Brighton SEO 2019 – Is Content Still King?

September 20th 2019 | By Genesis Guevarra

Introduction

Spoiler alert! The answer is NO! Now, let’s find out why…

All SEO’s know that in order for your website to rank in Google, you have to create quality content. Not just quality content, but content that signals to your users, not just Google, that your business is related to what you’re offering.

During this September’s Brighton SEO, numerous topics to help increase Google rankings were discussed. However, there’s one particular topic that really stood out (in my opinion):

Content marketing might be the core of any campaign, but it holds lesser value compared to before.

What do I mean by this?

Previously, you had to produce constant content on a daily basis to cover the most related topics to what your business offers. Now, it’s still good practice to produce content, don’t get me wrong, but as a reader, would you rather read that many articles?

Would you rather read a comprehensive article that keeps you wanting to read more (like a good book)?

Google certainly prefers the latter.

Content in the Real World

As proven by many case studies, like Neil Patel’s or Brian Dean’s, Google really does prefer more comprehensive content. Google understands what an entity is and what is related to those entities.

But what do real users prefer? Users, like you and me, certainly want answers to our burning queries right away.

So how do you usually go about it?

We tend to find answers by typing questions directly in Google. So in turn, Google keeps track of all those questions and correlates what content would be the best solution to your query.

As data suggests, we tend to click on articles that seem to define what we need and that generally comes in unique ways.

Here are my biggest takeaways from Brighton SEO discussions:

Tip #1

Your content should answer what people are asking about.

Of course, why bother creating content that is not getting searched?

Tip #2

Write articles that answers people’s question in a unique way.

If you’re like me, you get bored if the material you’re reading is too long and much prefer shorter, digestible sentences and paragraphs.

Tip #3

Make sure your content sounds conversational.

All these only point to one conclusion…

Users are the King in SEO

For years, the content has been the main focus of SEO campaigns. As cited by keynote speaker, Dave Trott, only a small percentage of marketing makes an impact on its audience.

Many have tried marketing their products with numerous tactics but only those who understand who their audience and service really stands out.

Content is INDIRECTLY the king, however, the driving force should be centred on what people want.

What do they ask?
What information are they looking for?
Which products are they comparing?

These are just some of the questions we have to ask. As marketers, we have to do our homework.

Ever noticed the “People Also Ask” box within Google’s search results?

Those are the actual queries that Google has been receiving in people’s searches.

What would it would take to go viral?

For one, we could just simply answer those questions in such a way that would resonate with people and be remembered.

Take the “Teddy Bear” for example. It was named after the USA’s former president Theodore Roosevelt. Why did it withstand the test of time? People resonated with the coined term “Teddy” and it’s been viral since then, even before the internet was discovered!

Conclusion

Sure, there are other ways to rank your website other than content marketing.

We have

Link Building
Citation Building
Google My Business
Google Ads (and other paid ads)

But in reality, real-world signals are more important. We have to stop focusing our efforts on Google bots and start focusing on our users, asking ourselves the questions:

How could we improve user experience with our website?
How would they enjoy our content?

Ultimately the future of search marketing is all about the users.

So the question still stands. Do you think content is still king?