If you belong to the digital industry, then you must have heard the phrase that says, “Content Is King” multiple times by now. Well, the phrase is quite popular in the industry but at the same time, it is also the most misinterpreted saying.
Most of us confuse the phrase by terming the content to be superior to everything else. That’s not true. In fact, content is considered as the king in the digital world is simply because it is the central part of every online business. In addition to the content, there are many other factors that are equally important.
The phrase, “Content is King”, is somehow confusing the people into believing that all you need to do is produce content and you will dominate the digital world. Most of it is true, but you can’t possibly dominate the industry by content alone all the time. Also, the type of content is something that matters a lot too.
Content is the Hub of this Digital World
To understand this, you must understand the core definition of content. Initially, the phrase, “Content Is King”, was made popular by the SEO experts. The basic reason to come up with something like that was mainly because of the domination search engines had over the web.
Search engines relied heavily on text-based content to rank pages for different search queries. Initially, the keyword density and few tweaks within the Meta tags guaranteed higher rankings in those days. However, with the competition rising and almost every single website following the suit, the search engines had to come up with other search signals to keep up with the changing trends, especially Google.
A Comeback for Content, thanks to Search and Social
Among these new search signals, backlinks got immense popularity as the strength and quality of a web page were now accessed by the number of the backlinks the page has produced till date. As the webmasters realized the value of backlinks and started manipulating the web industry, Google took the initiative to balance out the quality with quantity. This step from Google brought everyone back to creating useful and better content.
Content Marketing
At the same time, social media emerged as one of the best platforms to generate traffic merely based on the shareable factor of the content as well as the influence of the brand. And, that changed it all. The content is no longer a mere text-based article but it got its true meaning.
Anything or everything that’s shareable, useful, or interesting became the content in the 21st-century digital world; irrespective of its media. Now, it could be a video, an image, a blog post, an eBook, a podcast, a slideshow, or anything that attracts people. The definition of content has always been the same. However, it took some time for the industry to relate to its true meaning. The reason being that text-based content dominated for a long time as it was always the focus media for most of the digital marketers in the early days of the dot-com industry.
But, Is Content Alone Enough?
Content has become so huge in the past few years that it has spread its importance across various industries. Earlier, the content was simply used as a promotional tool within the media and advertising industry, both online and offline. Today, it is widely accepted as a great medium to influence people and the internet has played a fantastic role in developing content as the core of everything.
Yet, I don’t think that content is king today anymore. It used to be 4-5 years ago, but today it’s just the core element of a huge industry. There are various different factors associated with it and the industry is no longer a monarchy today, but a community.
Three Factors Dominating Digital World Including Content
The current industry is dominated by three main factors and content is a vital part of this group.
These factors are as follows:
Yes, the content will and always remain the core element in the web or digital industry. Without content, there are no media and without media, there can’t be any engagement between the business and consumers. However, content alone isn’t enough.
Today, the web is filled with millions of pages with all sorts of content. It is tough to assess the quality of the web content about the same topic shared on multiple web pages. Search engine rankings are highly dominated by authority websites and it diminishes the only chances for the new websites or businesses totally.
However, we are known for our adaptation skills. And, hence the industry has adapted well with such domination over the search industry and opened gates for people with better skills through different social media channels and other community-driven platforms.
Here’s where the second important factor comes into play. Influence is the key element for your content to be seen, read, watched, or downloaded. No matter, what type of online business you own, or a website you run; if you are influential within your industry, your content will get the required attention.
Content shared by influential people in the industry gets the much-needed interactions with reshares or retweets. Hence, it helps the content reach people across the globe or if targeted well, then it will spread across the demographics set by the influencer through his/her network.
Just developing or creating quality content is not enough today. Everyone’s doing that. To stand out, you must develop your influence over the niche and build your own network to gain attention instantly when you share the content.
Well, influence will do the trick to some extent. However, you need to build a brand out of your influence to gain big in the industry. Having an extended brand improves your customer outreach through different social media channels.
Also, with a good brand value, you gain trust within your market base, which in turn helps you spread your word instantly via quality content. Today, relying on one channel is not enough to beat the competitors.
No matter how great is the quality of your content, until and unless there’s a brand name attached, it’s just some random content shared on the web. This is the reason why big companies and web portals around the globe invest a good amount in building brands over various social channels.
Over to you!
Long story short, Content is no more the king. Still, content is an important part of this industry and in order to build your online empire, content creation, optimization, and marketing are vital.
Hence, in addition to creating the content, also build your influence in the industry, thereby developing a brand for yourself or your company.
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