Content is king. I’m sure you’ve heard that way too many times. But before you roll your eyes on hearing it again, hear me out. The thing that has been and will continue to be the lifeblood of SEO is Content. Content will always be the king.
Long story short: There is no surrogate for good quality content. Hence, in 2020 it’s time to curate killer and SEO friendly content written for users rather than search engines. But it’s easier said than done. I get that. That’s why, in this article, I’ve compiled 10 essential ingredients you need to add to your content strategy right away to create content that’s sure to get you noticed! So let’s get started.
10 Essential Ingredients You Must Add to Curate Killer and SEO-friendly Content
1. Craft catchy headlines
The average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 7 seconds!
Hence, when a reader visits your website for the first time, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention to convince them to hang around.
Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, the impression you make on a prospective reader. A compelling headline sparks interests and pulls the reader in. Without it, there is no point of the rest of your blog as they may as well cease to exist to the reader.
Consider these great statistics from Copyblogger:
- 80% of people will read your headlines.
- But only 20% of those people will read the rest of your content!
And that is why the headline is as important as the article or post itself.
Moreover, titles have a significant impact on your SEO purposes and user-friendliness as well.
Expressive and catchy titles can help readers gauge what your blog post is about and what they can expect from reading it.
Once you have drafted your title, check out its overall score with CoSchedule, a tool which gives grammar analysis, readability and the length of your title.
To keep your audience hooked and increase your CTR, you can use emotional modifiers in your titles, such as “best,” “amazing,” “funny,” “free,” “how-to,” “surprising” and so on.
2. Structure your content
Structuring your content matters for SEO purposes as well as user readability. Break down your blog post into small paragraphs (about 2-3 sentences).
The sections should be arranged logically and have the same idea.
Make use of different formatting options, such as add bullet points, highlight text, change your font. Use white space to break up the article. This makes your content mobile-friendly for readers as well as less dull.
3. Use SEO analysis tools
If you want to write readable and SEO-friendly blog posts, you must use SEO analysis tools.
SEO tools can help you find the best performing keywords for your content, create and submit a sitemap, check your mobile optimisation, analyse your link profile, detect and deny wrong links.
Carefully proofread your content before posting it to the web. Make sure that it is free of grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. You can use Grammarly to check for grammar and readability.
4. Include schema markup
Schema markup is a type of code that helps search engines analyse your content. It divides each part of your content and explains search engines what these parts mean.
Schema markup helps your website rank better by better analysing your content. For example, if you use schema markup on your title, search engines will know that’s your title.
When a website has schema markup in place, users can see in the SERPs what a website is all about, where they are, what they do and more. You can even refer to schema markup “your virtual business card.”
Hence, it is an essential ingredient that you must include to create killer and SEO friendly content.
You can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to add a markup to your blog posts easily.
To know how to use schema markup on your website, check out this article by Neil Patel, for step-by-step instructions.
5. Use social media share buttons
Make the most use of social media share buttons on your blog posts. Social shares = free links. Include controls to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. on every blog piece on your website. You can try and get some high DA backlinks, promote the page on social for engagements and better reach.
6. Optimise your content for mobile
You should make it a point to make your website and in turn, your content mobile-friendly. Why? Well, because mobile is the future of search. Here’s proof: 63% of Google’s organic search traffic comes from mobile devices. Moreover, mobile/tablet internet usage sits at 56% globally.
A website that does not have a mobile version is likely to lose most of its users in the coming years as mobile web pages are a growing trend. Apart from having a mobile version for your website, your content must be optimised for mobile devices. Your website should be crawlable- meaning the links to and within your website can be discovered- ensure visibility of your content.
First, make sure your content consists of short sentences and paragraphs.
Simple navigation and design make it easier for users to find all the necessary information quickly.
7. Use the optimal content length
The average length of blog posts that rank on page 1 is between 1500-2500 words. You should strive to have blogs within that length. Also, some keywords require even longer blogs- up to 10,000 words- to rank.
This is because Google rewards longer content as it tends to get more likes and mentions on social media. Hence, longer posts have good chances of ranking better in the search.
But remember, quality is more important than quantity. Hence you must strive to provide useful and informative information through your articles according to the search intent of your readers. Analyse to see what articles get the most views and the impact of content length.
8. Add images and videos & optimise them
Images add life to your content and help boost engagement as well as improve reader experience. However, if your photos aren’t optimised, then they could do more bad than good.
Non-optimised images are one of the most common speed issues encountered on websites. However, only add images that help or add value.
Google can’t read a text in images, but they can interpret the content of images to define images’ relevance in the search results.
Hence you need to give proper Alt text and descriptive titles, captions and filenames. Here is the example of an ALT text for an image:
<img src=”dog.jpg” alt=” Bulldog playing with a ball”/>
9. Create original Content
This one is a no brainer, isn’t it? Original content is vital for many reasons. One being, original content goes a long way with Google and your visitors.
Moreover, it sets an impression of you and your business online-whether excellent or bad. Copying other people’s content will result in a punishment from Google, which can crush your bottom line.
Not to mention that copying others content is unethical, hence avoid it at all costs.
10. Provide Value
There is no meaning of writing a 1000 word article if it fails to provide any value to the readers. People are reading a blog post to get answers to their questions and/or gain knowledge. Create such content that leaves your readers with some value so that they want to visit again.
Moreover, lately, it has been observed that people not only want answers, but they also want them fast. Hence make your content easy to scan by using bullets and paragraphs.
A reader should arrive at a blog post with curiosity and leave the blog with detailed answers to their questions.
Summing Up
Creating great content and building a brand image via content marketing requires you to put in the time and work. It is not an overnight project. However, the results are worth it.
Follow these practical tips to curate killer and SEO-friendly content for your business. To drive the necessary value from your content writing efforts, it is recommended to opt for SEO services with a professional SEO service company that can help you rank better, increase traffic and achieve better ROIs.