TRAFFIC
WHY GOOD CONTENT
IS INTEGRAL TO
A DIGITAL STRATEGY
Over the years search engines have become more intelligent to the point where the likes of Google now
have a good understanding of what makes quality content. But what does it take to turn acceptable into
standout? Ben Lawrance advises
IT IS NOT that long ago that the internet
was a bit of a mess. Search engines were not
the intelligent machines we now know them
to be; they were much more basic. In those
days, Google would determine whether or
not a page was relevant to a user if it used
the same or similar keywords to those used
for the search query.
Webmasters and SEOs jumped on this
approach by stuffing keywords onto pages,
often taking little consideration for the
actual quality of that content. This led to
a web where the best and most relevant
content was not always displayed at the top
of the search results.
Google’s response to this issue was
to become better at determining what
constitutes quality content. It has become
very adept at this, and over the past year
we’ve seen Google push out regular
algorithm updates that have improved its
ability to identify the best content.
Why is quality content
so important?
content on the site will also help the site
convert users into customers, something
that will have an impact on all channels.
How does this work?
At Branded3 we’ve worked with several
gambling brands, and while many of the
people working for these brands could
easily tell you the difference between a back
bet and a lay bet, your average Joe probably
Google also knows that the more a
site can demonstrate its expertise on a
topic, the more likely that site is to be a
legitimate and trustworthy source. This is
why demonstrating expertise is such an
important aspect of improving rankings.
We recently worked with a gambling
brand where we used this strategy. We
created nine gambling-related guides for
them in November 2017, and over the three
“Google knows that the more a site can demonstrate
its expertise on a topic, the more likely that site
is to be a legitimate and trustworthy source”
can’t. Google recognises that the internet
is widely used as a research tool and that
users on your site are likely to want to
gain a more detailed understanding of the
products being advertised.
subsequent months saw visibility for
related keywords increase by 85%,
increasing our share of potential organic
traffic within this sector from 23% up to
42% (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Increase in brand visibility following creation of nine
gambling-related guides (December 2017 to February 2018)
Creating better content will help you
appear higher in Google’s rankings. In
fact, Google has declared that the quality
of a site’s content is one of Google’s
top 2 ranking factors 1 , but the impact of
high quality content filters out into all
channels. Google is determined to show
the best quality and most relevant results
at the top of its search results, but what
constitutes good quality to Google often
also constitutes good quality to users too.
This means that improving the quality of
Month
1
https://searchengineland.com/now-know-googles-
top-three-search-ranking-factors-245882
Source: Branded3
iGB Affiliate Issue 68 APR/MAY 2018
19