Search engine optimisation is often seen as a dark art, surrounded in the sort of mystery often reserved for members of the Internet’s very own “Magic Circle”.
But although it may seem obvious to some, far too many companies are still failing to realise that engaging content really be should be at the heart of every SEO strategy.
When quality content is married with an aesthetically pleasing website with a great user experience, it can go a long way to increasing search visibility and ultimately sales.
Yet the key remains planning and scheduling. It’s often better to pre-plan a group or schedule of content so that the end results tie together to support the end goal.
Building out topics within a search term can help support internal linking and increase user experience. Furthermore, by creating a content schedule you can easily slot content into topics and supporting search terms. This can be done simply by using an Excel spreadsheet to turn the keyword groups into topics and create article or page suggestions in each section.
To make Google happy, your content has to serve a purpose which is not focused to manipulate either the search engines or the users, but has earned its place in the high rankings pages.
There is a high focus and potential benefit for adding content, information, tools or media to your content to increase the engagement signals of the page. Bearing this in mind from the start can really help to achieve success and even inspire articles from the outset.
As long as you are designing content that is written to serve a beneficial purpose and make a positive impact to the reader, you should not be marked poorly by Google’s Quality Raters.
Finally, and possibly most importantly, try to find an on-topic search query based on your keyword research (check Google Trends and Ubersuggest) that your site does not currently answer.
Are people searching for a tool, a calculator, a form, guidelines etc? What do the search queries tell you? If you currently don’t have this on your site or any content relating to it then build it and watch your stats increase.
Helene Hall is director of search at Gravytrain