SEO Tip 2: Content is King

Remember that the intended reader of the web page is a real person. Accordingly the content should be written to be useful to an individual and aimed at individuals.

• Write compelling content that people will want to tell others about. This cannot be over stressed. If others find the content useful then they are more likely to tell others about it, bookmark it, link to it and revisit.
• Write unique content. Borrowing content from elsewhere risks having your site penalised by search engines if they decide that your page is offering duplicate content.
• Do not compromise readability of a page for SEO. The content can be adapted for SEO purposes, for instance to include key phrases and words, but do not do this at the expense of readability or usability. The content of your website should primarily be optimised for your target audience, SEO considerations should come second to this.
• How much content should a page have? As a guide a page with less than 400 words is probably a little light on content. Remember that this is a guide and there will always be exceptions.
• A page with more than 1000 words may have too much content - not necessarily for a human visitor but more from the perspective of SEO. Consider whether it would be better splitting it up across multiple pages. Remember that this is only a guide and there will always be exceptions.
• The only thing more important than good content is more good content. If you are happy with each of your pages, then consider adding more pages with new unique content. A common mistake is to have too few pages, so consider whether any areas on your site could be expanded upon - but don't forget Tip 1: Know the purpose of each page.

This tip is part of a series of tips on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The previous tip in the series was Tip 1: Know the purpose of each page and the next tip in the series is Tip 3: What keywords should you be targeting?.