It may be hard to believe, but according to Internet Live Stats, Google is receiving approximately 67,000 search queries per second. Yup, that’s right, over 4 million queries per minute, and almost 5.8 billion searches a day. These searches are as unique as the individuals typing them, so how in the world can a business predict what will draw consumers, particularly targeted consumers, to their product or service?
Sure, keyword research, market trends, and competitive analyses go a long way in determining how to position yourself in front of these potential buyers, but there is one thing a company can do to ensure it’s hitting the mark, and it’s not a new concept.
In a world where Google’s algorithms and spiders are getting smarter by the day, creating high-quality, engaging, informative and valuable content is king. With the ability to reach millions of people through a single click, the influence of content on an organization’s bottom line is greater than ever, which is why in 2018 content is on the frontlines of every successful digital marketing strategy.
5 Benefits of SEO Content Writing—Why Content is King
Establishing a focus on certain individual ranking signals contemplated by search engine algorithms can provide value to any company’s search engine optimization campaign. However, a company would be much better served if they focused on optimizing their site to focus on user experience and user intent through development and content creation.
1. Google craves content. Google wants every website to be as genuine as possible, providing its users with the newest, most engaging, high-quality, valuable and informative content available. Why? Because it makes them money.
Much of Google’s value comes from its ability to dictate what users what to consume. Google can only do that by successfully connecting searchers with content they find engaging and relevant to their query.
2. Consumers crave content. High-quality content will never go out of style because it’s in demand with consumers. If a site or brand can spark an emotional or intellectual nerve with their audience, that content becomes the bait on the hook used to reel in conversion after conversion.
High-quality content allows a site to stand out in a crowd of sameness. On the flip side, if content doesn’t resonate or create an intellectual or emotional response within its audience, they won’t follow that site to where it wants to take them, missing a chance at a conversion.
Solid content, in any form, encourages site visitors to engage with a brand and website. If users genuinely like the content, they will take the time to consume it, and possibly even share it, like it (if on social platforms) or recommend it to others.
Not to mention, when consumers are engaged by content, Google notices. Engaged visitors spend more time on a website and are more apt to visit other areas of that site. This results in the reduced bounce rates, increased average page sessions and greatly increased page per session scores that are responsible for a portion of the fuel driving organic rankings.
3. Other sites crave content. This information isn’t a secret, which is why other sites want a portion of others’ high-quality content. These authority sites understand the importance of SEO and are aware of the traffic generated through a popular link.
They also want to engage their visitors, so it’s a natural progression for them to link to good content if it serves a purpose for their site. This is what SEO experts refer to as earning back-links, and a website’s primary goal should be to earn them from authoritative sites.
When it comes to seeking out information online, most people visit sites and pages that contain content or data that supports their ideas and backs up their narratives. Content should support these efforts, which requires thoroughly researched, valuable, high-quality information.
4. Content establishes industry leadership. Users correlate high search engine rankings and informative, valuable, well-presented information with industry leadership. If a website can answer someone’s questions, it has provided them instant value, and a path that leads them towards a conversion through that site.
Good content has cumulative benefits—the more you invest in high-quality content, the bigger your audience grows, and the larger your audience is, the more impact your content will have. And the more content an audience finds relevant, the greater that site’s industry footprint becomes.
5. Content generates conversions and drives revenue. Quality content creates buzz and brand awareness within a certain market. It exposes more consumers to a certain service or product and provides value before a conversion is completed. Good content acts as a sales pitch for whatever a website is “selling,” yet comes across as authentic engagement, changing the consumers mindset from buyer to partner.
Valuable content also adds value to the product or service being sold because it either solves a problem or teaches the user something they didn’t know. Educating a consumer on why a product is superior is half the battle; doing it without their explicit knowledge is a win-win.
Important Factors for SEO Writing
Let’s dig a little deeper and discuss what factors to consider when creating high-quality content with SEO in mind.
- Keyword research (searcher intent). The most important step to generating quality content is understanding what your user considers to be “high-quality, informative and engaging.”
Performing keyword research will help you to identify what your users are searching for and what search terms they’re using to find it. You can then focus your content on a set of targeted keywords for which you want it to rank. Keyword research should be performed regularly in the content creation process.
Don’t get caught up in creating content stuffed with those keywords. In fact, do the opposite and create content that answers the “intent” of those keywords and phrases that are searched. This helps a site to create genuine content, with user interest in mind.
- Answer user queries using identified keywords. Search engines have become incredibly sophisticated. As algorithms continue to advance, so does their ability to provide the most useful, relevant information for any given search query. When you’re creating SEO-friendly content, focus on using the search terms identified during the research phase of the process to help answer your users’ questions or help them solve a problem.
- Optimize tags, metadata and more. The two most important areas wherein you should include your main keywords are in the title tag and in the content itself. However, it provides an added boost to your SEO efforts if you incorporate them into your heading (H1 and H2) tags, meta descriptions and even in the image-alt attributes when possible. This information will help guide the search engine crawlers as well as any potential visitors from the SERP pages.
- Associated words. As we mentioned above, search engines are getting smarter—they are connecting phrases and concepts associated with the general theme of a piece of content to push rankings. For example, if the piece is about Major League Baseball teams but doesn’t mention a single team, Google and other search engines are smart enough to raise a red flag to divert users from potential “keyword stuffing” articles.
Content should be focused and structured in a straightforward manner. This helps both users to find the information they need and search engines to properly index and rank your content.
Conclusion
All the ideas discussed above revolve around the theme of engagement. Content is king because it can create a meaningful connection with consumers. From family obligations to work requirements and more, modern society is putting increasing demands on our time, so when it comes to capturing the attention of your users, time is of the essence.
At SEO Experts, our goal is to help you focus on growing your online business. We offer affordable SEO solutions to help businesses of all sizes increase traffic, improve rankings and enhance user experience to increase conversions and your bottom line. Request a proposal today to see how SEO can become ROI.