SEO content writing is a thing. And it’s important.
We no longer live in 2015. You know, the golden era when you could trick Google’s not-so-mysterious algorithms into ranking your website on page 1 of the search results? Churning out poorly written content, stuffed with keywords and very little else is no longer the answer.
Oh let’s be honest, it never was the answer; that ‘golden era’ was more like gold-plated tin that turns your finger green.
The tactics employed by unscrupulous ‘SEO experts’ to get you ranked were illusions. Because you may have been thrilled to see your business listed up there at the top when someone went looking for your services, but be honest, how often did that impression lead to a conversion?
Who are you writing for?
The simple fact is, your content is and always has been for 2 audiences:
- Real actual humans who have the potential to become real actual customers
Cutting corners when writing for the first audience inevitably leads to producing substandard content that turns the second audience off.
Which is precisely why Google has invested so much time, effort, and undoubtedly big wads of cash, into developing ways to filter out the dross, and rank the quality content more highly. While the AI is still far from perfect, it’s getting exponentially better at differentiating between good content, and the rest. And Google is rewarding those who share GOOD content.
What is good content?
Search your feelings, you know the answer. It’s relevant content that your audience cares about. It’s advice, guidance, and expertise. It’s content that enriches and adds genuine value.
Quality content is customer-focused. This isn’t about saying what you want to say, and trying to yell loud enough for people to hear; this is about you getting into the mind of your ideal customer, and sharing content that they want to listen to. When they turn to Google, what are they doing? They’re searching for an answer! Does your content provide that answer in a meaningful way?
Good content is also well written, typo free, formatted in a way that allows skim readers to easily absorb the overall message; most importantly, it’s focused around the target keyword, and what it actually means to your reader.
What else helps SEO?
Creating amazing content is step one, but it’s not the end. You need to show Google that you’re a trustworthy, reputable site worth ranking.
Some of the technical considerations include:
- Page load speed. It’s vital that your site is fast; people get frustrated and look elsewhere if a page takes too long to load. And it’s even worse if it times out! Work with your website developers and hosting providers to ensure that every measure has been taken to give users the best experience.
- Site architecture. This influences how Google crawls your site. Pay attention to how pages flow from one to the next, and make sure you’ve created a site map to ensure that the most important pages are being indexed.
- Accessibility. Google will punish you if your site isn’t user friendly for everyone. So, remember things like alt text on your images and make sure your content is easily readable.
And then there’s the offsite work
Backlinks from reputable sources are still incredibly important. And the best way to build those is to share (you guessed it) quality content!
What next?
This is far from an exhaustive summary of how to improve your SEO, but it’s a great place to start. Once you’ve ticked off the technical SEO, you’re going to need to roll up your sleeves and start writing amazing content. Or… you could get the experts to do it for you!