If you have an online business, you appreciate how competitive the digital landscape has become. There are millions of websites in your niche, targeting the same audience, and this is where the best search engine optimization (SEO) strategy comes handy. At the heart of the best SEO strategy is good content. If you want to outrank the competition, then you have to deliver fresh, high quality and relevant content across all your platforms.
Great content is essential across all industries. If you own a custom thesis writing website, for instance, you have to create and publish fresh content to have more clients coming to your site. It is the only way to continue ranking highly for your target keywords.
While about millions of web pages are published daily, 94.3% of these pages of these don’t get any traffic from Google, and it all boils down to content. If you want to attract organic traffic from Google, you have to bring you’re A-game to your content writing strategy.
This article highlights some essential content writing skills you should consider to gain a competitive edge in your niche.
- Learn How Content Plays into Search Engine Ranking
You can only manage that which you understand. This is a maxim used in business management and you should apply it to your SEO efforts. The best SEO strategy has to start with an understanding of search engine ranking factors.
Google looks for quality and fresh content that demonstrates authority and that incorporates keywords according to Webmaster Rules. Your content should include different media formats, including images, video, or audio, for excellent user experience.
To harness the power of voice search, consider writing content that answers questions directly. All your content must be well researched, in-depth and must display authority.
While considering the content, remember other on-page and off-page factors such as inbound and outbound links, URL structure, site structure, page load speed, keywords in Meta data and title tags Header tags (H1, H2, etc.).
- Refresh Your Old Content
Many factors make content go out of fashion and start ranking poorly. It doesn’t mean such content should be discarded. You can easily refresh such content with valuable fresh information, and you’ll be amazed at how well it will start ranking.
It takes some research to identify old content that meets the threshold for an update. You have to check the keywords used to determine if they have great search volume. If the material had ranked highly earlier, there’s a chance it can still click with your target audience.
- Spend Time On Keyword Research
Keywords have received a lot of flak in SEO, but the fact remains that they are at the core of content writing. The way you choose and use your keywords can make or break your content writing and ultimately the SEO efforts. If you don’t target the right keywords, you can’t expect to rank highly against the competition.
The objective of your keyword research is to find high search intent and low, competitive keywords. Your content should have a mix of unique primary keywords and their natural variations (Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords).
Consider topics your target audience will most likely search and find opportunities for keywords/phrases around these topics. Consider SEO keyword trends like long-tail keywords to identify targets with high conversion rates.
- Unexpected Hooks
Image: A content writer doing their thing
Don’t write ordinary content but instead add some elements readers would least expect. For instance, personal experiences, surveys, your own case studies can all create unique value and will make readers come visiting for more.
- Don’t Ignore Linking
Without links in your content, it’s hard for search engines to determine the value, authority of what you’ve written. Adding links hints to high value and authoritative content on your site which leads to better ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). High-value links have double-prong advantages of attracting high-quality traffic while also boosting ranking in SERPs.
- Improve Readability of your Content
User engagement is one of the most important metrics in SEO. Readability impacts on user engagement, and you should thus focus on this when writing web content. Reading level is also a search ranking factor as Google checks whether your content is easy to read.
To improve readability, use shorter sentences, format your content for skimming readers, use active voice, and break long paragraphs. You should also highlight crucial sections with subheadings, bold texts, and whitespaces and apply transition words to direct readers.
- Leverage Multiple SEO Tools
There’s a lot you need to do before you publish your content. For starters, you have to evaluate any weaknesses with content you already have, research keywords, and edit your content among other tasks. There are online tools that can make your content writing process easier.
From editing, Search engine optimization and conversion optimization, keyword optimization, content structuring ideation to checking your links, there are tools to complete all the tasks you want.
- Obtain Google Featured Snippet
If you carry out a quick Google search, you’ll most likely notice the top pages are featured snippets. These provide instant answers to user’s questions and help increase the chances of organic traffic.
You need to optimize your content to obtain Google featured snippet by checking if there’s one for your target keywords using a SERP analysis tool. Ask a similar question and provide a better answer in your content and use a structure already used in any featured snippet.
Final Thoughts
Content writing can rejuvenate your SEO strategy. With great content, you are guaranteed high-quality traffic, better conversion and better ranking o search engines. These are only a few of the tricks you can use in combination with different tools to bolster your content creation process.
