will not get you to the top of search queries and grow your business. It is however an important part of everything that goes into how search engines rank and index your website. The phrase has still lasted almost 3 decades as a major selling point for internet marketers all over the world, but is content king? We will answer that question and tell you how much time and effort you should be investing in your content as opposed to the other parts of SEO. 
The Evolution of Content
It’s no doubt that content has changed over the years. Back in the 90’s you had SEO companies quite literally putting the keywords they wanted to rank for countless times on their pages. Can you imagine reading content like that today? You would most likely give up a paragraph or two in and try a different search result. Google took note of this and has adapted its algorithms to make sure that content is ranked more on popularity and way less on how many times you can stuff a certain key phrase on each page of your website. What makes content popular? Google has not shared all of its secrets but we do know a few things…
- User Behavior – This can be related to numerous metrics. Time on page, bounce rate, etc. tells the search engines if it can be labeled as quality content.
- Links – Chances are if you have content that is informative and popular, you will obtain organic links from other websites all over the web. You can help the search engines realize that by making sure you have other pieces of content on your website linking to it as well.
Does Quality Content Make a Difference?
Of course, quality content makes a difference! Nowadays you need to make sure that your content is informative and not self-serving. People went to a search engine to get an answer to their questions not to be pitched your services or products. All of your SEO efforts won’t matter if your content doesn’t speak to the user. Your content is the “preverbal feather in your cap.” You need to find the perfect amount of what your audience wants you to say and your actual expertise as opposed to just one or the other. Your content gives you and your business authority in the industry, make sure you represent yourself well.
How To Use Your Content To Your Advantage
This kind of goes without saying. Why else would you want to produce content? Follow these 2 quick tips to get your quality content out to your audience.
- Build links to the pages on your website that have what you would think to be your best content. This goes back to the whole popularity idea.
- Refresh your best content. Google Analytics gives you so much valuable information, it would be a shame not to use it to your advantage. Go through all of your pages that get the most traffic and refresh it. Google will take note and it will speak to your audience better if it’s updated.
Is Content Still King?
If you take everything into consideration that we have discussed it might be difficult to still think of content as king. At Firestarter, we like to think of it in a playful synonym. If content is still king, then maybe links would be considered the queen. We all know that the queen is who really gets stuff done. Is content king, you decide.
