When it comes to SEO content, only one king rules – quality. Whether you’re a sole trader, SME owner, or aspiring artist, your digital footprint is as unique as you are. No matter what your service, product, or skill is, you’ve doubtless got amazing, epic qualities that can really blow the minds of your target audience.
But how do you convert your je ne sais quoi into good quality content that can improve your SEO? Well, stick with us as we try to unpick that question.
Understanding the ‘Qualitative’ in Quality Content
Obviously, ‘quality’ content is subjective. A married couple looking for luxury garden furniture isn’t going to prioritise the same information as a single student looking for the latest live music events, for example.
But certain criteria are a failsafe way of climbing to the summit of the SERPs (search engine results pages). Before we move onto the specifics of how high-quality content can improve your SEO, let’s take a look at these basics:
- Relevance and Depth: Needle the haystack of search intent. A 1,000-word fluff piece carries half the weight of a 500-word article on the actual details of a topic. Always think about why someone would read the content you’re producing.
- Engagement and Retention: Once visitors step onto your site, the goalposts shift. How do you keep readers captivated and stop them from clicking off to another corner of the web?
- Clarity and Readability: This goes hand in hand with the engagement tip. Slippery sentences leave readers dazed and confused. We covered this in more detail when we spoke about web accessibility, but a good rule of thumb for readable content is to write how you talk.
- Originality: This is arguably the trickiest genie to trap. As users, we thirst for new stuff but often don’t know what we want until we’re looking at it. Keeping your finger on the pulse and your thinking cap on your head is the only way to come up with original content.
How Can You Create Good Quality Content to Improve Your SEO?
Having covered the general points, let’s take a look at some more specific tips on the importance of high-quality content and how to achieve it.
Unravelling User Intent
User intent is crucial to your SEO strategy. Search engines have evolved their algorithms to analyse intent in depth. They’re not solely focused on keywords – they’re deciphering the context and purpose behind them. This means that optimising content to align with your users’ intent is hyper-important.
An effective approach is to use a Q&A strategy. Craft your sentences to address specific questions directly, and you’ll likely see your SEO results improve. Partially, this is because people tend to search by asking a question, so by asking and answering the same question in your content, you can improve your chances of ranking for that specific term.
As an example:
Imagine you’re a small business selling fresh cooking ingredients. Instead of saying: ‘Using fresh herbs can improve your home cooking,’ try ‘Will fresh herbs make my roast chicken taste better?’ By doing this, you’re getting to the nub of your user’s intent and providing useful, high-value content.
Q&A structures can also bump your content into the ‘People Also Ask’ and Knowledge Panel sections on Google, meaning that your result can end up appearing above some of the actual SERPS.
Build Your Authority
Establishing yourself as an authority in your chosen field is a great way to create good quality content to improve your SEO.
Firstly, it builds trust with both search engines and users, which makes your content more credible to both users and search engines. This trust signals to SEO algorithms that your content is reliable and relevant, potentially shunting it up the SERPs.
Secondly, authoritative content attracts more backlinks from other reputable sites, further boosting your SEO efforts. Reports show that backlinks can also be incredibly effective in generating leads, as users tend to be more confident in the quality of your product or service.
Thirdly, authority helps to differentiate your brand in a crowded digital landscape. The online marketplace is vibrant but, admittedly, a noisy one too. By building your brand voice into an authority in your area, you can elevate yourself above the competition, increasing recognition by users and search engines alike.
Mobile Optimisation
Over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, while 92.3% of internet users use a mobile phone as one of their methods of web access. Focus on areas like clear and concise formatting, compressed images and videos to reduce file size, and thumb-friendly navigation to make sure your content is properly optimised for mobiles.
Regular Updates
Keeping your content fresh and relevant is crucial. It shows search engines that your site is active and useful to consumers. New content provides opportunities for indexing, increasing the likelihood that you’ll appear in search results. It also encourages repeat visits from users, improving engagement metrics like time on site and bounce rate, which are crucial ranking factors.
How Good is AI at Creating Quality Content from an SEO Perspective?
There’s no doubt that AI is making serious waves in the content creation game. It’s a great tool that empowers copywriters, marketers, and social media specialists to up their output and brainstorm. However, what with Google updates and AI’s propensity to produce low-quality, unoriginal, or inaccurate content, it should still very much be seen as a supporting tool rather than a replacement for human-crafted content.
Ready to Take Your SEO Content to the Next Level?
If you’re looking to elevate your SEO game and stand out in the digital crowd, then we can help. From understanding user intent to establishing authority, our SEO experts and in-house copywriter have the skills and insights to boost your rankings.
You can find out more about our SEO services here and learn how our process can increase site visibility, boost sales, and enhance your ROI. Alternatively, why not drop us a line for a more detailed chat?
