There are two different areas of SEO that you’ll often hear described as Content SEO and Technical SEO. So, what’s the difference?
Content SEO
Content SEO refers to the strategy behind your content marketing. Your keyword selection and structure is especially important. You want to match as closely as possible to what your target audience is searching for when it comes to keywords and phrases — anything to increase your odds of having your website showing up on Page 1 on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Content SEO is the act of producing content, and structuring it in a way that makes the search engines consider it not just relevant, but more relevant than your competitors.
Important topics to learn about in Content SEO are:
- Keyword Research
- Keyword Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Long-tail vs. Short-Tail Keywords
- Keyword volume
- Link & URL structure
Having decent writing, researching, and marketing skills is a huge advantage when doing Content SEO. If you’re not already good at it, you better get good at it fast.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to everything that involves how your website functions behind the scenes, especially when it comes to things like mobile-friendliness, sitemaps, redirects, page speed, and security.
Technical SEO often involves coding (HTML, CSS) and sometimes programming (e.g. JavaScript). Having a background as a web developer is a huge advantage when performing technical SEO, and is sometimes required, to get it done right.
The most important topics to know about in Technical SEO are:
- Security
- Speed/Performance Optimization
- Accessibility
- Usability
- Cross-Device/Platform compatibility
Content SEO vs. Technical SEO, which is most important?
Content SEO and Technical SEO are equally important. In modern times, you should take proper care of both. You can argue that starting out on a website in 2019 moving forward, it’s more important to prioritize Technical SEO, to make sure that your website has a solid technical foundation before you start publishing heaps of content.
On the other hand, without content, your technically sound platform isn’t worth much. It’s a hen vs. egg situation. Both are important!
