Guide to Creating Effective SEO Winning Content

Codehouse takes us through some essential SEO practices to consider when writing content.

Introduction

Written words have a big influence on our lives.

They educate us. They inform us. They allow us to make decisions. They help form social bonds.

Website content is no different. It resonates with your target audience. It helps promote your products or services. It encourages your visitors to stay in touch. It attracts new customers. Great content elevates your business to the next level.

Content can appear in many forms. Blog articles, text describing a product or service on your website, case studies, infographics, images, videos, etc.

What is content development and SEO writing?

Content development process

The content development process is preparing visual or written content in accordance with your target audience. Whether a blog post, infographic, graph or image, they need to efficiently communicate your message.

SEO’s place in the content development process

A strong SEO strategy is critical if you want to reach your target audience through search engines.

The SEO writing process includes keyword research. This is essential in structuring your web pages so that high-quality content meets the needs of your target audience.

Why is content important?

Your content is the most effective tool for promoting your brand and the products or services you offer.

With effective content, you can engage and retain your existing customers as well as attracting new ones.

According to statistics, content marketing activities (which includes SEO) attracts 300 per cent more potential customers than traditional marketing activities. It also costs companies up to 60 per cent less than traditional marketing activities.

Research by Impact found that 61 per cent of all internet purchases are made as a direct result of reading blog articles with recommendations.

Publishing quality content to your target audience makes your website organically rank higher in search engines. This can potentially reduce other advertising expenses.

According to a study by Search Engine Journal in 2020, 25 per cent of people click the first Google search result. This figure drops to 15 per cent for a website ranked second place and to 2.5 per cent for a page ranked 10th.

The more effort you place on SEO work, the higher you will rank against your competitors. This will drive traffic to your website and increase conversions. If it’s not done properly, people will struggle to find your website through organic search.

A lower visit rate generally means fewer customers and potentially less revenue.

But this can be avoided. You can improve ranking by preparing an efficient content plan and strategy. You can reach your potential customers effectively and elevate your business to the next level.

Content planning and strategy

Success can be achieved with a sound content strategy and plan. This should consist of the following:

Determine your content goals and what you want to accomplish.
Create a buyer persona/s and identify target keywords for the persona/s.
Implement a topic cluster strategy.
Carry out a content audit.
Select the appropriate format for your content.
Promote your content.

1. Determine your content goals and what do you want to accomplish

As with traditional marketing activities, your content strategy should match and support your marketing and business goals.

Your goals should consider and focus on reaching a wider audience and creating awareness. For example, your goal could be to increase product page visits by 20 per cent in the first six months.

2. Create buyer personas and identify target keywords for the persona

Understanding your target audience is essential. Deciding types of content and which platforms to use are important aspects to content strategy.

Creating buyer personas helps clarify your customer base. It enables you to target this audience more efficiently.

A buyer persona is a fictional character that represents the audience you aim to reach with your content.

Creating personas takes research and some guesswork. When you have established them you should then align keywords to each one. Below is an example of a persona that can be changed to suit your target audience:

In addition, you should consider at what stage your target audience may be in the buyer’s journey. This consists of three stages: Awareness, Consideration and Decision.

Your website visitors will be at different stages of the journey. They should be targeted with content reflective of the stage they are in.

3. Implement a topic cluster strategy

Think about keywords around different topics and create specific content around those topics.

This is called a “Topic Cluster” strategy. A topic cluster is a content series around a core theme. Preparing your content within this framework provides structure, will help you achieve better results in search engines, drive more traffic, and increase conversions.

4. Carry out a content audit

A content audit is the process of reviewing your website content and re-optimising it based on your plan and strategy. There are a variety of online tools to choose from to perform this task. Below are some useful tips:

Put your related content together in a table.
Specify keywords, buyer personas, the stage your target audience is in (Awareness, Consideration or Decision), which platform you will use to target your audience, and your core theme for your content.
Add your performance metrics such as number of shares, likes, page views, etc.
Categorise your content by performance.

5. Select the appropriate format of your content

Choosing the right format is critical to reach and engage with your potential audience. You need to choose the right content for the right target audience, on the right channel in the most effective way.

Your content may vary depending on your business goals. It could take the form of a blog post, infographic, spreadsheet, or a video.

Use different content to satisfy audience intent and to achieve your business goals. Deliver content for the right buyer persona. Ask questions like: “How easy is it for my audience to engage with the content I produce?”

6. Promote your content

Showcase the benefits of your products or services while engaging with your audience.

When promoting your content, it is important to understand the behaviour and intent of your audience. This will allow your content to resonate with them.

Use the relevant channels to communicate your message to an active audience. This will drive traffic, increase conversions, and promote loyalty and advocacy. Below are some examples:

Publish your content as an article/blog post, video, infographic etc.
Share it on social media channels or via email.
Consider paid advertisements on platforms like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Creating SEO winning content

After making your content plan and creating your strategy, it’s time to implement it. Create SEO winning content by following the steps below:

SEO research.
Get ideas for content.
Produce and plan your content.

1. SEO research

Your personas will influence content creation. Use this knowledge to produce compelling content that addresses potential questions your target audience may ask.

This establishes a starting point. It addresses the benefits and solutions you are providing to your audience.

What you need to do now is to bring these ideas together in a wider framework. Consider the following:

Keyword research.
Domain authority.
Write relevant content.

Keyword research

Keyword research is a great indicator of the popularity of keywords or phrases. It helps you determine whether it would be beneficial to create content on specific topics.

Good keyword research is to think about the goals, challenges, and the potential questions a persona may ask.

Another thing to consider when carrying out keyword research is search queries, search volume, and keyword difficulty.

There is a lot of competition. Distribute the spread. Use popular keywords, long-tailed keywords, and consider the more niche ones with lower search volumes.

Domain authority

Another effective element of your content standing out and reaching a wider audience is your website’s domain authority score.

Link building (backlinks) from other websites improves authority score. The higher the score the more authoritative and trustworthy your website is.

Although domain authority is not an SEO factor, good keyword placement improves on-page SEO and page authority. This increases a website’s overall authority through its ranking for keywords.

Write relevant content

The fact that your content is relevant and linked to your main topic is another key factor for SEO.

The relevance of your content indicates the relevancy of the domain. For example, if your website is about aviation, having content on the food industry will be irrelevant to your audience.

2. Get ideas for content

Now that you know which keywords and areas to focus on, it’s the time to generate some ideas.

The best way to prepare is to develop your ideas in accordance with buyer personas and topic cluster strategy.

The topic cluster model allows you to organise your ideas faster and easier because it gives you a model to follow.

In addition, while developing your idea, perform searches. Look at competing content and draw inspiration of your own.

3. Produce and plan your content

Consider your personas. Give your audience an opportunity to understand what your content is about. Include title tags, meta descriptions, etc.

Use a stable, continuous, and understandable tone and narrative. Avoid repeating the same sentences, keyword stuffing, and cannibalisation.

Upon completion, edit and review your work using different editing tools such as Grammarly or SEMrush’s SEO writing assistant.

Finally, schedule and publish your great content ensuring you revisit it at a later date for re-optimisation.

At Codehouse we offer a comprehensive SEO service that encompasses three phases designed to put your website on the right path:

If you want to find out more, get in touch.