Creating quality content is a major factor in improving SEO. When readers can find relevant, informative, and helpful content, this builds your website’s reputation as an authority in its field. It also helps pages rank higher on search engines. Here are some tips to help you create quality content and improve SEO.
One of the most repeated phrases in the SEO world is the famous: “content is king”. Although SEO is a set of practices that must be complied with in order to improve positioning of the website, content is what can really catapult a page to the top of Google’s search results.
Here are some simple tips you can apply to write quality content and improve SEO rankings.
Although it may seem simple, sometimes writing an article is not as easy as it seems. Write a good articlewith quality information that appeals to readers can be a challenge. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help articles rank quickly in Google, such as the ones explained below:
-Objectives: Every piece of content must fulfill an objective within a digital marketing strategy. Creating content without an objective is a waste of time and effort. That is why, before writing an article, guide, list or infographic, you must have a defined objective.
-Audience: Next, you need to know who that content will be targeted to. In this sense, it is not the same audience who will read an Instagram post, than the one who will open an email newsletter. It is for this reason that, before writing any piece of content, you must be very clear about who the target audience is, because you must know what tone they use, what are the keywords that most attract their attention, as well as the main problems and motivations they have.
-Information: Google ranks better the content that it considers quality. In this sense, to pass this “filter” it is very important to comply with the EAT. To do this, it is necessary to always go to reliable and contrasted sources of information. In addition, when dealing with a topic, it is necessary to do it in depth, answering all the doubts that users have about a topic. On the Google results page it is possible to find a list with some of the frequently asked questions that users ask about a topic, this is a good source of information, which can be expanded with other tools such as Answer the public.
-Headline: 100% of users will read the headline of an article, but only 20% of them will go on to read the rest of the content. However, it is possible to improve this percentage if we take the time to write a title that is both attractive and informative. In this sense, a good technique would be to write several headlines (between 5 and 10) and choose the one that attracts the most attention.
-Content: Once we have managed to grab the reader’s attention and he/she moves on to the content, it is necessary to keep it. To do this, the content must offer a value proposition; either inform, entertain or explain how to do something. In any case, the content must be interesting and offer valuable, original information, and it must be done in a simple and clear way. The body of the content should answer readers’ questions and do so in a clear and orderly fashion, using subheadings to organize the information.
-SEO: Positioning a content in Google does not only depend on readers liking it, it must also pass Google’s quality filters. To do this, first of all, it must be original content, not copied or duplicated. Next, it must be ensured that the content is properly organized, using title and subtitle tags. It is also advisable to link to other content, both your own and that of third parties. Finally, images should be added to “break” the structure of the text and create a meta-description that allows users to know what they will find inside the content.
-Key words: The first thing to do is to conduct a keyword research on the topic to be written. In this sense, the ideal is to search with several tools, it is convenient to pay attention to the results in the form of questions, as these represent the users’ searches on the topic. Then, you should review the first results that appear in Google, making a list of the headings you find and trying to find a way to complete the articles.
-Research: With the advent of Google BERT and EAT, one of the strengths of any article lies in research. The data shown must be verifiable and come from reliable sources, which can be cross-checked. Although you don’t have to go to Wikipedia, you don’t need to consult with experts at universities either. It is possible to research in Google Scholar or even in Google, searching only in those articles that appear well positioned. It is also possible to research on websites, whitepapers and relevant journals on a topic.
-Write and review: The most important part of any text on the Internet will be the title and the first paragraph. This means that we have little space to capture attention. At this point, it is not advisable to rush. It is better to take as much time as necessary and try several titles until you find the most interesting one. As for the first paragraph, this is where you should go all out. This paragraph should summarize what the reader will find in the text and offer a promise of a solution that will be found at the end of the text. Once the content has been written, let it rest for a while and revise it. Although it would be ideal to let it rest for a week, there is rarely so much time, so a couple of hours or, if possible, a whole day will suffice.
-SEO OnPage: Once the article has been written and revised, it should be configured to improve SEO as much as possible. To do this, it is convenient to highlight the most relevant keywords with bold, pointing out groups of between 3 and 5 words. You should also add links, both internal and external (always linking to pages that complement or expand the information), add an image that “breaks” the monotony, configure subtitles such as H2 and H3, and finally write a meta-description to help improve the SEO positioning of the page.
