The ongoing changes in search engine algorithms are putting greater emphasis on website content to earn high rankings.

These changes are affecting many small business online marketing efforts. Whether it be for a company website or a social media page, strong, original content is going to be essential to business success.

So how does one know what constitutes quality content? Answering that question is not so easy. A great number of variables, beginning with what type of business you are running, will have a lot to say about the content you choose to use.

Arnie Kuenn, author and CEO at Vertical Measures, offer this comment in an interview posted at Search Engine Journal:

“To me the best way to make your content stand out, is to create it for your audience, not you and not for the search engines. Provide real, valuable, informational, fun content for your customers (or potential customers) and do it on a consistent basis. That is how you win these days.”

Search engine rankings will continue to be important in digital marketing. What’s changing is the methods for achieving those higher rankings.

The search engine programmers are attempting to put the focus on quality sites which is also what users have repeatedly demanded. The changes they began implementing last year and which are continuing with updates even now, are aimed at filtering out sites which provide little content of value and which exist solely for the purpose of getting high rankings and views.

Perhaps the best way to analyze your current content and to plan future content is to study your content and decide whether it has substance.

Asking the following questions about your content will help you determine that:

• What is the message?
• Is it a message that customers want or need to hear?
• Does it provide something of value or general interest for anyone who might visit your website?
• Is it refreshed and updated regularly?
• Is it well-written? Is the grammar correct? Are there any typos?
• Is the content written for and aimed at helping and informing the customer?
• Does the content reflect what you want your customers to know?

Developing a strong, substantial content plan for your website and other digital marketing efforts will go far toward helping you engage your customers and keep your site’s rankings high with search engines.

If you would like to learn more about how content can help drive your digital marketing, contact us