by Rasheite Radcliff
It all begins with what we like to call “Guy meets Girl.” When a guy meets a girl he’s attracted to, he’s determined to woo her, and if Girl is worth it, Guy will woo her by any means necessary. So Guy wants Girl’s attention, and to get it he has to be creative. What does he do? He buys her a diamond. I will admit, the diamond is not usually the first trick guys pull out of the bag, but for the purposes of creating a visual, I am working on the fast track.
Slingshot SEO has a method of tackling enterprise SEO: C.L.A.S.S.—Content, Links, Architecture, Social and Strategy. As a member of the Slingshot team, C.L.A.S.S. means a great deal to me, but the fact that I am a Search Media Editor makes one particular letter a prime focus: C. With over three years of editing experience content has always had a special place in my heart, and thanks to the Google algorithm, content should have a special place in the heart of any company striving for SEO success.
Let’s think of content in terms of diamonds.
Diamond is to Girl as Content is to the Google Algorithm
By anyone’s standards, it’s safe to say that ranking on Google is worth the extra woo efforts. The higher quality your content is, the better your chances with the algorithm. Consider Guy offering Girl a ruby instead of a diamond. By no means is a ruby a cheap investment. It’s a nice gesture, but a gesture is all it is. A site with little or no content is equivalent to the ruby. It may be worth looking at, but it doesn’t encourage staying power.
With talk of bounce rates playing a role in search, staying power is what you need. Having quality content on your site encourages users to stay longer, giving you a regular bounce rate which, in theory, plays a more positive role in search than the actual bounce rate which is calculated by viewers coming to your site and leaving immediately because they don’t find what they want, or in some cases because there is no content to read.
But having content isn’t the end of the road. Diamonds are nice, but only when they appeal to the four C’s—Clarity, Carat, Cut and Color. For those of you who aren’t diamond connoisseurs, the bottom line is that having a 4 carat diamond that is poor in color or isn’t cut in a way to allow light to pass through is insignificant—there is just no dazzle. Just the same, you don’t want your web content to be lacking in any area either.
So what are the 4 C’s of writing for the web?
Clarity: Have a point, know your point and get to it quickly.
Concision: Use the least amount of words possible to make your point.
Character: Connect with your readers through an engaging voice.
Correctness: Make credible statements, and check your grammar.
Pay attention to the style and the voice of your content. Understand your target audience, and write in a way to woo them. Give them the diamond of their dreams, and then sit back and watch the magic. How do ensure that you content meets the 4 C’s of writing for the web?