Lie #2: “Content is King”
Who started the fire?
Believe it or not, Bill Gates was originally the person who coined the phrase “Content is King”. But under what context?
At the time, Bill wrote an essay in 1996 called exactly that, “Content is King” and in this essay he suggested that content was going to be the main driving force behind making money online. Today, we definitely see a lot of that come true – social media influencers, streamers, big brands, Youtubers, the list goes on.
Key pivoting point here, Bill was talking about making money online – he was NOT talking about search engines specifically. But I guess for some reason, SEO’s took that quote and made it gospel…?
So, do you need content?
Yes you need content, duh, but content alone will not get you to #1. I don’t care how big your pillar page is or if you have 100 content clusters – it’s not going to help you on it’s own.
The reason your page NEEDS content:
- What is your domain and pages about?
- What questions on the topic you answer?
- What sub-topics do you cover?
- If a local/service business, where do you conduct business?
- What services do you offer?
- What is your mission statement?
- Do you have job openings?
- Etc, and etc.
I would say, by default, content alone can get you to float around the 30’s depending on the keywords and topics you’re targeting. But the REAL juice? It comes from relevant backlinks with higher Authority.
Where CAN content be “King”?
Now, there ARE instances where Content CAN be your King for the time being. This is commonly done with low-volume, long-tail keywords, as typically recommended to aim for the low-hanging fruit first. While this can work in the short-term, long-term if that keyword ever gains popularity and you have not spent time building authority – you WILL lose your rank!
Who is King of the Hill?
I would argue, both. This is why.
In. Theory. You could rank an irrelevant page for a specific keyword, but because that page is irrelevant to the topic the person searched for – you’re not getting any clicks…
Content and Authority work together, like a grappling gun!
The hook is your relevant content.
The launching mechanism is your page’s authority, the driving force that gets you to the bullseye.