While there are several key factors that determine the success of an SEO strategy, creating high quality content is indisputably essential for on-page SEO. Think about it: it doesn’t matter if your website’s technical performance is incredible and your backlink profile is perfect if humans and search engine crawlers see low quality content as soon as they land on your website.
Content creation is not an easy job, and although anyone can write, not everyone can be a good SEO writer. With the advent of tools like ChatGPT, it may seem like creating pieces of content has become easier than ever. However, no AI tool can surpass the human touch; AI can’t recreate the nuances and subtleties of human writing and it definitely can’t execute a great content SEO strategy alone.
This is why it’s important to understand that there are no shortcuts to creating high-quality content. Ask any marketer and they will tell you that creating content specifically for SEO requires a distinct approach that differs from conventional methods.
So, what exactly makes SEO content ‘high quality’? And how do you effectively balance writing engaging content tailored to your target audience with effective content designed with search engines in mind? Let’s take a closer look at high quality content for SEO and how to create it.
What is high-quality content?
Before we discuss how to create high-quality content for SEO, we need to explain what exactly is considered high-quality content. Here are the four key markers that will help you identify what well-written high-quality content looks like:
- It offers the best answer for the searcher’s queries: High-quality SEO content will address the exact needs of the customers while also using the right keywords that could help it reach its target audience. It should actually answer the reader’s questions and shouldn’t include lots of filler for the sake of bulking out the word count. You may think that a 2000 word article is better than an 800 word one, but if the former doesn’t actually provide the information it sets out to answer it won't be seen by readers or search engines as ‘helpful content’.
- It’s reliable content: It is not enough that your content addresses the needs of your customers. You have to ensure that the content is reliable and accurate as well. This will help you demonstrate your website’s credibility and establish your expertise in that specific area. For content to be considered high quality, it should meet Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, which we’ll explain in more detail shortly.
- It’s optimised for search engines: Remember that your content is not just for humans but also for search engine crawlers. Thus, you’ll need to create content that can be easily understood by search engines by employing SEO content creation best practices. This includes everything from expertly incorporating the right keywords and effectively using H tags to ensuring all images have alt text and paying close attention to metatags.
- It’s useful and appealing: When creating content that is educational, try to keep it as appealing and captivating to the searcher as possible. Also, it is helpful to create content that is interesting and easy to comprehend at the same time. Creating content with only search engines in mind can lead to copy that feels boring and bland; remember to prioritise the engagement of your users with creative and compelling copy.
Now that we know what high-quality content looks like, let’s discuss why we need to create quality content for SEO. Quality content is highly important equally for both users and search engines. It is no secret that users will not waste their time on your website if all that you can offer them is poorly written content that doesn’t engage them or satisfy their search intent.
The same goes for search engines. Google endeavours to improve the quality of content on their SERPs by detecting and penalising low quality content. An example of this is Google’s helpful content update, which was developed to help original and relevant content rank higher in the search results.
The 6-step guide to creating high-quality content for SEO
It’s time to discuss the central topic of this blog post. Let's delve into the five essential steps that are involved in creating top-notch content that is optimised for the search engines.
Step 1: Know your audience
Creating customer-centric content is very important to achieve your SEO goals, so before you start writing your content make sure you first establish who your target audience is. You can do this by conducting thorough market research and identifying your target demographic, their pain points, interests, and preferences. Tools such as Google Analytics, social media insights, and surveys can be a great starting point for gathering this information. Using this information, you can tailor your content accordingly to meet their needs.
Step 2: Keyword research
Keyword research is an integral part of your SEO strategy. For your website to ace the SEO game, your content must rank for the keywords that the searchers use. This means that the content that you create should be relevant to the keywords that you are trying to rank for.
For this to happen, you will be required to perform in-depth keyword research and identify relevant and high-performing keywords. Try to focus on long-tail keywords that align with the target audience’s search intent. This is because even though long-tail keywords tend to have a smaller search volume, the people searching these terms are more certain about what they want and are more likely to be ready to convert.
Once you are done with the research, you can optimise your existing content and plan new content based on the list of keywords that you have created. Try to insert the keywords into the title, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the body. However, remember to incorporate keywords as naturally as possible and to avoid keyword stuffing.
Step 3: Create unique and compelling content
As mentioned earlier, content quality is a major factor that governs both user behaviour and also how your pages rank on search engines. For your content to be regarded as high quality, you will need to create compelling and unique content. The content on your website should provide value to the searchers by solving problems, educating or entertaining them. You could even create content on the same topics as your competitors but by offering a unique perspective to it.
Try to incorporate Google’s E-A-T guidelines into your content. This means writing content that meets the requirements of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Recently, Google has inserted an extra E onto the E-A-T guidelines making it E-E-A-T. The extra E stands for experience. Meeting the E-E-A-T guidelines helps Google understand that it can trust your content as a reliable source of information. You could also establish the credibility of your content by including external and internal links to authoritative sources.
You’ll also need to structure your content properly with clear headings, subheadings and paragraphs. You can further improve the readability of your content by using bullet points, images or videos.
Step 4: Include multimedia elements
Following on from the previous step, you can improve the readability of your content by including visual and multimedia elements such images, videos, infographics and interactive features. Visually appealing content will improve engagement and also make it more likely to be shared and earn backlinks.
While including images and videos, remember to optimise them by adding alt text for accessibility and SEO benefits.
Step 5: Regularly update content
Remember that once you have written and published your content, your work is not over. For your content to be deemed of high quality by search engines, it is important to keep it updated to reflect the latest information, developments and trends. You can also add new sections, improve the visuals or update statistics. While these may seem like minor edits, these changes will help in demonstrating to search engines that your website is active and relevant. This will also aid your SEO game by helping to boost your rankings.
Elevate your content quality for SEO today!
In the past, SEO content had a bit of a bad reputation. People saw SEO content as spammy, stuffed full of keywords, and adding few unique insights to the conversation. However, with the implementation of Google’s helpful content update and search engines’ crackdowns on AI-generated and low quality content, the landscape of SEO content has shifted significantly.
High quality content created with users and search engines in mind drives traffic to your website, establishes your brand’s credibility and authority, and even helps you earn backlinks from other websites. No longer just something that’s nice to have, high quality SEO content is a necessity for brands to stay competitive.
That said, not every business owner or marketer has the time or resources to create quality content that adheres to SEO guidelines. This is why using an experienced SEO agency like Viaduct Generation is a great way to show your website some love. Our dedicated content experts are well-versed in the intricacies of SEO and will help you create winning pieces of content that will help you step up your SEO game and stay ahead of your competition. From content audits to content strategy and execution, we provide everything you need to win at on-page SEO.
Contact us today or book your free audit and we can get you started on your SEO journey.
