Content is King? Maybe, but it is useless on its own.
- SEO |
I have noticed a lot people on here, again and again, getting confused about the "Content is King" statement. And to make things worse, I see just as many people preaching the exact opposite and telling people how wrong they are, without grasping to true meaning behind the phrase. As with most things in the SEO subforum, I see it over and over again, and even though I am going to try write this as clear and simple as possible, I know I will see the same questions in a couple of days. But I am going to do it anyway, so lets get started.
Content is king, but as the title says, it is useless on its own, without proper marketing to expose people to that content. To explain this to people as simply as possible I am going to use an analogy. Let us say that you own a shop selling... well anything, it's not relevant. But, the things you are selling are the best of that category in the world, and you are selling them at the lowest prices in the world. This is the physical real world equivalent to great content. However, your shop is based right in the center of the Sahara desert. You might have the best products in the world, but you aren't going to make any sales as there is no one around to see it.
Now let us say you have a competitor named Bob, who has a shop in the same niche as you. His shop sells much inferior products and at a much higher price - the equivalent of bad content. However, his shop is placed right in the middle of a high street in a busy city. Your shop might be better than his in every single way, but its irrelevant when he has all the customers and you don't. He is still going to make money.
Now of course, if you have your shop next to Bobs shop, you are going to destroy him. With equal exposure, the shop with the better products and cheaper prices will win, without contest. The same way that with equal traffic, the site with better content will win, without contest.
I would expect everyone to have got the message by now - great content without traffic is worthless, and traffic without great content is a waste. A good marketer will have both. However, this is not the sole reason people say content is king, it gets a little bit more complex than that.
Great content will do its own marketing. Why spend months building backlinks, when one piece of amazing content will do it for you? If someone reads your content and is genuinely impressed, and can see you are trying really hard to bring something new and helpful to the niche and the people within that niche, there is a good chance they will link it to a friend. And then that friend will link it to 3 more other friends. And those friends will post it on a forum. And then someone reading that forum will post it on their blog. And then people reading that blog will link to you from their website, and so on.
HOWEVER, for this to happen, people have to already be reading your content. If no one finds it, how can they possibly link it to other people? "Create great content and people will come" - this is not a lie, it is just not the whole story. Try "Create great content, and then market that content to the right people, and then find a way to encourage those people to pass on the word, and then people will come".
Content is king, but like a real king, it is nothing without the pieces in play to put it there. A king with no subjects will rule no country, and content without marketing will make no money.
I am posting this to the SEO forum because there is two groups of people on either side of this that are getting things so wrong. Many out there have been mislead into thinking simply creating amazing content will ensure success. It won't. And there are the others who think there is no point building actual helpful content, when the only way to gain backlinks is to force them. It's not. If you don't market your content, no one will read it. And if you don't create the best content for your readers, your not only losing money but you are also missing an opportunity for organic backlinks.
Internet Marketing is about this balance. Drive traffic, then convert traffic. With SEO and great content, you can use that converted traffic to help create more traffic. Work hard on both, find the right balance, and success will follow.
Sorry for the long rant style post, but I get tired of people preaching both extremes without realizing they are both wrong. If anyone has anything to add or can possibly explain it all in an even simpler way then let me know and I can add it.
Content is king, but as the title says, it is useless on its own, without proper marketing to expose people to that content. To explain this to people as simply as possible I am going to use an analogy. Let us say that you own a shop selling... well anything, it's not relevant. But, the things you are selling are the best of that category in the world, and you are selling them at the lowest prices in the world. This is the physical real world equivalent to great content. However, your shop is based right in the center of the Sahara desert. You might have the best products in the world, but you aren't going to make any sales as there is no one around to see it.
Now let us say you have a competitor named Bob, who has a shop in the same niche as you. His shop sells much inferior products and at a much higher price - the equivalent of bad content. However, his shop is placed right in the middle of a high street in a busy city. Your shop might be better than his in every single way, but its irrelevant when he has all the customers and you don't. He is still going to make money.
Now of course, if you have your shop next to Bobs shop, you are going to destroy him. With equal exposure, the shop with the better products and cheaper prices will win, without contest. The same way that with equal traffic, the site with better content will win, without contest.
I would expect everyone to have got the message by now - great content without traffic is worthless, and traffic without great content is a waste. A good marketer will have both. However, this is not the sole reason people say content is king, it gets a little bit more complex than that.
Great content will do its own marketing. Why spend months building backlinks, when one piece of amazing content will do it for you? If someone reads your content and is genuinely impressed, and can see you are trying really hard to bring something new and helpful to the niche and the people within that niche, there is a good chance they will link it to a friend. And then that friend will link it to 3 more other friends. And those friends will post it on a forum. And then someone reading that forum will post it on their blog. And then people reading that blog will link to you from their website, and so on.
HOWEVER, for this to happen, people have to already be reading your content. If no one finds it, how can they possibly link it to other people? "Create great content and people will come" - this is not a lie, it is just not the whole story. Try "Create great content, and then market that content to the right people, and then find a way to encourage those people to pass on the word, and then people will come".
Content is king, but like a real king, it is nothing without the pieces in play to put it there. A king with no subjects will rule no country, and content without marketing will make no money.
I am posting this to the SEO forum because there is two groups of people on either side of this that are getting things so wrong. Many out there have been mislead into thinking simply creating amazing content will ensure success. It won't. And there are the others who think there is no point building actual helpful content, when the only way to gain backlinks is to force them. It's not. If you don't market your content, no one will read it. And if you don't create the best content for your readers, your not only losing money but you are also missing an opportunity for organic backlinks.
Internet Marketing is about this balance. Drive traffic, then convert traffic. With SEO and great content, you can use that converted traffic to help create more traffic. Work hard on both, find the right balance, and success will follow.
Sorry for the long rant style post, but I get tired of people preaching both extremes without realizing they are both wrong. If anyone has anything to add or can possibly explain it all in an even simpler way then let me know and I can add it.
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