Search Engine Optimisation
Whenever website content is discussed in regards to Search Engine Optimisation, Google’s Panda and Penguin will inevitably be mentioned at some point. Although the average person doesn't need to know the ins and outs of these exotic animals, how it affects their website is important.
Once upon a time, SEO 'experts' would stuff a web page with keywords - that is trying to get the phrase they are optimising for into the page content as many times as they possibly could. This would result in top results in Search Engines being pages that were only there for the purpose of ‘being top in Google’ and not actually providing the user with what they were actually searching for.
Google didn’t like this and now factors the quality and relevance of the content into page rankings. Effectively this means that the more relevant and engaging a web page is to the search term of the user, the more likely it is for the pages of that website to rank higher in Google.
It helps to convert users
Search Engine Optimisation is only half the battle, however. Getting hits on a website is one thing but users need to convert to make it all worthwhile. Once the visitors are on a website, they need to get the information they were looking for. Sometimes this could just be a phone number or email address for a particular business. Most of the time, visitors are looking for the answer to a specific question and that question should be answered on the page they choose to visit.
Copy needs to be compelling - it needs to get users to pick up the phone, fill in the contact form or make the purchase. Users need to convert for a website to serve its purpose. Ultimately, the content on a website needs to do two things:
- Engaging
- Relevant
The content of a website should engage the user above all else. If visitors aren’t interested in what they are reading, then they will leave. It should be written with a purpose in mind: is it to educate the visitor? Is it to provide information about a product they are interested in purchasing?
Attracting the right audience and giving them what they want will lead to conversions.
Remember: good copy alone won’t increase conversions. Visitors need to be sold on the look and feel of a website. It remains important that engaging and relevant copy is coupled with strong, powerful design and semantically structured content.