Content, content, content.
We watch it, read it, listen to it, double-tap it, and share it.
We trust online reviews to guide our restaurant choices.
We consult Google to diagnose our symptoms and find a homeopathic remedy.
We watch Netflix and funny cat videos to cope with pain and loneliness.
We are addicted to consuming content.
That’s why content creation is important for every business to master (including yours). The more content your audience consumes from your social pages or website, the more likely they are to take the desired action.
Content that we find enjoyable, like a new release blog from our favorite clothing brand, might compel us to make a purchase.
Content that we find engaging, like a touching news story, might compel us to share with friends and family.
Content that we find useful, like a tutorial video, might compel us to seek advice from the same source the next time a similar need arises.
Content is queen in the world of marketing. When you make great content – something enjoyable, engaging, or useful and easy to consume – it helps you gain credibility in your industry.
There is a good reason we trust WebMD to help with self-diagnosis via the internet: WebMD is considered an “expert” source of medical information. Whether you have a rare disease or you’re just suffering from a common cold, WebMD is going to have content describing symptoms, reviewing complications and warning signs, and sharing typical treatment plans or non-drug alternative care plans.
When you share content with your audience, they get a taste of the knowledge and experience you have to offer. Next time they run into a similar issue (or symptom), they will go back to the source that has helped them in the past – you.
Not all content is created equal, though, especially on a search engine like Google.
On a mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” Google uses a complex, ever-changing algorithm to determine which sites, pages, videos, and images will provide the searcher with the best user experience possible.
Creating exceptional content (enjoyable, engaging, or useful and easy to consume) is vital for high rankings on the search results page. According to Neil Patel’s Google algorithm cheat sheet, the current algorithm gives a higher ranking to web pages based on criteria such as:
- Length. Pages are rewarded for content that discusses a topic in depth, as these are the pieces of content that are typically most useful to searchers.
- Relevance. Google monitors when new content is published and older content is updated to show the most up-to-date, relevant information possible.
- Uniqueness. If you have the same content copy/pasted onto different pages of your site, Google will actually punish you by dropping your search rankings.
- Engagement. The longer visitors stay on your page and the more often they visit your site, the more useful Google will perceive your information to be (and the higher you’ll rank in search results).
Search rankings matter a lot for online advertising, seeing as Google’s ad revenue in 2017 amounted to almost 95.4 billion dollars.
The question is no longer why content creation is important for your audience, but rather what content is important to your audience (so you can start creating).
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