(Newswire.net — August 5, 2022) — We’ve all heard the saying before, “quality over quantity.” It applies to a lot of areas in life, too. For instance, it can apply to friendships, book collections, cookies, and any number of other things. The quality over quantity philosophy also plays a significant role in conducting, owning, and operating a business. In the modern business landscape, digital and virtual economies dominate.
This is largely due to the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but the mobile and virtual economies aren’t going anywhere in the near future. In fact, they’re only projected to see continual growth in the years to come. That being said, the quality of a brand’s virtual presence also plays a major role in its ability to connect with and convert consumers into customers online. One of the most important elements in a brand’s virtual or online presence is its SEO score.
In the modern world, more and more consumers are shopping online in everyday situations. This puts pressure on businesses and organizations that want to stay competitive to adapt and find ways to offer their products and/or services online. Additionally, modern companies are expected by consumers to have a robust and comprehensive social media presence.
“SEO, or optimizing a website, is done in a variety of ways. As you look at what you can do, make sure you know Google’s best practices. This means making sure the technical aspects of your website, your on-site content, which includes photos, and lastly, your off-site linking are done with an eye towards Google’s best practices. This will produce high-quality and long-lasting SEO.”
– Chris Siebeneck, Forbes Councils Member, Forbes –
A Quick Intro and History of SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. In simple terms, an SEO score dictates how well any given web page ranks on a search engine like Google or Bing based on associated keywords and key phrases. SEO came about when the internet started to gain real traction as the technology of the future.
Before SEO practices came about, the vast sea of information on the internet was simply unorganized. Some early iterations of attempted manual organizational platforms resulted in platforms like Yahoo. However, this primitive form of a database is now part of the recent past.
This created the need for a company like Google, which developed the first SEO practices.
Of course, the earliest iterations of SEO were also clunky and far from perfect. The result was undoubtedly a better organizational system, though it was obviously flawed. Immediately, malicious users were able to exploit the flaws in SEO’s early armor and managed to spam their way to the top of Google’s rankings.
This is important to keep in mind when you consider that 75-90% of clicks go to the first five links that appear on a search or query.
Later iterations solved many issues with Google’s SEO practices, and they are still working to improve them tirelessly.
“Working to understand Google’s SEO algorithm and what factors they’re looking for is integral to ranking well and achieving a high SEO score. We definitely do our best, but it can feel like an ameba at times.”
– Ryan Azimi, Director of International Development, ETIAS –
The Value of Quality Content
When it comes to developing content for the purpose of SEO, the quality of the content is far more important than the volume of content produced. This is because of the direction that SEO is taking.
Google engineers are working on designing the SEO algorithm to reflect the way that informed human would choose their links. This is to put the most relevant, informative, and valuable information at the top of the rank for any given query, making it easy for the consumer to find the knowledge for which they were looking.
“I don’t like to just publish random, what we call fluff content. Just content that exists to exist. If I don’t see some sort of intrinsic value in the content that we’re creating and producing on a regular basis, then I start to ask some questions. For the most part, though, I trust our creative team and the direction they take us.”
– Trey Ferro, CEO, Spot Pet Insurance –
Content Relevance
Content relevance is a big aspect of the way that Google ranks content quality. This is how well a piece of content or web page reflects the topics that are represented by chosen keywords and key phrases.
High-quality content that offers value to the consumer and legitimate information will clearly and obviously reflect the topics represented by keywords and key phrases. However, by including a relevance factor, websites aren’t able to rank well by populating a web page with the same key phrase written over and over again.
“We know how valuable time is, that’s for sure. Our time, our employees’ time, and the consumers’ time, too. I don’t like wasting time, and I don’t want to waste anyone else’s either. That’s why we keep our content short, sweet, and to the point.”
– Max Schwartzapfel, CMO, Fighting For You –
Readability
Readability is yet another variable that SEO algorithms take into account. Readability scores are calculated slightly differently from platform to platform, but this typically involves tracking metrics like word count/sentence, length, depth of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.
All of these elements factor into how easy a piece is to read and comprehend from the side of the consumer.
“Y’know industry jargon? Yeah, I hate it. I won’t use it. Not in an article, not in a piece of content. I don’t like it when things are overcomplicated for the sake of over-complication. So we like to keep things simple over here when we can.”
– Theresia Le Battistini, CEO, and Founder, Fashion League –
Content Design and Layout
Similar to readability is the design and layout of the content presented on the web page. This plays a larger role in the SEO score than many contents and web professionals may think.
Content design is important because it facilitates the flow of information presented in the content, and guides the reader along the journey. The content design includes elements like typography, letter and word spacing, the proper use of headers, and much more.
“Particularly for SEO, update after update sees Google placing emphasis on how real people actually experience and interact with the content on your website.”
– Richard Kimber, Author, Melt Digital –
Final Thoughts Quality vs Quantity in SEO
When it comes to building a virtual brand presence that continually ranks well across the various SEO algorithms that run the internet, keep the quality vs. quantity philosophy in mind, and your content strategy will be sure to yield consistent results that grow and scale over the years.