Is Content Really King?
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| by Brian Sizemore |
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 One of the latest mantras to sweep the
online publishing and SEO industries lately -
"content is King" - has been repeated so often
that most webmasters and Internet publishers are sick of
hearing it. But many sayings become cliché for one very
good reason: They are true!
The need for content has ushered in an entirely new
industry of online publishers devoted to buying and
selling content online. One of the leaders in this new
field is Associated Content: http://www.associatedcontent.com,
a cross between MySpace and Wikipedia.
If we ignore pornography and socializing (which are,
arguably, of little value to most business owners online),
Internet use can be broken down into three basic
categories: Searching, Shopping, and Content Viewing. As
you can see from the chart below, Content Viewing commands
more hours of Internet use than Searching and Shopping put
together!
Source: The Internet Activity Index http://www.online-publishers.org
What is most interesting is that these three uses are
often synergistic when it comes down to the bottom-line:
making money on the Internet.
Searching If an Internet user is in buying mode, he or she
is most likely to begin the shopping experience by
searching for the product or service of interest to them.
Many factors come into play when search engines decide
which website to show the shopper for a particular search.
These factors are what Search Engine Optimization
Specialists manipulate in order to achieve a competitive
edge. To learn more about Search Engine Optimization see: http://www.seoverflow.com/seo-checklist.html
Content Viewing As stated above, many factors are at work
every time you see a website listed on the first page for
a certain search term. However, as search engines have
become more sophisticated at choosing the appropriate
website for your search, they are increasingly relying on
the content of that page as opposed to other factors like
the amount of links your website has. So the potential
customer starts out looking for a product or service, and
ends up not necessarily on the website with the best or
cheapest product or services, but on the website with the
best content. Chew on that thought for a moment, and it
will eventually dawn on you just how important content is,
even to a pure retail website.
Shopping No matter what it is that you sell, from
wholesale blue widgets to green widget repair services,
your online business can take a dive, survive or thrive
based on the useful information you provide about the
product or service. This, as we have established, is the
key to getting the shopper to your website in the first
place. But now comes the hard part! How do you get them to
buy? How do you take them from Content Viewing to
Shopping? Simple: Never - EVER - allow them to be more
than one click away from buying, signing up, or
contacting!
From A to B to C - An Example: Imagine you are a Denver
resident interested in liposuction. You type in something
very broad on Google, such as: Cosmetic surgeon Denver
Colorado. Out of almost two-million websites, the very
first result is http://www.squiresclinic.com.
Why? Because this particular plastic surgeon has an SEO
company working for him. I can tell from looking at the
bottom of the page where it says "Positioning for
Plastic Surgery by Page 1 Solutions, LLC". The Page 1
Solutions SEO company has probably written CONTENT for
this website, such as: http://www.squiresclinic.com/faqs_05.htm.
So there you have a prime example of going from A:
Searching to B: Content Viewing. It's not difficult to see
how this websites gets the Content Viewers to commit
themselves to C: Shopping for their product or service.
You will notice a contact form on EVERY page of this
website. Remember, "Never - EVER - allow them to be
more than one click away from buying, signing up, or
contacting"!
Whether you are in the business of selling or informing,
content is King of the Internet. It puts your website on
the top of the search engines, engages the Internet user,
establishes your credibility, and if used properly,
corrals the shopper into purchasing your product or
service.
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| About
the Author: Brian Sizemore is a regular contributor
to The
Associated Content Business and Finance section. |
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