If you think SEO-friendly content is all about keyword stuffing and density, then trust me, it is not! Thinking your content will get on the first page of Google search with such old methods is juvenile. Google never values such kind of content, at least not now, and definitely won't in 2021.
Today, Google's search algorithms value the user experience instead of the content. It is all about users. That is why SEO experts emphasize creating content for the audience, not for bots! Listen to them.
It’s all about users. Create content for the audience, not for bots!
It is imperative to learn about your target audience, their pain-points, and how you can solve their critical problems. Clarity about your target audience can help you to create a roadmap for ensuring high-quality content.
First, think 'Who they are.'
Second, 'What's their main pain-point.'
Third, 'How you can help them.'
After finding answers to the questions mentioned above, choose a topic on which you want to educate your audience. Sure, once that is sorted, you will get straight to writing the content. However, in this day and age, only great content is not enough. You will end up creating a bunch of blog posts that give no ranking and traffic.
1. Keyword research
Choosing a keyword having a decent search volume with low competition is a universal tactic every SEO professional talks about. Ranking for a keyword is excellent, but that is not everything. Start with making a list of commercial intent keywords that are variations of your targeted keyword.
SEMRush is a brilliant tool for keyword research. Check the search volume and competition of your target keywords by explicitly using SEMRush's Keyword Magic Tool. Do not forget to set your target country.
It will show you how competitive your target keyword is in that particular country, along with its search volume.
2. Ask Google
Yes, that is right! Ask Google for keyword suggestions. It will give you an idea of what people are searching for on Google. Pick up the most relevant queries and cover them in your content. The reason being, if you cover user-generated questions, there is a massive chance for your content to be Google's featured snippet.
We followed a similar practice to write a high-performing blog post digital marketing trends in 2020. Guess what? It became Google’s featured snippet within weeks after it was published.
3. Use SEMRush's content writing assistant
SEMRush's content writing assistant is a neat feature for copywriters and marketers that gives a lot of information about your competitors and relevant semantic keywords.
It will show you the average text length of your competitors' content, their readability scores, backlinks, and semantic keywords that you can use in your content.
By scanning your competitors' content strategy, you can enhance your SEO copywriting technique and add relevant keywords and links to improve your content performance.
4. Think of a killer heading
Add the targeted keyword to the beginning of the title. Use title modifiers to support the targeted keyword as a long-phrase keyword. Using modifiers such as "generate", "how-to", "checklist", "free," and "strategy" can help you rank for the long-tail versions of your target keyword.
For example: if 'accountancy leads' is the targeted keyword, then the title can be "generate accountancy leads for free in eight ways". Use CoSchedule's free headline analyzer to check the score of the title.
Experiment with a couple of headings and choose the one with a better score - although there is no hard-and-fast rule for that. Sometimes, you can select the heading that fetches a lesser score if it has a few words. Titles with approximately six words tend to earn the highest number of click-throughs.
Your heading will grab the eyeballs if it is unique. Make it distinctive by using social proof or statistics.
5. Start writing
After you have done your research, sorted out the keywords and title, start writing the content. Try to use the targeted keyword at least once within the first 100 to 150 words of the content piece.
Repeat the targeted keyword naturally at least 3 to 5 times inside the content depending on the length of your content. Don’t overdo it! Otherwise, it will look spammy. Check your content SEO score on Yoast and fix the parameters suggested by Yoast, in case you have missed them.
6. Add heading tags
Heading tags are significant when it comes to both usability, accessibility, and SEO of the content. Adding heading tags such as h1, h2, h3 tags creates a content hierarchy that positively impacts the SEO and featured snippets.
Most internet users are not readers; they are scanners. They want to scan your content and have their questions answered quickly. Heading tags help you structure your content for both users and search engines.
7. Add some links for reference
Adding reference links from high authority websites can boost the credibility and authority of your blog post. Content backed by research, data, and references linked to external sources can fetch brilliant search results.
Add both internal links and external links to your content but do not add too many service links. Otherwise, it will look like spam. The extensive promotion of your services in your blog post will defeat the purpose of educating your target audience. Add only one service link related to your content, if necessary.
8. Don't forget the meta description
Often, people ignore meta descriptions and do not update them as Google ignores them for ranking. But forget about SEO and look at the flip side. A powerful meta description can create magic on SERPs by increasing click-throughs and organic traffic.
A meta description is nothing but an HTML snippet that appears in search results along with the title. It is a summary of your content. If it matches the inside content, then the bounce rate tends to be low.
Over to you
Writing and publishing content that both your users and search engines like can be a daunting task and every business should pay attention to their content. The content says the story of your brand and shows how much expertise you have. Whether you are new to the world of content writing or want to improve your business’s tent performance, we are sure you will find these eight steps mentioned above to be helpful.
