The secret to great content does not
lie in a magic formula.
In fact, there really is no secret
at all.
Keyword usage helps you refrain from
Google’s wrath – it will mercilessly penalize you for keyword stuffing, for
instance – but there are no writing tricks or shortcuts for producing great
content and equally great rankings.
In other words, you have to do the
work to get the results.
But what, exactly, does doing the
work mean?
Doing the Work: Why Good Writing Equals Great Content
According to Orbit Media, good
writing is detailed and thorough. This means it’s longer, includes more
explanation and offers lots of answers for visitors.
And, guess what? Google just so
happens to love detailed content. More importantly, Google loves detailed
content exactly like the above – detailed, exhaustive, informative, and
high-quality. In fact, Neil Patel says that quality is Google’s No. 1 ranking
factor.
Write like that, and you’ve got some
good writing on your hands, the type that Google notices. And, when Google
notices your writing, you’ve got content that ranks. You know the rest –
content that ranks well jumps that final hurdle.
It’s not just good, it’s great.
Of course, there’s a catch.
Detailed, exhaustive, informative,
thorough content doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It takes work. It takes
research. It takes skill.
It takes time and resources. Which
leads us into…
Why Great Content Is Worth Your Time
and Effort
For a good example of why taking the
time and energy needed for producing great content is totally worth it, take a
look at this Express Writers case study: Case Study: How I Increased My
Company’s Rankings by Pouring Resources into Content Creation
This case study shows exactly what
great content can do for your bottom line.
Personally, I never saw results when
I skipped a week of blogging – and I never saw results when I skimped and did a
“rush” job to save money or time in publishing my blogs.
On the flip side, we saw serious
organic traffic increases when we invested in more serious content marketing
and higher-level experts to help me manage a committed schedule of four blogs
per week.
Each blog was long-form and
comprehensive, at 2,000 to 3,000 words each. No blog we published was below
that word count.
This is what happened for Express
Writers when I doubled my own content budget in order to get better results
with my content.
We saw a 400 percent increase in our
organic search rankings.
Here is the SEMrush data from May
2017:
And here is the data from June 2017,
just one month later:
As you can see, in May 2017, we had
8,200 keywords ranking in Google and $17,700 worth of organic traffic from
keyword rankings/monthly.
By June 2017, just one month after I
doubled-down on content, we had 10,200 keywords ranking and $76,800 worth of
organic traffic from keyword rankings/monthly.
All of those gains, thanks to great
content.
As you can see, the investment more
than paid for itself. When I let the content sing, we soared.
And, if you know our story, that has
been our refrain from the very beginning. Over and over again, great content
wins – whether that means keyword rankings, outperforming competitors, or
bringing in revenue.
We are a content agency that falls
back on exactly what we sell – great content.
Now that you’ve seen the proof, the
real question remains: how do you get results for yourself? How do you turn
good writing into great content, which equals great rankings?
How to Turn Good Writing into Great
Content That Ranks (No Magic Necessary)
There are keys to great content,
which in turn are keys to great rankings.
They all have one thing in common:
each and every one is achieved with good, solid writing.
Orbit Media lists lots of ways to
use your writing like a honed weapon – a sharp pencil, if you will, one that
turns out strong, attention-grabbing headlines, makes visitors linger over an
article, and encourages them to share, share, share.
Kissmetrics recommends many of these
same strategies in order to craft killer content. Let’s dive into a couple of
them. You’ve probably heard them all before, but they definitely bear
repeating.
1. Be Original. Be Unique. Be
Creative.
This one speaks for itself. Use your
own ideas in your content, and say something new. Don’t just rehash and
summarize others’ ideas. What do you have to contribute to the conversation?
Neil Patel sums up this point with
this advice:
2. Nail the Headline
A good headline gets you noticed. A
great headline gets you clicks.
How do you craft a great headline?
Use strong words – verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Use numbers. Focus on
benefits for the reader – they’ll take the bait.
3. Break Up the Content
Breaking up your content into
bite-sized, easily digestible chunks makes it smoother to read and/or scan.
Visitors aren’t faced with the infamous “wall of text” that not only looks
daunting, but also makes your eyeballs turn to liquid when you attempt to read
it on your digital screen.
Too graphic? Avoid these types of
analogies and break up your content into manageable pieces. Your imagination
will thank you.
Bottom Line: To Get Ranked, Hone
Your Content
Your content is your way to the top
of the SERPs. If your content is great, your rankings can climb higher than you
ever imagined.
To hone your content for great
rankings, you have to have good writing as your number one tool.
Remember, however, that good writing
on the web comes with lots of caveats. You need catchy headlines, digestible
organization, thorough and detailed research, and lots more, including adding
backlinks and SEO keywords. This is all in addition to writing good sentences.
The main point? Good writing has to
support your content, otherwise, you’ll never get anywhere.
Source: - http://www.sitepronews.com/2017/07/12/how-content-impacts-the-serps/
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