Fresh, relevant content is crucial in the SEO world. Without new content on your website, you will inevitably fall in the PageRank score that Google uses for its top search results pages. This is partially why having a well-maintained company blog works for many businesses. However, make sure whoever is charged with the responsibility of updating content understands what is SEO-friendly versus what is simply a waste of time.
Write for your audience
This seems obvious, but many writers are so focused on achieving SEO goals that they forget to write for their targeted readers. Think about what they want to read. This may mean you need to research your market’s background and interests. Some ways to monitor and research your market are by analyzing:
- Social media
- Magazine content
- Common web topics
- Other blogs within your industry
Keep your content genuine and real. Believe it or not, your readers can see through blogs that only exist in hopes of generating sales.
Make it unique
Come up with creative ways to deliver the readers’ desired content. How can you present information that others have likely, at some point or another, discussed? Maybe this means including videos or images in your content, or maybe the information can be displayed in a linked slideshow.
Writing for the Web
Writing for the Web is different than you may be used to. Scanning for news and blogs means searching for the headlines and brief clips that catch our eye. Great articles and blog posts too often get passed over because the titles are bold and attention-grabbing.
Additionally, people like reading content that isn’t overwhelmingly text-heavy. Keeping your content simple means separating content into manageable paragraphs and using bullet points and images whenever possible. Additionally, keep it to a relatively brief length. Save the novels for high school English class.
Use appropriate keywords
SEO is reliant off of key search terms in your content that will point to your site. Picking a few key terms is more beneficial than too many, because your content will focus on these keywords and you will likely produce more quality in-depth content. Carefully weaving these keywords into your posts is part of the trick; don’t overuse them to where they no longer flow with your article. This is called keyword stuffing and is frowned upon by the Google algorithm for SEO rankings.
Avoid competitive keywords
There are tons of keywords that are considered competitive. While they have a high search volume, your content will take a back seat on page 11 or 26 due to the competition for these words. You are better off using keywords with a lower search volume, because you would rather be at the front of search engine page results for less searched keywords than lost in page results that few people will actually look through.