We at Matador Solutions hear the questions, “How much content do I need to optimize my site” and “What type of content should I have” quite a bit. If you’re reading this because you don’t know jack, you’ve definitely come to the right place. The answer is, no one other than the search engines themselves knows for sure. But we do have a few best practices we’d like to share about using content to help optimization. So let’s break it down to 4 simple rules.
Just quality.
A lot
Clear writing
Keep it simple
When it comes to content and optimizing your site, J stands for JUST QUALITY. By that we mean only have quality, written work on your site. Content is key, but don’t write just for the sake of having content. Write because there’s something you truly want to add on a particular topic. Keep the content of high quality and related to the key words you want your website to rank for. Writing quality content means selecting topics that your readers will want to better understand. For example, Matador Solutions wrote this article because we know that our clients want to better understand how to write content that will optimize their sites.
Next, have A LOT of content. So long as we’re abiding by rule #1, in that the content is high quality, get a lot of it on your site. Content helps drive traffic. Add static pages, blogs, whatever; but the key is to do something. The more the better. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 300-500 words per topic. But this “rule” really can vary. If you can swing it, add new content to your site at least every week, if not more often. In some industries, you need to add content daily, and in others hourly!
CLEAR WRITING is also very important. Make it easy for the reader to understand what you’re getting at. Use. Short. Sentences. Okay, not that short. You probably are doing this instinctively, but dumb down your writing so that your readers don’t need to think too hard about what they’re reading. This comes largely from clear and concise writing.
Finally, KEEP IT SIMPLE with regards to your concepts. We’re not talking about your writing here, but we’re talking about your topics. If you are in the automotive business selling new cars, then write about the basics of selecting a vehicle. Don’t write about the intricacies of piston size. If you’re a plastic surgeon writing about nose jobs (not the physician-specific vocabulary rhinoplasty). Keep the discussion on what the patient should expect in surgery but not the nuances of the anesthesia. The concepts you write about must be easy for the consumer to understand!
We hope you enjoyed our short blog entry on using content to help search engine optimization. Now, the next time someone tells you that you don’t know JACK about content, you can correct ’em!