These days, search engines like Google weigh web pages on a multitude of factors in order to determine where they rank within the search engine results page (SERP). For a piece of content to rank successfully, it must give users and search engines the information they are looking for quickly.
A well-written web page or post that is thought out, strategized, and keyword-focused attracts the right kind of visitors to a website. This in turn increases organic impressions, clicks, and conversions.
In the first two blogs of our SEO series, we presented five major factors that impact search engine optimization and three seldom-used SEO tactics to elevate your Google search rankings. In this blog, we examine three ways to produce successful pieces of content that maximize the impact of your SEO efforts.
Let’s take a look…
1. Develop a Successful Content Strategy
Before you touch pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) to create an award-winning piece of content, think about your content strategy. Ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve by creating this particular piece of content. Is it to promote a service or product? Is it to answer frequently-asked questions from your customers?
Some things to keep in mind when brainstorming topics to write about:
• Content that is already trending: What topics or keywords are hot in your industry right now? How can you use this information within your website to improve organic rankings?
• Pain points: Are your visitors frequently asking the same questions about your services or product? It may be helpful to involve people that work directly with customers.
Once you know what you’d like to write about, think about the key performance indicators (KPI) you’d like to see as a result of writing the content:
• What do you want your online visitors to do when they visit the web page?
• Do you want them to request more information?
• Do you want them to download an eBook or subscribe to an online newsletter?
Once you’ve defined an actionable item you can measure, it’s time to move on to keyword research.
2. Conduct Keyword Research for Relevant Terms in Your Industry
Using search volume data to drive your SEO strategy—especially when it comes to keywords—is extremely helpful when trying to decide what type of content to expand upon within your website. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends help you identify the popular keywords at any given point-in-time, so you can focus on what people are actually searching for.
This gives you a leg up in the organic search results. For example, if you own an IT company, you may want to focus on the keyword phrases <IT services>, <IT services company> and <IT company near me>. They likely describe your company and have high monthly search volumes.
3. Create Powerful SEO-Friendly Headers That Attract Visitors
The headers and content of your article or web page should be keyword-specific because they help users and search engines read and understand what the page is about. Header tags help web crawlers determine the relevancy of your content. They range from H1 to H6, with H1 being the most valuable in the hierarchy.
According to an article from SearchMetrics, 80% of first-page results on Google use an H1 header, so this is absolutely something you’ll want to include in any article, page, or post you write. Some other tips to keep in mind as you write website content:
• Ensure you are thorough and accurate in your reporting and sourcing information. As with any new piece of content you publish online, it’s important to write honest, well-researched material to encourage higher user-engagement, impressions, and conversions. This will build trust with your online readers as well.
• Studies have shown that users interact more on a web page that contains images and videos. Visual elements like these can be used to enhance the appearance of a web page while also improving user experiences.
Successful Content Requires Multi-Prong Approach
As you can see, there are many things that go into creating a successful piece of content. Combining the elements of developing a thorough content strategy, conducting keyword research, and creating powerful headers are just a few of the tactics you can apply to create a multi-prong approach that enables you to improve the organic performance of your website.
This is the third of a series on Search Engine Optimization. Visit the start of the series here. In our next blog, we describe SEO and SEO processes, and discuss the difference between conducting SEO for small websites versus large websites. In the meantime, if you need assistance in evaluating your SEO strategy or in developing a new strategy to drive more prospects to your website, contact R2integrated at www.r2integrated.com/contact.
About the author: Claire Beutel
Claire Beutel offers over 10 years of experience in developing innovative SEO and marketing strategies across retail and e-commerce websites of all sizes. She has worked with a plethora of industries and business models, from the Denver Broncos to Aramark, implementing technical SEO recommendations and creating quality content that drives organic traffic and conversions. With a strong passion for increasing the quantity and quality of website traffic, Claire utilizes data-driven analysis to determine the best holistic strategy for businesses to achieve organic success.
