Content as the Building Blocks of the Internet

It wasn't long ago that telling someone you were a writer or wanted to be a writer elicited rolled eyes. Or at the very least, it made you look like a self-indulgent poser using a resurrected blog as justification for not getting a "real job."

But things have changed, especially when it comes to how we use the internet, though you may not have noticed if you don't know what to look for.

Anyone who's familiar with the internet—beyond being able to track down YouTube videos like this, I mean—probably knows that content (or the stuff that writers write) is basically what the worldwide web is made of. Therefore, content is pretty damn important, and that importance extends far beyond the fact that content is the building blocks of the internet.

The internet is vast

According to Internet Live Stats, there are more than one billion websites on the internet. Think about that, and consider that there were a mere 3,000 websites available in 1994. That's three million percent growth in just over two decades. 

Not only are lots of websites on the web today, but more are being added all the time. Granted, many of them don't last for very long with quite a few lasting 100 days or less, but the overall growth of the internet is increasing in speed. In other words, as the internet grows, it grows faster.

According to a (only moderately stale) Nielsen estimate from 2014, the average internet user visits somewhere in the vicinity of 96 distinct domains or websites per month.

Let's do some simple math: If we assume that the average person visits an average of 96 unique domains each month, that adds up to a little over one thousand (1,152) per year. If we compare that figure to the billion websites that exist as of 2016, the average user sees 0.0001152 percent of the entire internet per year. So it would be extremely unlikely, not to say virtually impossible, for a person to visit even half a percent of the internet in a lifetime.

Navigating the complex, worldwide web

With such a ludicrous number of potential websites to stumble upon, statistically speaking, there would be almost no chance of ever finding the information we want or need if we didn't have some way to navigate directly to the content we want or need. Fortunately, we have search engines to help us find our way through the infinite expanse.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo are three of the most-used search engines. Whenever we feed them a search query, these search engines instantaneously scour through a billion websites and return with exactly what we're looking for (usually), or at the very least the most relevant thing to it.

If you think about it, that's a really loaded task that should take an unthinkable amount of time for even the simplest query. But search engines are powerful; after a few keyboard presses or taps of a touchscreen, they do all the heavy lifting and put search results into our hands in just a fraction of a second.

For search engines to work, some pretty complicated formulas—called search engine algorithms—are churning under the surface, allowing them to sweep massive chunks of the internet and aggregate websites that are both relevant to the search query and higher in quality (re: more reliable) than other sources.

Again, this is a monumental undertaking, and most people don't really understand how it works besides the fact that it just does.

Not only are search engines complex, but they're becoming even more complex all the time. Anytime we hear about Google making changes to its algorithm, the intent is to make the search engine more advanced, better able to deliver to us the information we need, and better able to distinguish what we want from what we don't want.

Most people can simply sit down to use a search engine without giving much thought to how they work, but writers don't have that luxury. It's our duty to understand the intricacies of search engines because with that knowledge, we can give our content a little "nudge" into the search results spotlight.

What's love content got to do with it?

Allow me to answer this question with another question: When a search engine scans everything on a webpage, which specific part of that page tells a search engine what the subject and value of the page is?

No, it's not the title, though that's a small part of it.

The answer is content.

Google (and other search engines) "read" the content to determine (a) what it's about and (b) whether it's good content that should be delivered to someone performing a search. It's pretty wild when you think about it.

But what, exactly, is content?

The definition of content varies a bit depending on who is defining it. Generally speaking, content—or, more specifically, web content—is the information or data that a webpage displays. This data can be in text form, or it can be some type of multimedia (i.e., photos, animations, sound, video). While today's search engines have gained the remarkable ability to read these different forms of media—that's a worthy discussion in itself—text is actually the most reliable way for a search engine decipher the topic of a webpage as well as to and assess the value of the page and, by extension, the reliability of the website.

That makes the stuff you put on a website pretty important, wouldn't you say?

From a content marketing perspective, when you create a website, the idea is to acquire visitors who will engage with your content, perhaps share it with their friends, and—if you're an entrepreneur or businessman—hopefully become a customer or client, or at the very least a repeat visitor. It's a process called a conversion funnel and it starts with content.

Creating quality content is the first step of this process.

Of course, search engines are getting more and more savvy, better able to determine the quality of written content based on more than how many times a webpage's text contains a certain keyword. It's true that there are many ways to improve content visibility through the use of keywords (and I'll get to search engine visibility in a moment), but you're always going to need quality content to back it up.

