Understanding different types of content

- You might think that content is just text on a page, but these days, that's not the case. Content can take many forms, including slideshow presentations, images, infographics, video, audio, augmented and virtual reality, and much, much more. Let's take a look at some of the different content types out there on the web. First, lots and lots of content out there is in textual format. These are the words we read on pages, blog posts, articles, product descriptions, stories and more, and we've seen the importance of this text and how we choose it and how it relates to the keywords that we want to target with our SEO strategy.

But don't forget about other file formats. PDF files, Word documents, and even presentation slides are all forms of content we interact with day in and day out, and they can all be published on the web. While you can usually bring the content from document formats into an HTML format for the web, many people don't think about their presentations. If you have a slide deck that you recently presented, why not host it on the web and share it with your audience after the session? More and more speakers and companies are making a habit of uploading their slides to slide hosting services, like SlideShare, before they even give their talk.

They can then provide a link to that deck that can be viewed and downloaded so that audience members can follow along on their laptops or share their presentation with others. This can provide a catalyst for sharing and buzz from content that you've already created. Using images can be a great way to tell a story visually or to help readers envision exactly what the text on a page is describing, and images are quickly evolving as their own kind of content all across the web. Think of the popularity of sites like Pinterest and services like Instagram that are completely driven by groups of images arranged by and commented on by people all over the world.

And search engines are indexing image content, too. Head over to Google.com and search for your company or brand name in Google image search. Does it return the results that you expected? Well, users expect images to be a part of the online experience, and you can help search engines understand pictures as part of a page with the proper code. Image search brings a new way of searching for and discovering content in and of itself. Another popular piece of content that has popped up is the infographic. Infographics represent a concept or a large set of data visually, and they can help people absorb and distill a lot of information in a meaningful way that can quickly be understood.

Infographics are typically just image files, and they're often found on pages with plenty of context around them, so they can certainly be indexed and searched on in search engines. And well-designed and constructed infographics on popular topics have the added benefit of getting shared around and referenced from other sources. Believe it or not, not too many years ago, you would've been crazy to put video up on your webpages because it would've meant your users needed to have a high-speed connection and have some fancy plug-in installed in their browser.

But these days, video is everywhere. And not only do most of us have high-speed data connections for our computers, we have them for our phones and tablets, too. Video production has never been more economical, and telling a story with sight and sound can help you get a message across that text and images simply can't convey. And remember that video content can be optimized for search engines. By syndicating your video through popular services and properly selecting your video title, description, tags, and categories, you can position your videos to be found in search.

And don't forget to transcribe your videos into text that can used for closed captioning or subtitles, and that search engines can read. YouTube is one of the most popular video hosting services out there, and it allows users to upload and share videos online for free. It also happens to be a Google property, and you've likely seen YouTube videos showing up in search results. If you're producing video content, then at the very least you'll want to make sure and get yourself a YouTube channel and post your videos there, filling in all the metadata that can help your content show up when your potential customers are searching.

When it comes time for content creation, it's important to keep in mind that text is not your only option. Different audiences will consume different types of content, and search engines are capable of indexing and returning all kinds of things. Knowing what types of content are out there will not only help you think more strategically about what to publish, but it will also keep you on your toes and above the competition.