Content SEO Part 2: How to Create SEO Content

Aside from a comprehensive piece on this strong keyword, we need to increase the chances of our site to rank. This can be done by adding supporting content optimized for less competitive long-tail keywords. Also by answering all possible queries that could originate from the broad keyword, dog food, we give the users complete knowledge on our site. Don’t give them a reason to look elsewhere no matter what comes to their mind around the lines of the broad keyword.

Support the pillar post on dog food with multiple cluster pages, each targeted for a related long-tail keyword. Possible topics for cluster posts could be fruits safe for dogs, older dog nutrition and dental dog treats.

Once we have our content strategy in place, we will have the topics for pillar posts and supporting cluster posts.

Explore searcher’s intent

We have our topic now. The topic is also our target keyword. In other words, we’re going after the searchers who are typing that phrase or something similar into the search engine. What do these searchers have in mind when looking up that particular phrase and what do they expect to find? Yes, we’re talking about search intent again! Though we covered search intent in Keyword Research, it’s just as important here.

The easiest way to find out what our audience is looking for is to type the target keyword into Google. See what comes up. Alternatively, we can also look at the SERP analysis in Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool.

For example, if we search for dry dog food, most of the results are category pages of e-commerce sites. There are some blog posts too, though.

Now, let's test our knowledge by matching the content type with the most likely URL it could have.

Looking at these results, it’s easy to see that there’s a much better chance to rank for the keyword with an e-commerce page since a bigger percentage of our audience is out for buying, rather than learning.

Even when we’re sure a particular keyword will rank for a blog post, there are different styles we can structure it into, depending on what our audience is hoping for. For example, searching for reinstall windows 10 gives the following:

All the results are how-to guides. Fall in line and create something similar because it’s highly unlikely that we’ll rank with a listicle here.

Blog posts can be in the form of listicles, how-to guides, reviews, news articles, viewpoint posts, and interview posts. It’s worth learning the type of format with the best ranking potential for our keyword.

Write a comprehensive first draft

We have our target keyword. We also know the kind of content our audience wants. It’s time to start writing. Every writer has their own style. We may want to draft out an outline first, with the main ideas and subheadings that support our topic.

Quality and depth is the key factor to focus on. No matter what our topic, tons of pieces exist on it already. Our content will not rank unless we answer the searcher’s queries with comprehensive, thoroughly researched information.

Yes, length matters. Neil Patel shows with statistics that longer content gets more backlinks, more social shares and more organic traffic [16]. It’s obvious—we can’t cover a topic in depth with a 400-words article. At the same time, length isn’t the only thing that matters. In fact, content depth is far more important. The key is to research inside out and write in depth. Be thorough. Try to cover all the related topics, or mentions of them if we have a separate cluster page on it. Deep content is typically longer. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. If we can cover a topic comprehensively in 400 words, go for it.

Structure it for readability

Google aims to optimize its search for user experience. Its ranking algorithms lean towards ranking pages that users spend more time on. Even if we put lots of time and energy into creating an exhaustive piece, readers won’t spend more than 30 seconds on it unless it’s easy to comprehend.

Of the two pieces below, which would we rather continue reading and which will instantly make us hit the back button?

Long, complex sentences, long paragraphs, and infrequent headings, such as those in Content 1 above, aren’t easy to read. Most readers will avoid it, especially when they have plenty of other options.

Here are some best practices to improve our readability score.

• Write short sentences.

• Use active voice where possible.

• Write short paragraphs.

• Use headings at reasonable intervals. A good practice is to include at least one subheading every 200 words.

• Use transition words, such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘because’ to help readers build connections between phrases.

• Avoid complex words.

We should even take care of readability when generating the first draft. Anything you might miss should be caught and corrected in the editing phase. Installing Yoast SEO plugin in Wordpress lets us optimize our content for SEO. It gives us a complete readability analysis, suggesting improvements to make it easier to grasp for our readers.

Accompany text with visuals

Long text-only posts strain the eye and are quick to lose interest of readers. Keep them engaged by breaking content chunks to include non-textual content. The easiest way to do so is by adding images. If we can include original videos, audios, charts, quizzes and infographics to support the topic, that’s even better.

A rich cocktail of content types is easier to understand, visually appealing and increases the page’s potential to rank. Besides, with SEO-optimized images and videos, we also have the chance to rank in Google Images or video searches.

Though multimedia looks good on the page, it’s important to have at least some content above the fold. As soon as visitors open our page, they’ll take only 10 to 15 seconds to decide if they’re going to stick around. They want their information fast.

A page that looks like this will likely give the impression that readers won’t get their answers anytime soon,

In place of a large image, we should have a catchy headline and introduction visible on the top.

Optimize headings

We already know that we have to break content into digestible pieces by including headings. Rarely will readers take out the time to read the entire content. Most of them will skim through, using subheadings to decide which parts are of value to them. Meaningful subheadings can make the document easier to scan.

Though headings are not a direct ranking factor, they enhance user experience. Pages with a better user experience tend to rank higher. In contrast, if our page has a high bounce rate, search engines take it as a signal for poor user experience.

Headings levels from “heading 1” to “heading 6” that we see in the text editor of WordPress or other CMS are converted to heading tags from < H1 > to < H6 > in the HTML code.

Here are the best practices for SEO-optimized headings:

• Wrap page title in H1 tag. WordPress and most other CMS already do that for us.

• Only use a single H1 heading for a page.

• Use H2 subheadings to break our content into logical parts, H3 subheadings to break it further and so on.

• Include target keyword or a variant of it in H1 tag, preferably in the start.

• Include keyword and/or keyword variations sparingly in subheadings. Use this as a chance to include related long-tail keywords.

Here’s an example of a good page hierarchy outlined by headings:

Adding to the point, adding a Table of Contents to the top of the page further enhances user experience. Table of Contents is especially useful in a long-form post, making the page easier to navigate.

Keyword optimize the content

We can either integrate keywords in our content as we create it or go back and include keywords once the content is drafted. The “how” and “where” of adding keywords to our webpage is a long story.

Post fresh content regularly

According to Wordstream, fresh content means “recently published, updated, or rewritten content” [17]. Users and search engines lean towards fresh content since it tends to be more reliable. Other than optimizing our existing content, we can drive traffic to our site by posting fresh content on a regular basis.

Test your knowledge

Choose the correct option for each of the following questions.