In the digital world, every entrepreneur emphasizes search engine optimization (SEO), but the content is more potent than SEO. If your content is not worth reading, search engines will not give it a higher rank. SEO helps you rank on top results of search engines, but it is possible only when you serve high-quality content.
As you know that you need to impress both search engines and users at the same time to stand out, you will have to create in-depth, informative and unique content. No matter which topic you are writing on, you need to provide unique information.
If your content does not aim to solve the current problems of users, search engines will dump it. Shallow content is no longer required in the digital marketing world.
Before producing authoritative content, you will have to understand your target audience, their needs and methods to solve them. As long as your content serves a solution to the problem, it is highly likely to get a high rank.
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SEO content writing evolved with time
Back in the days, SEO content writing was creating a blog post targeting a keyword to drive organic traffic to your website. You would find out a couple of keywords your users were searching and focus them in your content to achieve a higher rank in search results, but the realm of SEO writing gradually expanded.
It was not just targeting a couple of keywords in your content, but what users want to know. As a result, you had to change your writing style. You must change how you write content because the perspective of quality content for search engines is different from that of the users.
In times gone by, you would write a piece of content as short as up to 300 words targeting a relevant keyword. You cannot follow this approach any longer because it has gone out with the ark.
Now you have to provide more information to confirm search engines that you have authority and expertise in the content you are writing, and you give a solution to current problems of your target audience.
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How can you create authoritative content?
When it comes to SEO-driven content, you can create blog posts, video content, podcasts, product description, but the question is how you can write authoritative content.
Research keywords users search for
To begin writing, you need to find out the topic you will write on. There is nothing wrong if you have a general idea. If you do not have any idea about the subject, you can have a view from “People also ask”.
However, before penning down a word, you should conduct keyword research to know how your target audience searches for information online.
Google Keyword Planner informs you of keywords with search volumes and competition. This is helpful to pick some keywords with low competition and high search volume, but it does not precisely inform what your target audience is typing the search bar to look for information.
You should aim to target those keywords that your target audience is searching for. This is why you need to follow a strategic approach. To create authoritative content you need to know many aspects of SEO like:
- The keywords people are using to make queries
- Questions they put up around a topic
- Ideal length
- What type of information should be included?
Search intent
Search intent, in other words, known as keyword intent, is the goal of a user using search engines. It is crucial to optimise the user intent because you can get traffic to your website quickly.
Users have a specific goal to use search engines, but they do not know the exact direction to achieve their goal. Here your role is to show them a path to make what they are looking for. Here are the types of search intent:
- Navigation intent – Intent that defines your desire to go somewhere, for instance, you type Twitter into the search bar instead of typing twitter.com
Analyse search engine results pages (SERP)
Google puts authoritative content in the answer box. You should aim to have your content framed in the Google snippet.
Your content needs to be original, informative and well researched, but at the same time, it needs to have a relevant integration of keywords.
You can analyse SERP to figure out if your content can stand out in the answer box. Information intent keywords are likely to have your content rank in the Google snippet.
Consider “People also ask” to know what kind of queries people are making. If you write content around those queries, it is highly likely to get in the Google snippet.
For instance, if you type installment loans for bad credit, People Also Ask will show the following results:
- What is the best online installment loan?
- Can you get an installment loan with bad credit?
- Where can I get a short term loan with bad credit?
If you answer these questions through your content or entirely create a new blog around these queries, you will get a chance to stand out in the answer box.
Define the writing style
Integration of relevant keywords is not enough. You will need to provide new information to your users. Search engines will not pick your content if you have created a long blog, but it does offer the same information as others in different words.
When you choose a topic for your content, make sure that you are unfolding the new concepts that users are not aware of.
For instance, if you want to create content around “bad credit loans”, you will naturally target how bad credit loans work and their uses, but you can target other aspects of this topic like:
- How bad credit loans improve your credit score
- Are bad credit loans more expensive than credit cards?
Other writing points to bear in mind to boost authority:
- Try to use images, data, and infographics as this makes content appealing.
- Generate longer content as it seems more authentic and informative.
- Consider interlinking to boost authority of your content.
SEO techniques can help you have a higher return if you generate authoritative content. As long as your content offers genuine, new and in-depth information to users, you will highly likely to get top rank in search results.