Search engine optimization–SEO–is one of the most effective digital marketing tools available. It has been used successfully by businesses of all sizes for many years, which is why it is such a trusted tool that remains very relevant to this day. Like most digital marketing strategies, the goal of SEO is to drive more traffic to your website primarily by helping your site rank higher within the results pages of popular search engines such as Google. This is one reason why content is important to SEO.

SEO is actually a very broad term that encompasses a wide variety of strategies–all of which are designed with the main goal of improving search engine ranking to drive traffic in mind. Although many people in digital marketing consider SEO and content marketing to be two completely separate entities, content is actually deeply connected to search engine optimization. In fact, high-quality content is a crucial component of effective SEO. Learning how SEO and content marketing are interconnected can help you improve your SEO strategies and drive more traffic to your site. Keep reading to learn a few top reasons why content is so important to SEO.

Content Increases Engagement

One under-recognized way by which content is important in SEO is that high-quality content increases user engagement with your website, lowers your bounce rate, and improves your conversion rate.

Having high-quality content that is relevant, informative, and not over-stuffed with filler and fluff on your website improves the experience users have when they visit your website. In this way, content drives more traffic that doesn’t bounce to your site–and more visitors in turn improve your website’s ranking on popular search engines, which is the primary goal of SEO as a digital marketing strategy in the first place.

It is important to remember, however, that not all content is created equal. Only high-quality content is effective at increasing user engagement with your website. If you do not have the ability or time available to put into writing high-quality content for web pages and blog posts on your website, it is important to dedicate part of your digital marketing budget to hire a content writer who is able to produce succinct, high-quality, optimized content that complements your SEO strategies.

Content is King has been a shared philosophy between SEOs for years

Content is King has been a shared philosophy between SEOs for years

Content Naturally Incorporates Keywords

Keywords are an important component of SEO. Google searches are primarily made up of keywords, and Google displays results for a specific search based on the keywords that the search query includes. Incorporating popular keywords into your website is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your site by improving your site’s ranking on Google and other popular search engines.

Google’s algorithm is very advanced, however, and it notices if you stuff a ton of keywords into titles and headlines and short descriptions on your website–and it lowers your website’s ranking if it does notice this habit of keyword stuffing on your site.
Therefore, producing longer pieces of high-quality content for your website that include keywords at a lower frequency is a more effective way to include keywords on your website to improve your site’s ranking without getting dinged by Google for keyword stuffing.

Content and Backlinks Go Together

Backlinks are links that link back to your website. They are designed to be included within content that is posted on a high-authority website that is separate from your own website. Not only do backlinks organically drive traffic to your website, but they also improve your website’s credibility according to Google’s algorithm. Your website will rank higher on Google if more backlinks to your site exist on high-authority websites.

A great way to get backlinks to your website on high-authority websites without shelling out a lot of money is to offer to provide guest posts for these websites in exchange for including backlinks within the posts. Guest posts must be comprised of high-quality content that includes one or two backlinks to your website in a way that sounds natural and allows the post to flow smoothly without sounding like an advertisement. In this way, producing high-quality content for high-authority websites is a key part of the process of generating backlinks to your website.

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