Why Content is Important

You might be familiar with the phrase ‘content is king’.

It was originally coined by Bill Gates in the essay of the same title, and it has become a popular phrase amongst digital marketers for many reasons.

Moreover, nowadays, content has become the kingdom!

Ultimately, content and SEO are what brings organic traffic to your sites, and without them, your pages wouldn’t rank.

But it isn’t just about hitting keywords and a word count. People want quality content that reaches the EAT criteria. This will be touched on below.

Content marketing is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on creating and sharing quality and relevant content.

This type of content is used to engage with customers: attracting new clients and keeping the existing ones loyal to your brand, business, or service.

Repeat customers are the backbone of a thriving business. This type of strategy can be hugely profitable if done right.

Content is important for businesses because it bridges the gap between business and customer.

According to Sprout Social, of over 1,000 people surveyed, 64% of consumers want a brand that connects with them, and 70% of consumers feel more connected to CEO’s who are active on social media and have a presence in their brand.

Good quality content helps your brand establish itself, creating a personality and an image for customers to align with.

Good content should reflect the style and tone of your business and give customers a presence to feel connected to.

Valuable content will help your business build a relationship with the customer, with the main aim being the customer establishing loyalty to your brand.

To do this, the content you put out must be relevant, correct and indicative of what you have to offer. Content that speaks to customers is more likely to drum up some following.

For example, Aldi’s marketing team are absolutely killing their content at the moment.

Their team have established a fantastic following through funny and relevant content, their social media platforms, and even their adverts.

All utilise intelligent, relevant, and humorous content.

Having a client base of customers who support and trust your brand is the best kind of marketing out there.

Customers who feel they have a connection to your brand establish brand loyalty.

Once you have a loyal client, your brand name is more likely to be spread through word of mouth, as well as through positive reviews and feedback online from existing customers.

Loyal brand advocates inevitably drive in repeat and new customers and ultimately encourage sales.

Sprout Social’s survey also surveyed what consumers want from the brands they associate with.

• 72% want brands to be active contributors to society
• 64% want brands to connect with their consumers
• 64% want brands to use their power to help people
• 46% want brands to unit people from different backgrounds

Eventually, consumers today want brands that align with their personal ethos and utilise some of their power to connect to consumers and make positive changes.

Ultimately, consumers want brands they can support morally.

For this reason, content is absolutely key in connecting with your consumers.

Good content will get people talking and can likely turn a new customer into a repeat customer if they like your content.

The E.E.A.T. criteria is an anagram that stands for what algorithm Google uses to rate the content you put out and the quality of the webpage.

The concept comes from Google’s Search Quality Rater guidelines, and it became well known after the Medic Update in August 2018.

Experience.
Expertise.
Authoritativeness.
Trustworthiness.

Let’s break it down to understand better.

Experience adds an importance factor in your content which can evaluate your article or blog in terms of its helpfulness and originality.

Expertise means that Google looks for a level of expertise in the content.

If the content you produce isn’t accurate and doesn’t actually provide consumers with answers or solutions, this naturally decreases the quality of your webpage.

Authoritativeness looks at the authoritativeness of the main creator of the content, the content itself and the website providing it.

So, say for example your business is about kitchen re-modelling and you put out a blog on plumbing, Google is going to want to check the authority of your webpage against the content.

Trustworthiness is the same kind of thing. Google looks at how trustworthy your content, creator and website are compared to the content.

The EEAT algorithm essentially helps maintain original, accurate, honest, and useful content being available to consumers.

For example, you don’t have to have any sort of qualification to start a website and start writing on a topic of your choosing, and this can be damaging to consumers who are at risk of seeing misleading content.

This, of course, is a positive thing as it helps consumers find exactly what they need.

However, t also means that all the content your business puts out must have the algorithm in mind to make sure it hits Google’s criteria and therefore generates traffic.

This shows us something crucial, however:

that consumers make big decisions based on what their search results find. So, your content needs to be correct and useful above all.

You can’t provide good content if you don’t know your audience and what exactly they want. Once you do have this, good content includes:

1. Nuanced information and ideas that comes across as original and authentic. You want to stand out.
2. Contains relevant keywords, headings, and topics. Consumers like to skim content for what is relevant.
3. Easily digestible and informative. Consumers want to find the information they require quickly. Hard to digest content is bound to result in the consumer bouncing from your site.
4. Answers their questions at the right level. i.e if the blog is about curing headaches, the anatomy of how headaches happen probably isn’t going to offer the consumer anything valuable.

• Interesting blogs that offer entertainment and educational value
• Concise and relevant blogs
• Visual content that is both interesting and informative
• Step-by-step guides
• How to guides
• Blogs with a number (i.e ’10 reasons why your website is not performing)

Ultimately, content is one of the ways you can truly connect with your consumers and encourage organic traffic to your site.

Investing in quality content is essential for business growth, brand loyalty and repeat customers. Good content is what separates a business from a trusted brand.

So, start your content creation with a proper strategy now!