Content is fundamental to any SEO strategy. Without content, it is impossible for your site to rank in the search engines. Therefore, it is crucial to write and structure quality content! This guide covers the most important areas of Content SEO.
What is Content SEO?
Content SEO includes everything that involves writing and structuring content on your site. There are three major elements that you need to take into consideration to produce content that will make your site rank well: keyword strategy, site structure, and copywriting.
Content SEO is important because search engines “read your site”. The words you use will determine whether or not your site will rank well in the result pages. It goes without saying that your website needs to have a good design, a nice user interface and also all the technical aspects that make a website rank in Google must be covered. Without quality content, your site will have no chance to stand out in the search engines.
Read also: What is it and how to create quality content?
Keyword Search
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process by which you will create a list of words for which you want to rank. Every content SEO strategy should start with keyword research. You need to know what your audience is looking for in order to generate traffic. This research will help you discover the terms you should target to rank.
Keyword research in three steps:
- Transcribe the mission of your business;
- Make a list of all the keywords you want to rank for;
- Create pages (content) for all these keywords.
If you do your word search correctly, you will get an overview of the terms that people use and for which you want your site to be found. This overview will serve as a guide for content production.
Why is keyword research so important for content SEO?
Proper keyword research will clearly show you what terms your audience uses for search. In my consultancies, I often find clients who use specific words when talking about their products, while their customers use totally different words to find them. Optimizing content for words that people don’t use makes no sense.
Terms used in the keyword search
Keywords and key phrases
We use the word “keyword” all the time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs to be just one word. “WordPress SEO” is a keyword, as is “Web Analytics.” So you can have keywords consisting of more than one word!
The long tail of keywords
The longer (and more specific) a term is, the easier (or less difficult) it is to rank for this term. Keywords that are more specific (and usually longer) are commonly referred to as long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific and focus on a niche.
How many keywords?
It is difficult to give an exact number of keywords that you should focus on. But one tip is simple: you need as many as you can produce content about it. But don’t overdo it, more than 1,000 keywords is probably a bit much!
Even if you have a fairly small business, you will probably end your research with one or two hundred keywords. You don’t have to go out and create pages for all of them immediately. The great advantage of using a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress is that you can add content gradually. Think about which keywords you would like to rank for immediately and which ones are not so important right now. Set priorities and plan your content creation.
Generic or long tail?
Ranking your keywords is essential. Some words are very common and competitive (generic), while others are long-tail. Decide which ones are critical, high level of importance – those that generate enough traffic to your site and are aligned with your business. You will probably have few of these words, the rest of them will be longer.
Focusing content on generic words should be done on higher level pages of your site (home and product categories for example). Focus on long-tail content as you move into the structure of the site.
Tools you can use
There are many tools available that will help you with your keyword research. Some of them are: Google Adwords Keyword Planner, Yoast Suggest, Google Trends and the Ubbersuggest.
New tools like AlsoAsked and Answer the Public also bring good ideas.
Adapting your keyword strategy
Your keyword strategy is not static. It must evolve and accompany your company and your site. It must evolve and grow with you. If not, you are doing it wrong.
You must stay ahead of changes in your business and adapt your strategy simultaneously. If your online store starts selling new products, add words to your list. If you are looking for new markets, it is vital that your keywords are aligned with these markets.
There are several strategies to adopt. One is to start trying to rank for long-tail words and then target more generic words, but you can also start from the generic ones and target the long-tail ones. You can zoom in on finding new niches by changing your approach, adding more content, or doing both simultaneously.
Site Structure
The second important aspect of content SEO is the structure of your site. First I will explain why the structure of a website is critical, then I will show what the ideal website structure would look like. I will also give tips on how to (quickly) improve the structure of your site without having to completely restructure it.
Read also: How to prioritize content production in an SEO strategy
Why is site structure important for content SEO?
There are two main reasons why structure is important as a ranking factor:
A good structure helps Google “understand” your site
The way your site is structured gives Google clues about how to locate the most important content. Site structure helps the search engine understand what your site is about and how to locate an index of content relevant to its goals. A good site structure will lead your site to rank better in Google.
By creating this structure, you can use existing content that has already attracted third-party links to help other pages rank just as well. On a commercial site, this means that you can use quality content that you have written to boost the search engine ranking of your sales pages as well.
2. A good structure will ensure that you are not competing with your own content
On your website, you probably have several articles on similar topics. In mine, for example, I write about SEO. If I write eight articles about SEO, Google may not know which of these is the most important. If I don’t clear this up with a proper structure, I will be competing against myself for the best Google positioning. So, by solving problems like this through good internal linking structure we improve our ranking overall.
Read also: Old content on the site, update or delete?
The Ideal Site Structure
Ideally, you should structure your site like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is your home page, and on it are links to other pages (such as categories). These pages in turn link to other pages.
In an effective content SEO strategy, your keyword strategy and the way your site is structured must work together. In a proper keyword strategy, you will have thought about common and competitive keywords as well as longer niche search terms.
You should have made a similar dichotomy in structure. Pages focusing on more common terms should appear at the top of the pyramid, while pages optimized for long-tail words should appear at the bottom of the pyramid. These long-tail pages at the bottom of the pyramid must link correctly to the pages at the top of the pyramid.
