Intro: Quality Content and SEO
Content is king, as is often quoted in marketing strategies, and has been around for a long time. How can you create content that will achieve this regal status effectively? Quality and SEO optimization are the key factors. No matter what kind of content you are developing – whether it’s product copy, blog posts, about pages, or lead magnets — providing valuable and engaging content will set you up for success. You can build on that by optimizing your content to align with the user’s intent, and then you will be well-positioned in search engines. Here are some general tips and recommendations on how to do this with your content.
How to Build Quality Content
A strategic SEO strategy requires you to create quality content for your website. As you learn more about your audience, your strategy may evolve. In the meantime, follow these simple steps to ensure success.
- Create brand voice guidelines and stick to them. Setting up brand voice, value, and style guidelines is a crucial step for creating quality, unique content. By following these guidelines, you will be able to stand out from your competitors and increase brand awareness on your website.
- When writing content, keep your audience in mind. You can tailor your content to your audience if you know who they are and what interests them. Your audience will ultimately determine the quality of your content. Conduct keyword research before developing your content strategy in order to understand better the topics and keywords that users are searching for.
- Make sure your headline and the first paragraph of your article are engaging. To keep readers interested and to prevent a high rate of bounce, you must grab their attention in the first 50 words. Use your brand voice guidelines for this.
Quality Content: Dos and Donts
When SEO and customer-focused content combine, you get quality content. This marriage of creativity and analytical thinking can lead to increased search rankings. Google defines quality as content that focuses on the user rather than the algorithm. There are certain features that you must include when creating quality content. However, there are also some things to avoid.
Do’s and don’ts of quality content:
- E-A.T. guidelines are a good place to start: E-A.T. stands for expertise and authority.
- Find topics that your target audience will be interested in using keyword research.
- Make sure that your content is intended for the users and not just the search engines.
- Make sure that your content is honest and does not mislead: If the metadata describes content focused on how you can wash curly locks, then the majority of the article should be focused on this.
Don’ts for Quality Content:
- Avoid duplicating or taking content off another website.
- Make sure your content is natural and organic.
- Add content that is helpful and not just for the sake of adding content.
- Avoid using any sneaky redirects.
Don’t fool Google. Search engines are able to distinguish between content that is aimed at customers, and that contains outdated tactics.
Modern SEO Best Practices
Google’s algorithm is always changing, and search engine optimization is no exception. Marketers should be prepared for this. Your job is to keep track of these changes, evaluate and refine. Despite this, keeping up with the most recent best practices can be a daunting task. We’ve compiled some of the best modern SEO practices to keep your content strategy on track.
- Create a meaningful FAQ. It’s important to prioritize the user experience by answering questions concisely and in a way that is easy to understand. Google will also give you bonus points for showing that you care about your customers.
- Organize your content according to topic. Again, the focus is on the user experience. It’s another way of creating a seamless user experience so that users can quickly find the information they need. As your website’s architecture changes, you must update the way your content is organized.
- Link building should be focused on building relationships and adding value. Link building takes time, but it is a very effective SEO tactic. Link-building success is based on the fundamentals: making meaningful connections. Selectively build relationships with domains that support your audience. Use Google Search Console as a guide to help you decide who to contact.
It’s important to remember that, as with any SEO strategy, building authority takes time, and Google is constantly changing in ways you cannot predict. You’ll get rewarded as long as your focus remains on the user experience.
Create quality content
You can see that creating quality content has many facets… but it is very important! Even the most confused will find our list of dos & don’ts helpful. If you are still not sure, try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and decide if your goal is to rank high or to answer a question. You’ll always be on top if you choose to write for the user.