Think of it this way: If a website appears near the top of a search engine results page (SERP), but the content is of poor quality (or has no value or is misleading), the person who was searching for information is probably going to be unhappy with what the search engine delivered, resulting in a bad experience with that search engine. So not only would the poor content cost the site a potential subscriber or customer, but the search engine might also have gained a reputation for delivering bad results. And there's basically no amount of search engine optimization that can turn a visitor into a customer or bring readers back if a website if they've already been put-off by poor content.

Enter: search engine optimization

You've probably at least heard of search engine optimization. If you haven't, search engine optimization (SEO) refers to a number of content writing practices that make content more visible to relevant search engine queries.

In the not-too-distant past, many people were employing search engine optimization practices that were colloquially called "black hat" optimization practices. In essence, these were ways to trick search engines into giving a website top billing in search results based on the things that search engines would look for to gauge content.

A common example of a black hat optimization that was being used is keyword stuffing, which refers to putting a keyword on a webpage many, many times to trick a search engine into seeing that page as more relevant or valuable than similar pages containing fewer instances of the same keyword. By using keyword stuffing and a number of other search engine hacks, poor-quality websites were able to get higher in search results without having to worry about quality. However, this led users to having bad experiences with the search engines and, in turn, pushed the companies behind those search engines to change their search algorithms.

That's not to say algorithm changes are rare. On the contrary, improving the functionality and reliability of search engines is a a fluid, ongoing process. Take Google for example. Google makes improvements and modifications to their algorithm between 500 and 600 times per year. It may seem excessive, but that's how Google and other search engines stay ahead of any new black hat techniques that content hackers might drum up.

(Side note: Google's more significant changes are given names like Google Panda, Google Pirate, Google Pigeon, and Google Penguin.)

Good search engine optimization practices, or "white hat" techniques, are how you make quality content visible to the people who would find value in it. Good SEO starts before the first words are written, or typed as it were. To optimize web visibility, everything must be considered as part of an overall strategy, including the specific angle or scope of the subject. The best way to explain what I mean here is with an example.

Let's say you wanted to write about a new diet you've found to be effective. The first step would be to conduct keyword research, which will help direct your particular angle or approach to the topic; in other words, what do the searches indicate that people want to know about the diet? So you type the specific diet into Google ("paleo diet", for example) and note the example queries Google shows you. Keyword research is also a great way to pick a title and can be used to help structure your content by using relevant keyword combinations and derivatives in your subheadings.

It's said that Google tends to favor longer articles, but it's always recommended that content not be too long since people are less likely to continue reading anything that's longer than 700 or so words. As a minimum, 300 words is the rule of thumb. As you write, you should avoid paragraph-length sentences and any obscure jargon that might alienate readers less knowledgeable on the subject. Use keywords and derivatives of keywords, including plural forms and using them in frequently queried phrases (again, keyword research). And this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many other optimization tips out there that can be used to help your readers to find you.

A content ambassador

So what's the point of this love letter to web content? A couple of things, actually.

Despite content being so integral to the internet of today, there are many people who continue to feel that content is secondary to other aspects of one's web presence. It seems that many companies, in particular, assume filling their websites with any searchable content will suffice as long as the website looks aesthetically pleasing and has elaborate web design and a liberal sprinkling of keywords throughout. That couldn't be further from the truth.

You can have a visually stunning website be a complete failure because it has mediocre or even terrible content and, therefore, no real value to offer.

I'm a writer. I write many types of content because it's my passion and I love the feeling I get by just knowing my words are constantly reaching thousands or even millions of people from all over the world. The content I write provides readers with some new information, teaches them something they didn't know, shows them perspectives they'd never considered, inspires them and gives them ideas they didn't have before, and links people to other people or to businesses. My work facilitates a global network of information exchange, the building of relationships, the seeking of personal betterment, success in commerce, and the sharing of ideas.

With communication being such an essential part the human condition—and because content is still undervalued on somewhat large scale—I wanted to take a moment to discuss the role that content has played in the growth and accessibility of the internet. It's not inaccurate to say that content is the building blocks of the internet. Connecting yourself, your business, or a product with an ever-growing audience depends on whether your website contains quality content that's been optimized for visibility. It's only by offering content that's clear, engaging, and accessible that you can continue to establish a website, otherwise it's only a matter of time until it fades into the endless abyss.

Do you share my enthusiasm for quality content or agree that content is the most important part of a website? Please comment with your thoughts below.

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