SEO 'pointless' without quality content

Working on improving search engine optimisation (SEO) for a website has little value if the site doesn't deliver quality content for visitors once they've found it.

This is the view expressed by Krishnan Nair in a recent blog for Legal Week. Mr Nair observed that quality content is a common feature of websites that rank highly on Google's search results, noting that the content is helping not only to improve the reputation of the business, but also to maintain and grow an audience. “So without top content, SEO is pointless,” he remarked.

What the actual content is will depend on the site in question. Mr Nair maintained a focus on the legal sector, noting that smaller businesses have cottoned on to the benefits of featuring regular updates and news on their websites in the form of blogs, allowing them to communicate with potential customers without the need for a large marketing budget, while also building up their company profile.

Larger firms are catching on to this trend as well, however, with many legal businesses now posting news updates or blogging insights into big cases and trends. Mr Nair remarked: “Whether it’s a local population you wish to serve or a wider one, blogging is fast confirming its place at the top of law firms’ agendas, and with good cause.”

For an older profession such as law, it can be tempting to see SEO as a new marketing trend that is irrelevant to a business that has tended to grow through traditional marketing techniques and word of mouth. But with so many people now online, it makes sense to reconsider what SEO and good content can offer in terms of building up a firm's reputation and helping it appeal to a wider audience.