You know the phrase ‘Content is King’?
From an SEO (search engine optimisation) point of view, the idea is that the search engines will scan your content and, armed with that information, award you with a nice prominent listing in the search results.
Hang on a minute. You may have noticed that this all depends on the search engines being able to scan your content.
It’s an issue that many take for granted, but it is perfectly easy to code a website in such a way that the search engines cannot see any of your content. And, if your content can’t be read by the search engines, you’re wasting your time.
That’s wasting 100% of your time, by the way.
Make some of your SEO automatic
I recommend you get the technical aspects of your site sorted out first, and then move on to concentrate on your content, secure in the knowledge that it will help you along the path to higher search engine placements and more traffic.
What you do depends on if you have a site that already exists or you’re starting off with a new one.
Starting with a new site
If you’re starting from scratch, probably the easiest thing to do is to set up a WordPress site. Many people think of WordPress as only being suitable for blogs, but you can just as easily use it for regular, non-time-dependent content.
If you’re having a new site built for you, then you should make absolutely sure that your developer will be supplying a site that will enable the search engines to see your content.
If they fudge the issue, or don’t seem to understand what you’re asking about, move on. It’s that important.
Check if your existing site is OK
My colleague, Paul Silver, developed SpiderTest, a site that enables you to check if the search engines can read your content.
Just pop over there and enter your site’s URL, and it will tell you if there are any technical issues with your site.
So get the technical SEO nailed down and forget about it. It’s a significant part of your site’s SEO that you can stop worrying about.
With a good, solid technical platform and you can concentrate on content, strategy and social.