Without content, your webpage is just a toy store with empty shelves and crying children. Content is the sole reason for having a webpage, and therefore should not be skimped on. To understand the importance of filling your webpage shelves with flashy, exciting, interactive toys, we first need to identify what on earth content actually IS.

Content isn’t just a couple blog posts and some onsite text. Content is anything you can add to a site that is furthering your story or information in some way. Whether that’s a quiz, a video, a GIF, a graph, a PowerPoint, or an image, you should add these tools to your site for increased engagement and webpage originality.

Think of content like a cake recipe.

Step 1: Start with the text. Text makes up the dry ingredients of the cake. Without the text, you do not have a base for your blog.

Step 2: Mix in the eggs. The eggs are your links and keywords that help the blog rise (to the number 1 search engine result on Google that is).

Step 3: Stir in the milk and vegetable oil, aka title tags, meta descriptions, h1, and h2 tags. These are vital for holding the dry ingredients together.

Step 4: Bake the cake (or save your draft).

Step 5: Once your blog is baked and ready to go, it’s time for the sweet stuff. Images, video, GIFs, animation, sound, graphs, and other “sweet” items of content make up your frosting and cake decor. Flavor your cake with relevant images and other yummy sources of multimedia.

A tip for a good blog? Don’t go overboard.

No one likes a cake chock-full of sprinkles, whip cream, candies, 8 different frostings, and a pile of cherries. On the other end of the spectrum, don’t leave your eager customers staring at a bunch of flour and sugar at the bottom of the bowl. Making your blog balanced and tasteful will attract more fans and loyal customers.

Now that you know how to make a delicious web-rich cake, it’s time to open the bakery. Your website should be filled to the brim with delicious cakes and goodies for your visitors to feast upon. After all, more visitors equals more customers, and more customers = more piles of money for you dive into, Uncle Scrooge style.

Giphy / Disney Television Animation

As we launch into the content-sphere, we need to set some boundaries.

First things first, is the content you want to write copied from another site? Yes? Then prepare for Google to send its fleet of sharks to eat you up so the internet never sees you. CHOMP! Your content will be a pool of ABC’s and copycats at the bottom of the world wide web ocean, unseen by any passerby.

Now that you have that over-dramatic image imprinted into your brain, we really are completely serious. Never EVER copy someone else’s content unless you want to be lost in the deep dark ocean. You’ll lose your traffic, and therefore your pile of cash. Instead of chasing after the shark food technique, it’s time to suit up and scuba your way to original content. When crawling through the world wide ocean, Google seeks for four different factors on its radar. Those being:

1. Fresh content
2. Diverse content
3. Rich textual content
4. Original content

With these four factors in your scuba fanny pack of content, you’ll be the yacht at the top of the ocean, basking in the sunshine of your own text + multimedia perfection.

However, does one really bask on a yacht if no one is there to see it?

Our next step in this content journey is to actually show up on Google’s radar. After your content has been published, don’t just leave it sitting there! Think of your content like the cutest puppy you’ve ever seen.

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You adopted it into your site to obviously attract people (why else own a dog?). Therefore, after you post your content, your next step is to show it off like the adorable purebred puppy it is. Display your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, and other social sites to lure in those potential customers. But remember! Your puppy needs to be fed and displayed across your social sites more than just once. Be sure to feed your content pages with more/relevant material as time passes. Through updating your content pages and reposting them to social media, you’re not only keeping your site alive and breathing, but you’re bringing in more traffic to your site.

Our next tip for ranking? Like the millions of Oreo cookies that are devoured in a day (mostly by me), millions of webpages are being consumed on the world wide web. Don’t get lost in a sea of web pages! In order to stay relevant and get noticed on your fancy Google yacht, content should be regularly powering your site.

Think of Google as your love interest, Derek.

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In order to hold Derek’s attention – and keep you at top of his crush list – you need to engage him with original content regularly. For example, “I hope you know CPR, ‘cause you take my breath away,” would never work on Derek, because A) it is unoriginal, and B) shouldn’t be repeated more than once. EVER.

Going back to the definition of content, don’t model your page after your AP World History textbook.

The goal of your site is not to drive the masses to ultimate boredom, but to keep them partying on your yacht.

Giphy / Red Granite Pictures / Paramount Pictures

Spice up your pages with the multimedia side of content. Throw in an image, paste in a gif or two! What’s a toy store without the music, toys, and excitement? A run-down public library. Will it be slightly educational? Yes, but your children will still be crying.

You’re going to want to dim the lights for our next tip.

Derek… I mean… GOOGLE wants you to get sexy with your headlines.

A sexy headline will draw in your readers to spend more time on your page. Let your headline flirt with your readers, inviting them to read your blog. Even if your content isn’t sexy. Headlines, like a pick up line, will make or break the amount of time the reader will want to spend with your site. Therefore, make your headline both sexy, and informative. Like Tina Fey.

In short, when writing your next webpage or blog, be original. Be sexy. Be Uncle Scrooge who dives into piles of cold hard coins.