They Say Content Is King; Is It?

On a personal blogging site, I've been having quite the discussion with someone on the topic of content. Or, more specifically, whether content is actually king when it comes to optimizing one's website.

This person's position is that saying content is king makes no sense because it's not content that drives traffic to a site, but marketing of that site, earning reciprocal links from other sites, and word of mouth. Of course, this person also went off on a rant about what kings were really all about and that maybe content should be called a queen instead; that was really odd.

In my opinion, content really IS king. The reasons why are quite simple, actually. One, look at any website that's only a bunch of links with no words on them whatsoever; they do exist. If you have the capability, look at its page rank; most of the time, it's nonexistent. Two, look at websites that are only pictures, or flash; same thing, no page rank.

Three, with the way Google and other search engines are changing their algorithms, based on making sure that websites are promoting themselves with content that's relative to what they say their business or products are all about, the only true way to capitalize on that fact is through the content one puts on their site.

Now, it's true that content isn't the only way to get people to your site, but it certainly helps with the search engines. A business could direct their clients to the site to make purchases, in which case page rank makes no difference to them; that is, if those are the only people they want visiting their site. A business could also advertise in more traditional ways, such as newspapers, television and radio, and hope that many people will come to their site; I'm thinking that's a bit expensive and extreme over the long haul.

I also tend to believe that if you, or the person who helps you with your website, can't figure out how to talk about either your business or your products in any way that's somewhat compelling, then you really don't have a purpose in having the website to begin with, because you're not going to generate any business online.

The truth is that almost every person on the web is hoping that the search engines are going to help them obtain business. One does that through the use of keywords to highlight the products or business they're trying to promote. You have few places to put keywords other than within your content. You have your title tag, meta tags (which Google gives little credence to, but other search engines still do), H1/H2/H3 tags, possibly your pictures (very little juice from there), and possibly a link or two. That's not enough; you must have content, written in a way so that it's readable and relevant to what your site is all about.

So, I guess I'm agreeing; Content really is king.

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