SEO Part II - Quality Content

Written by Lisa | 11.06.09

Content is King

A website can resemble and fulfill the same function as, something as simple as a business card, or something as complex as a university or shopping mall.

The website itself (as much as it can be thought of as a tangible thing) is a combination of text, images, audio and video, and of course, code (a lot of ones-and-zeroes).

When developing any website, we follow a similar process, from basic structure to specific content. I would apply the same methodology when tackling SEO.

I am however, for the purpose of this blog, going to reverse the order and concentrate on content. Because let's face it: content is king.

Whereas the structure and the components that make up the functionality of a website provide the foundation, the content provides the dynamic. And dynamic content (updated content and new content added) is just what Search Engines, but most importantly, users, like and will keep coming back for.

A web designer/developer can design the core components to certain standards to ensure optimum accessibility. If SEO practices are introduced successfully during the initial development, there would be little need to revisit, beyond occasional upgrades and revisions. In this case, the structure, even of a dynamic website, can be seen as static.

Content is ever-expanding.

Examples of individual content forms combined in multimedia:
Text	Audio	Still Images
Animation	Video Footage	Interactivity

Quality Content

Search Engines like good quality content and more importantly, can recognise good quality from mediocre (and bad).

Referred to by webmasters as natural (as in a natural inbound link – when your website is linked to by another because the content of your website is relevant and therefore of value), the quality of a website is determined by its effectiveness. And what is the primary function of a website? To provide information.

If your website is publishing relevant articles on current issues, or hosts an active, online community, or if your blog is being updated weekly and receives comments and referrals, or even if your Star Trek Trivia database website is linked to by every Trekkie out there, then your website is fulfilling its function very effectively.

This is the number one rule, in my mind, when it comes to SEO.

You can't fake it, so don't even try.

So how does one ensure the provision of quality content?

Well, let's start simple. If we look at what the content (any web page) may consist of, we find some text, images, some links to other pages, links to other websites, and multimedia elements like audio, video, or animation. Each of these content items have what we call metadata (data about data – what the content is about), like html tags and attributes, associated with them.

It is wise to get into the habit of providing as much information as possible about any given content.

Text

• Semantically correct mark-up - Using h1-h6 and strong tags for content based on importance and keywords.
• Page Title should contain a keyword.
• Useful, information-rich content (including keywords).

A note on keywords:

Keywords are the words that best describe your website's content, and/or that a user might type into their search engine to find your website. In Joomla, keywords are defined within the metadata of the website. The keywords must appear throughout the content; they cannot simply be words you wish to be associated with. This should not be difficult provided your pages contain information that accurately describes your content. Being conscious of keywords is helpful as you add content and can be a deciding factor in how something is phrased, provided the meaning is not hampered.

Images

• Do not use graphics to display important text as Search Engines do not recognise embeded text.
• Place images near relevant text.
• Use informative file names, alt and title attributes to describe the content of the image. The alt attribute will replace the image with said text for those browsers with image display disabled, or for those using assistive devices like screen readers.

Example: img src="/../images/LisaCorcoran2009.jpg" alt="Portrait of Lisa Corcoran from 2009" Title="Lisa Corcoran 2009"

Links

• Informative title attributes
• Natural links coming from quality sources
• Links to pages within your website
• Keywords in anchor text of inbound link via social networking