There’s a reason why quality content — Optimized, Fresh, Factual (or trusted/authoritative), Engaging, and Relevant content — comes up as an SEO recommendation consistently in my own work as an SEO consultant as well as across the web, including sources like Search Engine Land and Kissmetrics.
O.F.F.E.R., for short. Yes, that might be a made-up acronym 🙂 But it’s not arbitrary: as hard as it is to quantitatively measure, quality content really is the single most critical thing for your website in terms of both onsite SEO (it offers a better experience to users and encourages repeat visits) and offsite (it offers shareability and encourages backlinks, since it’s actually worth linking to).
I back up this “big-picture” outlook that content is king in my day-to-day work — it’s why a specific content recommendation(s) will find its way into every SEO site audit I do, across unique client situations and varying business types. For keyword optimization, quality content that reads naturally and is targeted around a topical keyword and variations will get you much farther than just taking a list of keywords you want to rank for and peppering them into your site content.
Quite simply, you can’t ignore the benefits of optimized, fresh, factual, engaging and relevant content that makes you look better than your competitors.
Even if you’re an e-commerce site where the focus is, well, the products themselves. Hey, especially if you’re an e-commerce site. How are you going to position and differentiate your brand without a brand voice?
E-commerce difference maker
Have an e-commerce site? Here’s a post courtesy of Beacon Communications with some specific takeaways to get moving on your content marketing plan right away.
In their words: “Not only does [content] make you more searchable, it also gives visitors a reason to return to your site. Because let’s face it, not everybody that comes to your site is ready to make a purchase.”
Through a Chicago-based SEO consultancy, Path Digital Services & Consulting, Nate offers custom, platform-oriented SEO services for small to midsize business and agency clients on WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce and lots more. More about Path Digital ›
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