Playboy and Your Website.

Is there a difference?

 

Local SEO servicesHold on before you get all offended! How many remember the running joke that you got Playboy magazine for the articles? With few exceptions it was for the photos! Well do you look at your website like that? If so, then don’t expect it to show up in search engine results!

I have a couple of clients who what their website to be SEO’d optimally. But they have this aversion to content (text) on their pages. Don’t get me wrong. There are words on the web pages but only 50 to 150.

If you have been paying some attention to SEO, you know “Content is King”! Text, words make up content — not photos or graphics. So you can’t skimp on content and expect great SEO results.

Google’s algorithm is nothing but a ridiculously long mathematical formula. Google must assign a numerical value to every “scoring” factor. Content requires a numeric value, so word count and keyword(s) density are used. In Google’s “eyes” 250 words is the lowest magical number. Personally, I strive for 300 words. This accommodates a small word count increase Google may dictate down the road.

Keyword density, for now, needs to be between 2 and 4{f57cecc76329659856f00bd01f529e319bb36b58f42dc9ec00a8ea65b2ecec80}. Google’s “artificial intelligence” capabilities is growing by leaps and bounds. I  can foresee, within a couple of years, keywords being unimportant. Google will know the intent of your content and the keywords that best fit your intent.

Google hummingbird algorithmIn August of 2013 Google sneaked in a new algorithm named Hummingbird. It was a complete redesign. It was not a tweak of the algorithm like many other updates. It’s goal was to know the intent of a search question and to deliver the best answers. It’s results have been less than stellar so far. It still needs major tweaking but, rest assured, Google will succeed at it!

If your intent is to have your website as a digital brochure — fine. Then have gorgeous photos and few words. Just make sure the file name of each photo contains a keyword phrase & it is part of the alt tag. If you are a local business, geo-tag the photos with your coordinates. Doing these three things can have your images show up in image search results. But don’t expect your website to show up on the 1st page of the search engines outside of images!

Making the 1st page of Google requires good quality, informative, interesting and relevant content. Photos are needed to SEO optimize any qualifying content. But a web page full of photos and little text does nothing for your on-page SEO.

Playboy Bunny Logo and Local SEO CompanyNow back to a Playboy magazine.

If you want your website’s appeal to be visual, then don’t hire an SEO company. If you want it on the 1st page of the search engines then accept and embrace the need for content. Do the SEO company and yourself a favor and don’t fight them on content. It does neither of you any good.

Discuss the vision you have for your website before you hire an SEO service. If they say nothing about content requirements don’t hire them. They just want your money. If they talk about the need for more content then they are worth hiring — but only if you accept the content! You can still have as many photos and images as you want on your website. You just have to include the appropriate content too.

Digital+ has been helping local businesses with their Local SEO since 2011. Feel free to visit our website and learn more about our clients’ success.

 

 

Back to original version