A Guide to Creating Content for SEO

This guide to SEO will answer three primary questions. The first is what the fundamental definition of SEO content is, what are the types of SEO content and finally what is a content strategy.

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The post will follow the same pattern so that readers, regardless of whether a beginner or an expert in SEO can gain an insight into the many facets of creating content for SEO.

What is SEO Content?

It will be helpful if this question is broken down into two components.

The first is about SEO. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process and technique used by SEO experts to optimise a website so that people can quickly find it on the top of results pages of major search engines. This is critical in today’s digital business environment where people search the web for sellers of products and services before arriving at a purchase decision.

The second is content which is referred to in generic terms for any information that is placed on the web. Hence putting these two together, SEO content is any information that lives on the Internet to attract search engine traffic.

Here is a quick refresher of what you have to do to SEO your web content.

• Keyword Optimisation – It is knowing where and how to use keywords so that your content is highly visible on the Internet and gets maximum searches.
• Keyword Research – If increased traffic has to be generated to your site through Search Engine Optimisation, it is necessary that you do keyword research before you start writing content. This will enable you to focus on those keywords that already have a certain amount of existing search volume. In other words, you will know about topics that people are looking for and write accordingly.
• Content Classification – The content on your site should be classified and organised logically. It helps visitors to your site navigate through different pages easily and helps them to find all related content quickly.
• Content Promotion – All new content that is created should be optimally promoted through specialised techniques such as internal and external link-building and sharing it on various social media platforms.

A word of caution here – apart from aiming for increased rankings and search engine traffic you should also provide value to your visitors. Sites that rank and get clicks yet has nothing to offer visitors in value have low conversions and high bounce rates.

Types of SEO Content

The following are some of the types of SEO content.

• Blog posts – Having blog posts are an excellent way to build authority for your website as these are more likely to attract links than others like product pages. Further, blog posts are engaging and lively, and it is easy to create a regular stream of SEO content. This is why creating blog posts is the preferred option for an SEO agency when structuring an optimised SEO strategy for clients.
• Articles – News articles, interviews and feature pieces in newspaper and magazine style on websites attract a lot of attention.
• Product pages – While these pages are critical components for any website with products and services to offer, it is more so for a retail e-commerce site, not only from the point of SEO content but also as a PPC landing page.
• Guides – Guides are elaborate content on websites that goes into detail on how to do something such as this SEO Tutorial for beginners. Either the full content can be given, or an excerpt is first posted with visitors required to register themselves to read the complete guide. This is a perfect method to generate leads but might see a fall in SEO traffic if you put up a registration barrier.
• Videos – You will generally find more text than videos on websites and hence it is easier to rank higher for a video than an article for any given specific keyword. Videos are a great way to run demos or explain the functioning of a product. However, it is advisable to include a text transcript of the video to optimise videos.
• Directories – A directory is a catalogue of links to sites or resources that deal with a particular topic. For example, a blog on ethnic jewellery might create a directory on places to buy jewellery, from independent stores to major departmental stores.

Apart from these options of SEO content, you can also try out infographics, slideshow and glossaries to improve SEO through content. The possibilities are almost endless.

Creating an SEO content strategy

It is not enough to create content and then hope that with the embedded keywords, it achieves high rankings. Agencies offering top-of-the-line SEO services use advanced tools and technologies to ensure that the website is optimised to provide the desired results.

Here are some steps that help to refine an SEO strategy.

• Determine your goals – First, define the goals of your website or business as your content will be based on this factor. If you want to increase product sales, have attractive and informative product pages that are optimised for both search and conversions. The secondary objective should be blog content that illustrates how to use those products. If your goal is to attract new readers, the content should be long articles or videos that are informative and entertaining.
• Determine your target audience – Conduct surveys or use analytics software to define your target which will be representative of the typical visitor to your site, whether a new client or an existing one. Then think what these people are looking for and structure your content on those lines. If you have a B2B website that targets top-level executives, the content should be a highly detailed research paper. If on the other hand, you are targeting teens and adolescents, content with less text and more images and videos will be in order.

• Build an editorial calendar – An editorial calendar is a schedule that shows when you will publish new content and the type it will be. It is essential to release new content regularly. You can use Google calendar to set up notifications for authors. Give yourself plenty of leeway and time if you have complicated content on your hands that might need a few editing rounds.
• Analyse your SEO content – You should periodically assess your content to know if the SEO strategies devised by you are giving the expected results. Leading agencies such as One Stop Media use advanced techniques and analytics tools to analyse and re-assess content strategies periodically to make course corrections if required.

This then, in a nutshell, is how to create SEO content. The post has been kept simple and devoid of technicalities so that it can cater to experts as well as beginners.

Author Bio

William is a Director in One Stop Media, a reputed and fast-growing digital marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia. The company has grown phenomenally over the last 5 years and has some of the top names in Australian business in their client portfolio. Currently, Nate  and the company are offering clients a new experience based on Blockchain and Chatbots technologies.

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