The other day Jeb sent me a link to this article in Popular Mechanics related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's an interview with Udi Manber who, as Google's VP in charge of search quality, is one of their top search engine gurus.

I was struck by a few statements he made in the interview about the importance of a website's content for getting high search engine rankings.

When asked what most frustrates him as a user when he searches in Google, Mr. Manber replied, "Whenever I don’t find exactly what I need. It’s frustrating... Sometimes it’s a weakness in [our] algorithm, very often it’s something missing from the Web, like a restaurant that does not put their location on their page."

When asked whether he's seen content on the Web becoming more "search engine freindly", Mr. Manber answered, "It’s hard to say. It’s definitely still lacking. I wish people would put more effort into thinking about how other people will find them and putting the right keywords onto their pages."

What struck me is that the old cliche, 'content is king', continues to be true for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Sure there are some tricks of the trade to make a website's content more visible to search engines. But, if the content isn't there, SEO will be handicapped.

So, what does this mean for small to medium sized businesses and organizations looking to improve their online presence and visibility in search engines?

First, ask the right questions. Here at Small Box, whenever we design, develop or optimize a website, we always identify the primary, secondary and tertiary audiences for the site. Knowing the audience not only informs web design (especially in terms of navigation and layout), but is also the beginning of keyword research in our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) process. Before we even touch our keyword databases to figure out the search phrases with the highest volume and greatest value, we ask:

1. Who does this site want to attract?
2. What sort of search engine user would find the site useful or interesting?
3. What sort of query would these people use to try to find this web site or this web page?

When answering these questions it's important to keep in mind the human user. You're not writing content for search engines. You're writing content for human beings that use search engines. It's a subtle difference, but very important. Good SEO never loses sight of the fact that human beings, not search engine bots, are at the center of it all. Trying to position a site in search engines without answering these questions in this way is like flying blind.

Second, once you have a list of keywords your target audiences will be using, make sure you have those targeted keywords on your home page. This requires devoting a portion of your home page to text based content. The search engine bots haven't learned how to read pictures, video or Flash code and still rely heavily on text when crawling a page. Multimedia is great and still adds a lot of value to a website, but it has to be supported by relevant, text-based, keyword rich content.

Third, make sure your content is fresh. Search engines (and especially Google) are no different from human visitors in that they like to see new content when they visit a site. The Indiana earthquake taught me just how important freshness can be to getting high search engine rankings in Google. You can read the lesson the quake taught me in my blog post, What the Indiana Earthquake Taught Me about Search Engine Rankings in Google.