“Content is King” and “It’s not about clicks, it’s about conversions!” Sound familiar? It’s part of the daily SEO professionals vocabulary. Would it surprise you if I said that the Yellow Pages industry has been using these terms for years?

It shouldn’t. In its quest for better measures of accountability, the original search engine has been turning to new metrics such as Engagement and ROI to prove its value, for some time. The three most significant indicators of Yellow Pages value – references, calls to advertisers and influence - % of buyers influenced by Yellow Pages ads - have produced outstanding data for YP Sales Professionals to discuss with their clients.

Since moving from print media to SEO, what I’ve found most surprising is how a large component of SEO today is content and how it doesn’t stop at textual - blogging, white papers, case studies and product literature.

Bill Gates said “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet.” Today, we have so much choice. Video, images and audio content each have developed into a separate and important channel into a clients website.

As we continue to develop and optimize these forms of content, users are already determining their own trusted sources of information. Some, like Yahoo, are saying “search is history,” and that the next big thing is personalized content. Jeff Clavier, a managing partner at the venture capital firm SoftTech, said that web personalization will become much more sophisticated. “I think the level of personalization will reach a point of total freakiness,” he said. “Every personal detail – what content someone likes, the context they’re in, their location, the time of day and their behavior – will start to become relevant in the way the web is used.”

This is all a far cry from the early days of searching through the Yellow Pages and calling the business with the biggest ad or eye catching graphics.

One Response to “From print to online…Content will always be King!”

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1. University Update - Bill Gates - From print to online…Content will always be King! Says:
   July 16th, 2007 at 8:04 am

   […] Link to Article bill gates From print to online…Content will always be King! » Posted at […]

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