How to optimize the SEO? This question on Google makes 4 620 000 results appear. This topic is largely discussed over the internet.
What we will study here through this article is the impact of the website content on its SEO traffic. We will analyze and show thanks to a case study, the effect of fresh and updated content on the organic traffic.
In theory...
What we know today is that Google significantly values the website user’s experience. The website content must be then in accordance with what the user searches. In order to do so, it helps to put yourself in the user’s place, analysing the user’s preferences, needs, desires, age category… to adapt the content of the website. In addition to keeping the website’s content in accordance with the user’s profile, other variables can be taken into account. Indeed, the content of the website covers lots of different aspects:
- the text: form and content
- the quality of the keywords
- the language used
- the design of the website
- the comments let by users for e-businesses
The main content must appear in quality and in quantity. Over all, it must be consistent, fresh and adapted to the users’ needs. For a better ranking, it is necessary then to prove to Google that the website’s content is relevant to the user’s research and the keywords well-chosen. Though, there are also other variables to take into account. The Google’s requirements are in constant move (especially with the updates of “Panda”, “Penguin”, “Hummingbird”), as well as the user’s needs and their expectations. The website’s content must be then regularly optimized to follow those changes and ensure a good search engine optimisation.
How to optimize the website’s content?
The optimization of a website’s content can take many different forms. We can retain two of them: the content creation and curation. The content creation on a regular basis allows us to keep the users informed and creates a certain “interdependence”. Indeed, if the website users’ experience is good and that he keeps learning even after his/her second or third visit, the user will come back to know more about topics he is interested in. This content creation can be for example writing papers. That is what we will analyse with the case study of Semetis.
Another technique to optimize the SEO is the content curation, i.e. the process to select, organize, display information relevant to a particular topic of area of interest. It is an effective, quick and cheap way to feed the website without creating content.
To be able to put forward these optimizations, a good processus of notifications must be in place on the social networks such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook. Consistency between the pages and the posts is key too. This allows exchanges and interactions with the website’s users to better know them and attract them thanks to a adapted website’s content. This will create a virtuous circle.
In practice…
To better know what a fresh and updated website’s content has as impact on a website’s SEO traffic, we study a case, the case of Semetis, our own website - Semetis.com and the impact of content creation (articles) on our SEO traffic.
At first, we had relatively poor traffic coming from the SEO:
Figure 1 - Evolution of all and SEO sessions since the creation of the Semetis website (1 - Feb 2009)
To increase the volume of the traffic on our website and the notoriety of Semetis, we put in place a system of regular publications. Those publications brought fresh information to the website but also a relevant content in line with the today’s digital trends.
The impact was clear: +126% of SEO traffic’s growth.
To push even further the visibility of the website, and increase the volume of the traffic, we accelerated the rhythm of publications since 2012. The publications are written on a more regular basis and more frequently. We worked also on our notifications and consistency on social networks - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - and enrich/follow the notifications regularly.
We can see the impact on fig. 2, with a great acceleration of the websites’ traffic volume of visitors since 2012. In terms of figures, we are doubling the number of visitors coming from the SEO. The number of visitor coming from a publication even triples.
Figure 2 - Evolution of sessions coming from the SEO and the publications since the creation of Semetis website (1 - Feb 2009) 
From those, we then conclude that a website's content regularly enriched has a clear impact, non negligible on the SEO traffic.
Wrap-up
It is then necessary to optimize its websites constantly. A website’s content well enriched and of good quality is essential and take part entirely from the SEO strategy. We can retain that three variables are essential for more and a better SEO traffic: the content’s quality, the content’s optimization and a good social network follow-up.
To good webmaster…!
written by Amaelle Haulet