Read also: Less content = more conversion
Practical tips on how to improve your site structure
If you take content SEO seriously, chances are you already have a website up and running. In this case it may be a bit late to set up your site structure in the ideal pyramid format. No desperation! There are several other ways to improve your site structure and content SEO.
Define your anchor content
You should focus your efforts on your anchor content. These will be the articles that you are most proud of, that are aligned with the site’s mission. This guide, for example, is one of those types of content. You will want to rank for this content as much as you can. If you have not yet decided which of your articles are most important, start thinking about it now. Make these the best articles within your site.
From the long tail to the main
Once you have defined your anchor content, properly link all your “long tail” articles to the anchor content. In this way Goole will understand which articles should rank higher.
Use tags (but not too many)
Your site will also benefit if you use tags. Tags and taxonomies in general will give your site structure – or at worst, Google will understand it better. They group their articles by similar topics. Don’t overdo it. Some people have more tags than published articles. Using too many tags can lead to confusion and poor site structure.
Read also: How to use tags to organize your site
Avoid duplicate content
The same content can appear in different areas of your site. As a reader, you don’t care, you will get the content you were looking for. But the search engine will have to choose something to show in the search results, since it will not show the same content twice.
Moreover, when other sites link to your products, chances are that some link to the first URL, while others link to the second URL. But if all these links were to just one URL, the chances of ranking in the top 10 for the relevant keyword will be much higher. Canonicity is the solution to duplicate content.
Remove old content
Dealing with old content is a delicate matter. There is a lot of attachment to these contents, even if they are not performing well.
As a rule, if the content of a page is outdated, remove it! However, you may have valuable links pointing to this page. You will want to continue to benefit from these links even if the page no longer exists, in which case you should redirect the URL.
Preferably, you will redirect your old URL to the new page or product that replaces the old page or similar content (if there is no replacement). This page can be a product category or in the last case your home page. This way the old content will no longer interfere with the structure of the site.
Deal with orphaned content
The term “orphan content” refers to articles that have no links from other of its posts. Because of this, these articles are difficult to find, both by Google and by the users of the site. Google may consider this type of content less important.
If an article is important to you, show this to Google (and visitors) by linking to this article from related content.
Read also: 6 mistakes in website structure and how to avoid them
Copywriting
The third and final aspect of a successful strategy for content SEO is copywriting. You must write articles that are attractive to read and that make your audience stay on your site. At the same time, you must make your content attractive to Google. Some people go too far and optimize the content too much for the search engine, making it terrible for reading. I suggest optimizing your text for search without affecting the originality of your idea and the readability of your content.
Copywriting starts with an original idea
The first requirement for quality copywriting is to write original content. Your post or article must be fresh, new, and original. It must be different from all the other posts and articles that already exist on the Internet. It must be content that people want to read.
If you have done your keyword research correctly, you have ended up with a list of words for which you want to rank. This list is your guide. A keyword is not yet a topic. You should make sure to bring original ideas to your post – one where the intended keyword has its place of prominence.
Original content does not necessarily mean new content. Of course, if your story is completely new, that means it will be original. However, giving your (professional) opinion on some particular topic counts as original content. Your point of view on a subject will make your content unique and original.
Think about your audience
If you want to write original content, you must think about your audience and what they are like. Ask yourself:
- What do you want to tell your audience?
- What will be the main message of the article?
- What is the purpose of the article?
- What do you want your audience to do after reading your article? (Do you want them to engage, comment, buy something, read more articles?)
Thinking about these questions will help come up with an original idea for a piece of content.
Content Design
Content design is a process that helps produce content based on the user’s real needs. It not only helps to find out what the user wants, but focuses more on what the user really needs. Thinking about your content in this way will help the user to get it when needed.
Content design is not just a technique to help you produce better content, it is a new way of thinking about content.
Copywriting requires easy-to-read content
One requirement for writing high-quality content is to write content that is easy to read. Readability is important both for your audience and for Google. After all, it is not just people who read your articles, Google does too.
Content, context and search intent
As Google is getting smarter, it starts to understand the content of websites better. It does not just check if a keyword appears a certain number of times on a page. It also takes into account the context of these keywords, accompanying terms and phrases, related words, and synonyms.
In addition, Google is increasingly able to better understand user queries and tries to determine what the user’s search intent is. Is he looking for a product or just information? Which pages best fit this intention?
You should focus on more than just using your keyword quite often (please don’t do that). You should also think about the words you use around you: do they make it clear what topic you are discussing? And do you have the goal in mind of the content you are creating? Does it just provide information, or are you trying to sell something, and is it in line with what your users are looking for?
Content must be (also) optimized for search engines
The last requirement for writing high-quality content is to make sure it is optimized for search engines. You want your content to be found easily. Findability is about increasing the likelihood that Google will select your content in a search result. It is important that you focus on this last step after you write original content.
Conclusion on Content SEO
Content SEO is a big part of SEO. It encompasses all aspects of writing and structuring content on your site. Content SEO is essential. Google reads and scans the text on your website. Google’s algorithm decides the ranking of your site based on the content you publish.
As they say: “content is king”. Write amazing content, focused on the right keywords and your site should be structured in a way that Google can understand it. It is a lot of work, but worth it in the long run.
See an overview of Content SEO.
Continue reading: The definitive guide to WordPress SEO