If I Write It, Will They Come?

No doubt about it, content is king.

Which really ought to come as no surprise. Despite the fact that search engines are getting better at identifying "good" vs "poor" content, we know that good content is what gets consumed.

"Good" TV shows are watched and talked about.

"Good" magazines are subscribed to.

"Good" newspapers are read.

And so, it stands to reason, that as the web evolves, "good" content will "bubble" to the surface of search engines, social sites, and to the top of our collective internet minds.

But is developing content, on its own, enough? If you write, will they, being new readers, visitors, or prospective clients, come? Maybe not.

And this too makes sense. For example, many people consider the plays of Shakespeare among the greatest of all time. But if Shakespeare (or the author(s) who wrote those plays) had never shared the plays with anyone, it's likely that they would be forever lost to history.

And this is even more true with the internet.

You see, the internet is huge. No, I mean really huge. And since the web has gone read/write, literally hundreds or millions, if not billions, of people are now publishing on the web.

And the overwhelming majority of the "stuff" published online is buried very deep within the web. Unless, of course, it's published on a site that is viewed by many people.

So, for example, content that's published on The New York Times' or CNN's websites get a lot of attention.

Conversely, content that is published on largely unknown websites doesn't get much, if any, exposure at all.

Fortunately, there is another, even more widely used way that people discover new content online. Search engines.

Search engines try to organize web content generally based upon the relevance, context, and popularity.

Through a variety of signals and complicated math, search engines try to serve up web content that is viewed as popular or authority that is also relevant in the context of what the person performing the search is looking for.

However, the search engines are only machines, imperfect machines at that. And so, sometimes content that has the potential to be very authoritative or popular doesn't bubble to the top of the search engines.

Sometimes, the search engines need a little help.

And that's really where search engine optimization comes in. It's about helping the search engines sort out good content from not so good content.

Unfortunately, some people have a hard time connecting the dots on this subject. And so, they conclude that publishing to the web doesn't really "work" to grow readership, build professional authority, or get new business.

The truth is, that most of the time, the reasons it not working boils down to the fact that their content really isn't that good, or search engines haven't been provided the signals that they need to determine whether or not the content is popular, authoritative, etc.

The moral of the story? While content development is a huge piece to having "success" online, it's not the only piece. Often times, it's just as important to get that content in front of the right people, meaning people that are ready, willing, and able to link to, share, and further evangelize it.