How the 3 C’s of SEO Work Together to Build Success
In the classic story of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, each member – Athos, Porthos, and Aramis – brings his own strengths and qualities to the group. Athos brings his wisdom and leadership. Porthos has great power and presence. Aramis is gifted with strategy and charm. Each is quite talented individually. But banded together, they’re a unified force.
SEO works much the same way. Every SEO activity you do requires a balance of the 3 C’s of SEO: content, code, and credibility. Each one of the C’s brings its own strengths and purpose to your SEO strategy. But when the 3 C’s of SEO support one another, your site becomes unstoppable. Remove one of the 3 C’s and the rest can only do so much.
The Three Musketeers had each other’s backs, and the three C’s of SEO do the same for your website.
Content: The Story You Tell
The content on your website is any text or visual that search engines and users will experience on your site. Search engines will go over all the content on your site to determine where they want to rank you. Users will read (not all, but some) of the content on your site and determine if they want to do business with you.
The better and more unique your content is, the better your website will perform with both search engines and human users.
The content on your website will include everything from blog articles, service pages, product descriptions, meta tags, alt text, and more. All of that content will help search engines know exactly which keywords to rank you for. That same exact content will then be read by users to determine if they want to click the Call To Action button and get in touch with you.
When writing great content for your website, focus on the quality, relevance, and helpfulness of the content first and foremost. Be sure that you are never keyword stuffing and adding in keywords just for the sake of adding in keywords. Even though you need to satisfy what search engines are looking for, your content should always be written for the human user.
When you have great quality content on your site, it will build and support the authority of your brand. This will increase user engagement, helping keep them on the site longer.
Code: The Structure Behind the Scenes
With the great content that you write for your site, it will need to be supported by great code. The code is the underlying structure that supports the site. When your site uses clean and well-organized HTML code, search engines can very easily work through your pages, jump to new pages, and provide the best ranking possible for your site. Even though users will likely never see the underlying code of your site, that code is what makes it possible for them to read and take in all of your content. It is in a way the delivery mechanism for the content.
A key part of the code is to make sure that the site is 100% responsive and mobile friendly. If a site isn’t responsive, the majority of users will have a less than ideal experience on your site. Translation: they aren’t likely going to want to click on the Call To Action button and get in touch with you. Search engines place such a high priority on user experience that they don’t even want to list sites in their rankings that aren’t fully responsive anymore.
Using proper coding for everything from title tags to meta descriptions, heading tags to paragraphs, alt text to image tags, all set the stage for just how well search engines and users will value your site. The code is like the foundation of a house. It’s not overly flashy or pretty, but without it the house will crumble.
Credibility: The Trust You Build
The third C of SEO, credibility, is all about trust. It’s the confidence that both users and search engines have in your business and your website. Just like people are more likely to take advice from someone they trust, search engines are more likely to recommend a site that has proven to be reliable and reputable.
Building credibility doesn’t happen overnight. It’s earned through consistent effort and a focus on providing real value. Backlinks from other reputable websites, positive online reviews, accurate business listings, and active social media profiles all help to show search engines that your business is legitimate and trustworthy. The more other credible sources point to your site, the more search engines will see you as an authority in your industry.
It’s also about trust with your visitors. A professional design, secure hosting, and clear contact information all tell users that they’re dealing with a real, dependable company. A site that looks neglected or loads slowly can make users hesitant to reach out, even if your content is great.
Credibility acts as the glue that holds your SEO together. You can have great content and flawless code, but if people or search engines don’t trust your site, it won’t perform as well as it could. The more credibility your site builds over time, the more both people and search engines will reward it.
How the 3 C’s Work Together
Athos, Porthos or Aramis on their own are fine. Group them together and you have the famed Three Musketeers. The three C’s of SEO must work together the same way. Each one supports the other two. Each one is supported by the other two. Each one on its own is left to fend for itself.
Great content on your site needs great clean code in order for search engines and users to find the value in it. Perfectly written code won’t do any good unless it is there to show great content. If a site doesn’t have great content and flawless code, it won’t build credibility with search engines and users.
You could write the best blog article in the history of the WWW, but if the site loads slowly or looks sketchy, visitors (human and Google) won’t stay around for long.
You could have the fastest loading site with the best code ever written in the history of the WWW, but if it is only showing poor content that builds no credibility, visitors (human and Google) won’t stay around for long.
You could be the most authoritative brand in your industry with the most credibility in the history of the WWW, but if that isn’t backed up by great content and stellar code, visitors (human and Google) won’t stay around for long.
Building a Complete SEO Strategy
The three C’s of SEO (content, code, and credibility) are the Three Musketeers of your SEO strategy. Each plays its own very important role, but they’re at their best when they work together. Great content gives people and search engines a reason to visit. Strong code makes it so users can all find and experience that great content. Credibility builds the trust that keeps users coming back and search engines rank you higher.
When all of the 3 C’s of SEO are in balance, your site becomes more than just another site on the internet. It becomes a trusted, high-performing tool that helps your business grow.
If you’re not sure which of the 3 C’s of SEO your site might be missing, we’d be happy to take a look. At Full Scope Creative, we specialize in building success through creative solutions, and that includes building SEO strategies that focus on the 3 C’s of SEO.