It’s nearly three decades since Bill Gates penned down his oh-so-famous essay- Content is King. It’s fascinating how accurately this American business tycoon predicted the future of digital marketing way back in 1996. 

In the essay, Bill Gates says content is king because it will be the most crucial internet component. Like in the broadcasting revolution of the 1950s, he says that the most money on the internet would be made by supplying information and entertainment.  

Sure enough, all talks on how to succeed in doing business online today focus mainly on SEO. And at the heart of every SEO endeavor is content marketing.

Whether you’re a website owner, an SEO agency, or an enthusiastic search engine optimization writer, here are reasons why you should treat content as king (or queen). 

It’s the Sole Medium for Communication

When predicting the future of the internet, Bill Gates foresaw content as the medium through which audiences would interact with creators.

Let’s face it: content is what attracts target users to a particular site or channel. Whether you’re into YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or plain old websites, it’s impossible to run either of these without content. 

Content is what your potential users and search engines use to learn more about your website. Without it, all you have is a domain that only sits on servers without users and with no benefit to anyone, including yourself. 

Google and other search engines may be aware of its existence. But they won’t bring it up on search engine result pages (SERPs) because it doesn’t offer any content.

As a result, it won’t be shared on social media marketing platforms or referenced by other educational and informational sites. In short, you’re lost in space. No one knows about your existence, and no one is looking for you. 

Users Demand Quality Content 

When we say content is king, we mean quality content. Gates points out that “if people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will.”

Here at Aloha, we pointed out before that one of the key tips for SEO content marketing is to focus on the audience first. 

When users click on your site on the SERPs, they hope that you’ll provide an answer or solution to their problem. To stand out, website owners need to have adequate knowledge of their target audience and the issues they are facing. Armed with this knowledge, it’s easy to determine the type of information to offer and how to structure it for the readers. 

Remember, it’s possible to weasel your way up search engine results pages. But it takes quality content to keep your audience from bouncing back to the search results. 

Search Engines Love Relevant Content 

Quality website content will earn you trust and a positive response from your audience. However, if you’re not adding SEO to the equation, you’re wasting your time and may not realize the full benefits of your hard work. 

Search engine optimization is the art of structuring your online content so that search engines can discover it and show it to your target users. It offers a budget-friendly method of bringing in more traffic without relying on paid search.

But the real beauty of organic SEO is the trust that searchers have in it. Google’s Economic Impact team estimates that 80% of page one clicks go to organic searches. This clearly demonstrates how crucial organic SEO is in building traffic and improving brand perception. 

Unfortunately, organic SEO is tricky for two major reasons. First, search engine algorithms are ever-changing. Secondly, no one outside of Google knows how this search engine calculates rankings. But as it turns out, Google’s complex algorithm is a good thing. 

What Google and other search engines are trying to do is discourage content creators from unethical SEO practices. On the same note, most of the top search engines today continue to demonstrate their love for fresh, high-quality content. 

Essentially, if you combine new and relevant content with other SEO best practices like keyword research, compelling titles and headings, and internal links, success won’t be far off. 

Content Creates a Base for Backlinks 

Backlinks are hyperlinks from one website to a page on another website. An example of a backlink is when you place a clickable text like this directing your readers toward another website outside your own. 

Backlinks are also known as inbound or incoming backlinks from the receiving end. And from the linking site, these links are called external, outbound, or outgoing links. 

There are a few general reasons why backlinks are crucial for an SEO strategy; 

• Incoming backlinks are a source of organic traffic through referrals 
• Backlinks can help search engines discover your URLs faster
• Backlinks increase a website’s authority in a given niche
• Backlinks are a ranking factor for the target URL

Most importantly, search engines view backlinks as upvotes. Having a high number of quality backlinks pointing toward your site tells search engine crawlers and bots that your site is a reputable source of valuable content around a particular niche. As a reward, you rank well on the SERPs, increasing the chances of growing your audience. 

Not all backlinks offer the same value, though. The origin of the links greatly determines their quality. For instance, a single incoming link from an authoritative site like Forbes or New York Times is worth more than twenty backlinks coming from low-rank sites.

It’s possible (but extremely risky) to pay for low-quality backlinks. However, the only way to earn high-quality inbound backlinks from reputable sites is by writing kickass content. 

Great Content is Key for Social Validation 

The exponential growth of social media has had website owners wondering whether it can improve SEO results. The answer is a resounding YES. 

Social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, can indirectly boost your ranking through social signals. These are the likes, upvotes, shares, pins, and reviews that your content gets on social sites. 

Search engines interpret this positive human interaction as validation. As a matter of fact, Google and Bing have added social validation to their list of SEO ranking factors. If they realize that a particular page on your site is receiving positive feedback in the form of shares, likes, and reviews, the chances are that they will want to rank it highly to increase its visibility. 

But similar to getting high-quality backlinks, social validation doesn’t come easy. You want to offer valuable content that helps your audience so much that they want to like and share it with others. 

Final Thoughts  

There are a lot of suggestions for how to improve SEO rankings and attract organic traffic. However, today, more than ever before, we’re convinced that content is and will remain king.

No matter how much time you spend implementing SEO techniques, you may not get the results you’re looking for if you’re not offering valuable content. And let’s face it: search engines know when people don’t find your content helpful and, in turn, will downgrade your rank. 

So after this, perhaps what you should be thinking about is how to write quality content as a part of your SEO strategy.

‍