In the digital marketing sector we frequently talk about content[1] and technical SEO[2] as two distinct sections of marketing we can do on-site.
But that’s not entirely true. The two elements work hand-in-hand on a website to support its organic successes.
I think primarily the reason is that two separate skill sets are required to deliver the work. For a brand hiring an ‘SEO’ it’s rare they’ll be able to find one person who is equally strong in both content and technical work, so instead they must prioritize which one is the most important to them.
I don’t think that content vs. technical SEO is an either/or battle. Instead, it’s more about the ratios and weighting we put towards each side for the duration of an SEO project.
It’s an annoying cop-out, but when asked, “What’s more important: content, or technical?” the answer genuinely is, “It depends.” It depends on the current performance of your site, the speed at which you want results, the size of your business and how much you’ve previously done.
Let’s look at each one of these categories, and consider whether content or technical SEO is the best solution for various issues you might encounter.
Current performance
The area of SEO to invest your money in really depends on how well the site is doing and where it is under-performing to begin with.
The balance of if technical or content is the solution will depend on which area of the site performance you’re trying to target:
- Struggling with site-wide rankings: Typically this is the result of an underlying technical issue, so technical SEO should be the priority area to focus upon.