Writing content that ranks your website well can be difficult.
It is a combination of knowing how to structure content before you begin writing, and the small things to look out for throughout the whole writing process.
Inside of every industry, there are fundamentally different types of SEO content.
Every key page of your website should be written with a different purpose in mind.
Understand your Audience
Being natural in your writing is the essence of writing functional content that can also rank well. If you are able to write conversationally, it will be easier for both Google, and your audience, to understand.
Reading Level
Your audience is going to range anywhere from people who are 80, to people who are 12. Be straight to the point.
There are content analysis tools like the SEMRush Writing Assistant that can give you insight into the reading level of your target audience. Tools like this look at every article that is in the same range of topics as yours and gives you insight into how complicated your content should be.
When it comes to analyzing your own content, the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests, you will measure the reading difficulty of your text based on the number of syllables and length of your sentences.
On the other hand, if you are writing a medical article you will have a smaller audience to keep in mind. In this case, you can write at an 11th or 12th-grade reading level and have your audience follow along.
Be wary that anything over a 12th-grade reading level is generally considered too much for Google to rank as high-quality content. This means simple is better when you’re writing content.
Write Relevant Content
Audiences vary in the types of content they are willing to read, and for how long at that. Keeping your users interesting and clicking through your website will bring up your organic SEO and let Google know that your website is worth promoting.
Spend time searching for articles that target keywords that are similar to your own. Look at what types of topics they use and how they direct their articles.
You can also use the knowledge graph questions to help find questions that have high volume and are getting daily searches, so you can begin targeting them.
If you are looking for more questions, you can continually click on a question to unfold the answer, and then click again to close it up. Every time this action takes place, Google pulls several more questions that may relate to the initial query.
Build Your Website Content Outline
Before you begin creating any content for your website, first outline your goals for SEO.
If you are trying to bring more leads to your business through your website and online channels, service page SEO tactics might be the best for you. If you are trying to build your brand through daily articles and reposts, blog-style SEO might be better.
How To Structure an SEO-Focused Article
Many people we work with find it difficult to structure their articles. If you have a lot of information in your head about the topic you are writing about, this commonly happens.
You can start this by creating an outline for the topics you want to write about, and arrange them with <h2> and <h3> tags based on their importance.
Here’s an example of how to create an SEO-friendly content structure:
- Create a list of the topics you want to talk about
- Organize your topics into groups based on focus
- Create new blanket headlines for each topic group
- Start writing!
This process will ensure you touch on every topic that is relevant to your article, while also helping you stay organized while you are writing.
Types of SEO Content Pages
Service pages are where your customers and potential customers can learn about what you do. If you add value while they are on this page, they are inclined to become a customer or even a repeat customer.
Once your service pages are done, you can track their traffic effectively using Google Analytics. This is key to understanding how to build your blog and what topics to focus on.
Based on the interest of your customers and your traffic analysis, you should target blog topics that align well with your current visitors. Using tools like Feedly.com and SEMRush, you can find articles that have found success across the internet and borrow some of their strategies.
