SEO Wisdom - How Great Content Brings Top Rankings

High-quality website content helps your search engine optimization (SEO) program in more ways than one. For one thing, having a content-rich website will help you cover your bases in terms of keywords. The more content you have, the more key phrases your site can rank for in Google, Yahoo, etc.

But that's not the only benefit. Great content also helps you acquire inbound links to your website from other sites, and this "link popularity" has a direct and positive influence on your search engine ranking.

Attract Links for Better Rankings

If you are serious about your long-term visibility in Google, Yahoo and MSN, then you need to have a website that is worth linking to in the first place. "Link worthy" websites come in all shapes and sizes, but they share a certain characteristic in common. They all offer great content that people are more than happy to share, recommend and cite.

Aim for Critical Mass

Aside from paid placements (such as web directories), few people will link to a "bare bones" website that offers nothing unique, helpful or interesting. A webmaster's dream, then, is to have the kind of site that is so useful and popular that people link to it and recommend it without being asked to do so. I refer to this as reaching "critical mass."

At first, you have to grow your link popularity through directory submissions, article publishing, press release syndication and the like. But eventually, great websites reach a point of "critical mass" where they begin to attract links and traffic without much effort from the owner.

Website content has a lot to do with this, so follow these tips:

• Before you write a new web page, come up with a mission statement. Ask yourself how that particular article will benefit your readers. For example: "I am writing this page on email marketing software to help my readers learn about the top five programs that are available."
• Outline before you write. This is always good practice, but especially when it comes to web writing. It will help you stay on track when creating new web pages. In most cases, each page of content should have a title, an introduction, the main body, and a concluding statement (possibly with a call to action).
• Use hyperlinks as needed. A site that makes good use of hyperlinks for cross-referencing will usually keep visitors onsite longer. WebMD is a good example of this. Their site has plenty of links to related information embedded within each article.
• Rewrite as needed until your content is clear and easy to understand. People read fast online. They skim and scan. If they don't understand what you've written upon first glance, they won't give it the benefit of the doubt.
• To help the "scan and skim" readers mentioned above, format your content for the web. Use short paragraphs, headers and sub-headers, and bullet points to make your web pages eye-friendly and easy to read onscreen.
• Write for people, not for search engines. If you overstuff your pages with keywords, they will turn people away. Nobody wants to link to this sort of content.

Conclusion

The more "link worthy" your website is, the easier it will be to acquire inbound links. The more of these you acquire, the higher your website will rank in search engines for key phrases. The higher your site ranks, the more people will find you online ... you get the picture. It all adds up to more leads, more customers and more business. But it all begins with quality content. There is no substitute for it.