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Why SEO & lousy content don’t mix

Content is an important part of search rankings, but columnist Ryan Shelley reminds us that quality trumps quantity.

Ryan Shelley on January 11, 2017 at 1:15 pm

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We’ve all heard the saying, “Content is king.” While in some respects this saying is true, in my opinion, this one phrase has done more damage to our industry than anything else.

According to WordPress, “Users produce about 73.9 million new posts and 49.0 million new comments each month.” That’s roughly 2.4 million posts a day, and that’s just on WordPress alone. I would love to believe that all of that content has value, but in my experience over the years, I could make a very strong argument that most of it is junk.

Google’s end goal is to deliver the best solution to searchers in the fewest clicks. As the search engines crawl the web, they are searching for content that delivers value and matches end users’ expectations. In fact, content is among Google’s top three ranking factors — so it plays a central role in successful SEO strategies.

Good content will generate links and will also help Google’s RankBrain better understand what your site is about and how it benefits users. Yet even though content plays such an important role, many search marketers don’t seem to take it seriously.

[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Ryan Shelley

Ryan Shelley is the founder of Shelley Media Arts, LLC. He is passionate about helping and educating businesses owners and other digital marketers on how they can use inbound marketing, SEO and web design to grow their businesses.