Do you know how those words and phrases you put into Google, Yahoo or Bing provide you with relevant search results? Or how the search engine knows that when you search for “movies” you’re most likely looking for movie theaters and times and not used DVDs? Or why people searching for home services in your town end up with local results instead of websites to home service providers in Germany?
Search engines are the key, but they are also the gate between your website and the audience you’re trying to reach. While search engines keep lots of secrets about how their algorithms work, we do have insight into some of the key elements of achieving great search results. One of the top elements happens to be content, but not just any content. High quality, unique content that is properly structured is your best tool for boosting organic traffic to your website.
What is unique content?
What is unique content? Let’s first talk about what it’s not since there so much confusion on the topic. Unique content is not content derived by putting together keywords for the sake of weighting a page to appeal to search engines. It is not pre-written generic content based off of industry generalities. It is also not content written by content-mills and sold to numerous sites.
In short, unique content is written specifically for your company. It contains information completely tailored to you, what you do and how you do it. The content on your site should show your personality, illustrate your expertise and give people a taste of your company. When people come to your website you want them to see you as a trail blazer, not a template-following knock-off that they have seen time and time again.
What is structured content?
The topic of structured content can be quite complicated, but simply put it is content arranged in a way that makes sense to search engines. By using H tags, your pages build a structure similar to an outline with a headline and various sub-headlines. Each of these has different H tags (H1, H2, H3) and within each one you include a keyword that tells search engines, and readers, what the section is about.
Search engines can more accurately understand your page’s content if it is structured well. In turn, it can more serve your page to more people looking for the type of content you provide. To a search engine, unique content that is structured is deemed more valuable than generic, duplicate or unstructured content.
If you are looking for a way to stand out, get noticed and establish your online presence, unique, structured content has to be a part of the plan. Sign up for our newsletter to learn more about content marketing, or give us a call if you have questions about how you can leverage content for more organic traffic, conversions and customers.