Search engine optimisation is all about increasing website visibility and ranking web pages as highly as possible in search engine results pages (SERPs). The key to success is to provide high-quality written content (copy) on your Home page and website landing pages – without this, it’s nearly impossible for a website to be ranking onlne.

KEY INSIGHTS

Text-based (written) content is intrinsic to SEO – without it, your website simply can not rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Written content signals to Google (and other search engines) that your page/s are worth recommending – and places you in front of your target audience when they are looking for you.

Every website landing page (and your home page) needs at least 500 words to rank. Depending on the requirements of your human audience, this could be more, but it is rarely less.

SEOcycle is a leading Sydney-based SEO provider working with clients throughout Australia and internationally. Our economical SEO service includes recommendations regarding your content, and our other services include high-quality, professional website content writing and blogging to support SEO.

As an expert SEO provider and website designer, we have worked with hundreds of clients across a diverse range of industries and niches over the last 12+ years. Clients who come to us for SEO seek to rank their website on Page 1 of Google for organic search results. After all, that’s the entire point of participating in an SEO campaign.

Every so often, we have a new client who wishes to rank highly but is resistant to having much, if any, written content on their website. This is a mistake that can cost their potential for online visibility dearly.

Content is critical to SEO. Without it, it’s impossible to rank online and be visible to search engines or your audience.

You’re also likely to leave your audience wanting more – and going elsewhere to find it.

Organic search engine results are powerful – the first organic result elicits an average click-through rate of 40%[1] compared with just 2% for an ad.

More than 40,000 Google searches are performed by people every second[2] – how many of these could be your potential clients or customers?

What is Content?

Broadly, content includes website Home and landing pages, blog articles, social media posts, images, videos, emails, infographics, and more.

All of these play a role in successful SEO, but arguably the most important and effective is written content – high-quality, original copy written on your web pages, blogs, and social media posts that incorporates your target SEO keywords.

It acts as a signal to search engines to make them take notice of your website, understand its purpose, and drive targeted traffic your way. This improves your rankings and visibility online in response to relevant searches (based on your keywords). It also delivers human users with high-quality, relevant, user-focused information to meet the parameters of their search intent.

Written SEO content should be created to cohesively and concurrently meet the needs of two distinct “audiences”:

Human audiences (people)
Search engine algorithms

For Human Audiences:

Well-written SEO-optimised content increases your website’s visibility and boosts your opportunities to attract organic traffic.

Helps establish credibility and trust through informative, entertaining, relevant, and dynamic content.

Improves the user experience by providing the information that website visitors seek. Readable, valuable, and engaging copy captures attention and keeps visitors on your page longer, encouraging click-throughs to explore the rest of your website.

Provides answers to specific questions and solves user problems.

For Search Engines:

Written copy helps the search engine understand your website and what it’s about so that it can be accurately ranked for relevant search terms (keywords).

It strategically incorporates keywords that match the search terms your target audience will enter to find your product, service, or business. This increases your opportunity to be shown in search engine results.

When composed well and authoritatively, high-ranking written content tells search engines that your website is a high-quality, reliable source of information for your industry or niche.

In terms of your business, high-quality SEO-optimised written content boosts organic traffic online, improves your conversion rate, and drives real, tangible, measurable results.

In a Nutshell…

Written SEO-optimised content:

Uses appropriate keywords
Improves search engine rankings
Enables backlinks
Builds authority
Increases brand awareness
Informs visitors
Improves the user experience
Promotes your product/service/business/content
Generates leads

Quick FAQs

Q1. How Much Content Do I Need?

Your home page, on average, should have at least 400-500 words of high-quality, high-value, relevant, original, and unique content. More than this may be better for improved engagement and informing users. Incorporate target keywords at no more than 2% saturation.

Landing pages need at least 300 words; 500+ is better.

Prioritise quality over quantity and answer user intent – remember, you don’t want to produce word salad!

Q2. What if I Want a Minimalist Website?

You’d be surprised how little 500 words of content can appear on a web page. Depending on your business and website, and based on a professional website audit, you could potentially get away with a little less, but never fewer than 350 words at a minimum.

It’s possible to place a significant amount of written copy below the fold of your web page, or even in the footer – as long as it’s present and meets the needs of your human audience (and they can easily find the information they seek).

Q3. Why Not Just Use AI to Write My Website Content?

Using ChatGPT or similar may seem like a simple solution – but when it comes to SEO writing (including website content and blogs), AI-generated content carries some pretty big risks and is not an idea we recommend. These risks include:

Low-quality content – which Google will ultimately penalise.
Lack of relevance – with even the best AI tools frequently producing irrelevant, generic, or unrelated information.
Incorrect information – AI tools often struggle to discern facts.
Duplication – duplicate content and even spam are a high risk with AI-generated writing – and Google will penalise your website if it identifies this.
Substandard copy – a lot of human audiences can quickly identify AI-generated content, and it’s simply not a good look for your business if you’re obviously using it.

Nothing beats high-quality, human-composed written content – and the results speak for themselves both in search engine response and human reader experience. Moreover, AI simply can’t know your business, niche, industry, customers, clients, and community like you do.

If writing SEO-optimised content (which is important whether you’re participating in an SEO campaign or not) is not something you’re willing or able to do yourself for whatever reason, a professional SEO copywriter can help. This is one of the services we offer here at SEOcycle.

Get in touch with us today to have a chat about how we can help you with SEO, web design and development, content writing and blogging services, and more.

[1] https://firstpagesage.com/reports/google-click-through-rates-ctrs-by-ranking-position/

[2] https://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/