Creating best SEO content in 2019
In this blog post you are going to learn how to create or write your best SEO content in 2019.
Why focus on 2019?
I think by now you clearly understood the indisputable importance of content when it comes to marketing your business online.
When it comes to the Internet, there is no marketing without content.
A big part of content marketing, although, I always suggest that you shouldn’t mix up content marketing and SEO, is search engine optimization.
This is a reality as a content writer I have accepted long time back: most of the businesses want to use content marketing to improve their SEO.
Search Engine Journal has just published 9 tips for creating your best SEO content in 2019.
Nothing is new in the post. No offence to the author, but there is nothing you can do in 2019 that you couldn’t have or shouldn’t have done in 2018. But yes, it is always better to keep revisiting these concepts.
The above-linked post lists the following tips if you want to create your best SEO content in 2019:
Use your targeted keywords when writing content but write for the right people
The blog post suggests that before writing your content you must first understand:
- Who your audience segments are.
- What kind of information they need.
- Why they need that information.
- Which keywords they are using to find it.
Why is it important?
Because your content marketing must be relevant.
Segmentation can help you.
Some people are just looking for information and they may do business with you later on. You need different type of content for them.
Some are interested in doing business with you but can’t make up their minds. You need different content for them.
You also need to know what keywords they are using to find your business (or your business category).
For better SEO it’s very important that you know what search terms people are using. Once you have found that out, use those search terms and keywords to create high-quality relevant content.
Keep your content writing readable
Remember that artificial intelligence is after all, machine-based analysis.
Rumor has it that there are at least 10,000 human evaluators working at Google to manually review websites.
But millions and millions of web pages and websites are being evaluated by some search engine ranking algorithm every second.
These algorithms cannot make sense of very complicated language structures and expressions.
Use simple words as much as possible.
Keep your sentences very short.
Avoid having more than two sentences per paragraph.
Use every opportunity to use headings, sub-headlines and bullet points to organize your thoughts and format your text for better readability.
Create in-depth content, longform content
Google these days loves lengthy pieces of content, preferably 2500-4000 words, and even more.
A good thing about in-depth content is that it provides all the information a person is looking for right in a single web page or blog post.
If someone has found everything what he or she is looking for, he or she doesn’t have to carry on the search again.
This tells Google that you have relevant content, and this further improves your SEO.
In fact, if you want to create your best SEO content in 2019, I think this is an advice you should follow.
Improve your page speed
Though, this has got nothing to do with writing content to improve your SEO, but the success of your content depends a lot on how fast your website loads and how individual web pages and blog posts load.
Search engines like Google take page speed seriously because people mostly use mobile phones to access websites these days and on mobile phones they are very impatient.
If a web page doesn’t load within 10-20 seconds, people leave.
When people leave, it sends all sorts of wrong signals to Google and in the ensuing confusion, Google ends up lowering your search engine rankings.
Keep your pages light.
Use attractive graphics for better SEO content
This might sound like a contradiction to the above point (keeping your pages light), but you can create very light graphics these days.
Images are easier to note, especially on social media and social networking websites.
If you simply post your title and link to your blog or web page, people are going to miss it. But, if you also post an attention-grabbing image, people will be drawn to your update and then they will click your link.
The above Search Engine Journal blog post refers to a Skyword study that reveals that articles and blog posts with relevant images draw 94% more views compared to articles and blog posts with no images.
So, if you want to create better SEO content in 2019, include images in your budget.
Provide facts and statistics
Numbers are always impressive. In the above point, you read that articles and blog posts with relevant images get 94% more views compared to those that don’t. This figure is reassuring.
Whenever you’re making a claim, use numbers.
If you say, “These many businesses use content marketing,” don’t just say it, show the numbers. If you don’t have your own numbers, quote an authoritative link.
Format your content for featured snippets
People have different views on pros and cons of featured snippets but it always gives you an ego boost when you see one of your snippets appearing at the top of the search results.
Some say they are also very good for your SEO.
A snippet is the featured listing at the top of the search results page. You don’t pay Google for this position. The algorithm figures out that your link contains the most important bits of information for the question being asked, and then features it at the top.
Read this for more information on featured snippets: Google’s Featured Snippets: How to rank at #1 with strategic content writing.
Become an expert or an authority figure in your field
People easily trust authoritative figures.
If I tell you content marketing is good for your business and if Joe Pulizzi tells you that content marketing is good for your business, whom are you going to believe? Of course, Joe, because he is an authority figure in content marketing.
Becoming an authority figure in your business doesn’t mean having written books or conducted seminars or attended workshops.
In terms of having a website, list your capabilities. Have an about us page. Display the capabilities of your team, individual team members. Let people know what all you can do.
Do original research
Find some data about your profession that the others haven’t found yet.
Original research is not easy, but this is also its strength: not everyone goes for it.
For bigger businesses it’s easier to do original research because they have the needed traffic, they have a bigger audience, and they also have the manpower needed to carry out surveys, polls and research.
For a small business, it might be difficult but not insurmountable.
Suppose you are a fast food restaurant serving a local clientele.
You can carry out a study and find out which food item is purchased the most.
You can further go deep and make it gender-based.
You can also research on which food item is favorite in particular months.
Although it may not have an impact on people’s decision on what food they buy (it may, actually), but it will be an interesting bit of research information that people will like to share on their social networking profiles.