Creating a strategy for content creation is different from creating a strategy for writing a single piece of content. Content writing strategies focus on how the content should be written and the micro details of content creation, which is focused on a single piece of content/article/blog post. Yes, it is micro-managing content to a large extent, but perfectly written content for search engines in 2024 cannot be just keyword-focused or merely interesting.
Search engines like Google encourage website owners to create content that is engaging, entertaining, informative, and educational. All of these are true, but search engines are run by computers that follow a set of rules and algorithms. They look at certain indicators to analyze your content. Google has a list of over 200 (as far as we know) rules that help search engines rank content. Some are considered more important than others. The fact is that all these numbers are based on assumptions. Google does not reveal how it ranks content and what factors it uses.
Based on our experience in creating content of various types, here is a compilation of content strategies we use in-house to create content that ranks. These strategies should be coupled with content that is captivating, educational, and informative. Most of all, your content should be unique. Rewritten content, though informative, does not add as much value as content that is completely new. Also, the content should be worth writing about, and people should be interested in the topic you write about. Keyword research plays a major role in finding key terms and phrases people use to find content. Base your content on keyword research. This will determine the success or failure of your content.
Use Long-Tail Keywords for Better Ranking
This is the first task for every content writer. Find keywords people are searching for. Find the competition for these keywords and target keywords that have high traffic but low competition. With that said, do not focus on keywords that are short. Long-tail keywords or key phrases offer multiple benefits. Apart from being low in competition, you can compete for more than one keyword in a single article. Also, it is important to understand that more than 60% of all Google searches are four words or more. Searches for “Dog training” or “Web Design” are decreasing compared to “Dog training in California” or “web design companies in Seattle” or “How to potty train my poodle” or “Best affordable web design company in Seattle.” People have changed the way they search online, and it is important to take advantage of long-tail keywords that are meaningful.
Focus on User Intent for Better Conversion
Creating content based on intent involves understanding the motivation behind the purpose of the search query. Search intent could be commercial (Reviews, Comparison, etc.), informational (Explaining certain concepts or content that is educational), transactional (Content targeted to purchase or sign up for a newsletter, e.g., “Buy iPhone 15”), and navigational (a gateway to other pages, e.g., a search for TBEA Portal). Understanding intent and creating content around the intent answering the query helps rank the content better on search engines. Intent-based content helps create relevance, aligning content to the user’s search query. Intent-based content, served by search engines for the appropriate queries, is known to increase conversion rates and user satisfaction.
Optimize for Voice Search with Natural Language
With more and more users using search engines on mobile phones, people find it easier to make a voice search than to type the queries on the mobile browser. With voice search enabled, people have changed the way they search for content. Instead of “top 10 Restaurants Miami,” users often ask, “Which are the top 10 restaurants in Miami?” Search queries are more conversational, and optimizing your content for voice search requires that you craft your content in a conversational tone too. Voice search relies on NLP, and they are getting better every day in understanding context, entities, and intent. So, it is important to optimize your content with a focus on natural language and answering questions directly, aligning with user intent.
Create High-Quality, Engaging Content
Google ranks content that is high quality and engaging. Your content has to be engaging, captivating, and interesting for people to read. If your content is slow and boring, chances are people will leave after reading the first few sentences. You have a very small span of time to capture your users’ attention, and it is important to keep that for as long as possible. One of Google’s ranking factors includes bounce rates. If a person comes to your page and leaves the page to make the same query again, it indicates that your content did not provide the information the user expected. This is seen as a poor sign, and your ranking will drop because your bounce rate will be high. As for quality content, create content that is unique, informative, and detailed. Ensure that you cover every aspect of the topic possible for that query. But always remember to captivate your readers while doing so.
Use Header Tags & Organize Your Content
Search for a topic and run through the top 10 pages for the query. You will find a similarity in the headings and subheadings. Google has a particular structure it follows for the headers. Apart from the headers’ content, you should also be aware of the order in which the headers are arranged. Ensure that the H2 tags are always under H1, and H3 tags are under H2. Do not jump from H3 to H5 or H1 to H3, etc. Ensure each header has at least 350-500 words per section. This prevents having thin content in your articles.
Leverage Internal Linking For Topical Authority
One of the biggest SEO strategies most people overlook is the power of internal linking. Linking articles that are contextually relevant and conceptually related helps build authority to the page linked to. Link only to relevant content. While linking to subpages from the main page (often referred to as a pillar page) is important, linking from subpages to subpages where relevant with the right anchor text adds crawlability and authority to the linked page. Also, ensure that you link to the parent page/pillar page too. Internal linking, especially when done right, helps build the topical authority of the website and certain pages.
Utilize Content Clusters To Group Content By topic
Topic clusters are a group of articles related to each other. The main article, often referred to as the pillar content, is the center of the article cluster with links to subtopics. A website can have multiple content clusters, each dedicated to one topic elaborated through multiple articles and linked from the pillar article. Creating clusters is the most effective method to create authority in a particular topic. It is important to remember that content clusters are different from keyword clusters. Keyword clusters are a group of keywords that are closely related to each other but often exist in a single article. Content clusters are multiple articles that are linked to each other based on relevance.
Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords
While content focusing on a single keyword was prominent, using Latent Semantic Indexing keywords or LSI keywords is more effective in semantic SEO. LSI keywords are related and relevant keywords related to the core keyword in the article. For instance, when writing an article on cars, the car is the main keyword. LSI keywords may include the manufacturers of the car like Ford, Toyota, etc., parts of the cars like tires, wheels, steering wheels, engines, etc., or terms like BHP, transmission, etc. Including these keywords in the article provides a reference or relevance to the core keyword “cars.” Another example that is often used in this case is Apple. Apple is a company, and using LSI keywords like mobile phones, touch screen, Mac, iMac, etc., gives relevance to the word Apple as a company. But if the keywords used are fruit, orchard, picking season, sweetness, etc., the relevance is towards the fruit. Using LSI keywords is important to SEO and adds relevance to the article.
Keep Content Fresh and Updated To re-rank old content
Fresh content always brings traffic. Outdated content gives a bad signal to search engines. Content, especially in industries that are dynamic like search engine optimization and web design or AI, is evolving, and what may be good content today will be outdated a year from now. If you leave stale content on your website, it signals poor content to search engines, which will clearly drop the page from ranking and will also lower your overall domain rating over time. Keeping your content up to date will also improve search engine rankings for the new keywords you add to the content. What’s even better is that pages updated often rank better than they used to before because of their age. A page that is two years old and updated now will rank a lot better due to its age naturally!
Focus on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Content backed by authority is often ranked better. If the author of the article is a published author, chances are your article will rank better. But that’s not always possible. You can always build authority over time on a particular subject matter with credible citations from various sources. Link your author bio to social network platforms like LinkedIn. Create a schema markup to link your author bio to articles and establish authority and expertise in the topic. Link to credible sources.
Write Comprehensive Content – Detailed content reduce Bounce Rate
When creating content, ensure that it is comprehensive and detailed. A 300-word article may cover the subject but wouldn’t be detailed. Do not add filler words to increase word count, but ensure that the content is worth reading from top to bottom. Make sure the content covers every possible subtopic on the page. If your content exceeds 3,000 or 4,000 words, consider creating multiple pages to cover the topic and link them based on relevance. Search engines love detailed content because a detailed page will provide visitors with all the answers they are looking for on a single page. This ranks the pages higher. Also, with comprehensive content, chances are you will rank for more keywords than an article with 300 or 400 words.
Optimize Content for Featured Snippets For higher CTR
Featured snippets are small pieces of information that appear prominently for specific queries on search engines. Queries related to recipes, reviews, etc., are crafted differently from regular SERP results. If your article is related to certain categories that can use featured snippets, take advantage of these features to improve click-through rates to your website from search engines.
Improve Content Readability with Shorter sentences
Research indicates that a sentence with more than 10 words is the optimum length. Anything more than 10 words reduces readability. The longer the sentence, the harder it is to read. Keep your sentences short to help with readability. Although this does not directly influence search engines, content with shorter sentences decreases bounce rate, which helps with search engine rankings.
Incorporate Visual Content For better User experience
Over 60% of website visitors view content with images as appealing. If the images are relevant to the topic and add value to the content, the user retention rate increases by 60%. Content without good typography and no images will have a higher bounce rate, often about 90%. Unless your website is related to scientific research or whitepapers that produce information without images, use relevant images to keep your website audience attracted to the site and engaged with the content.
Optimize Meta Descriptions and Title Tags To incorporate Keywords
Meta tags and descriptions are the most important factors when it comes to search engine optimization. You need to be aware of just two things when it comes to meta descriptions and title tags. Be sure to add the keywords and keep the title and meta description click-worthy. Don’t use boring titles. Ensure longer titles and meta descriptions at all times. Make use of the length of the title and meta description to your advantage.
Utilize Schema Markup For SEO and Topical Authority
Schema markups are structured data that help search engines understand the content. Though not necessary, schema markup helps Google and other search engines understand the content and how it is linked to entities like the author, organization, and other pages. This helps in creating an entity, content cluster, etc. Though schema markups are not visible to the audience, they help search engines a lot in understanding your content. Take advantage of schema markups and create a clear, structured markup for your website.
Craft Compelling CTAs to increase Conversion and Reduce Bounce rate
While not directly linked to content creation or SEO, a good CTA reduces bounce rate, increases sales and leads to your business, and improves user retention on your website. With a clear CTA, you redirect users to a second page on your website, which signals to Google that your content was not ignored and the user did not go back to search for the same query. While doing so, you also acquire a sale or a lead. It’s a win-win situation for both you and search engines.
Utilize Data and Statistics for Link building
Statistics and data are some of the most interesting parts of a website. Most users love to see a graph, chart, or statistical data. If your statistics are backed by research and are interesting, chances are people will be hooked on your content. What’s more interesting is that content with statistics and graphs is usually linked to as a reference. With additional backlinks to your website, your rankings automatically get a boost.
Analyze and Optimize Content Performance by making small changes
Every website’s content should be analyzed to ensure that it can be improved. Only 5% of your website’s pages will rank on the first page of Google. But that does not mean you should not tweak your existing content because another result indicates that 20% of your website pages drive 80% of the traffic to your website. In my personal experience, we had 60% of traffic from just two pages of a website that had over 450 pages in total. Does that mean we just forget about all the other pages that don’t rank? Definitely not. We look for opportunities to improve on each and every page possible, especially the pages that don’t rank well.
The tips above are in no particular order. Incorporating all or some of the strategies above will help improve your website traffic and ranking over time. Always remember that SEO is a slow process and is not done overnight. Create content regularly, and be patient.
