It just can’t be said too many times, content is king! And for SEO, content is a very, very important.
However, not all content is created equal. For a better impact on your SEO, you will need a high-quality content.
Well-written and well-structured content will have a great positive impact on your SEO ranking.
Quality Content, What is it?
Quality content is content that is as useful for your readers as it is optimized for natural SEO. Content that meets these two criteria will help you:
- Meet the needs of your Internet users
- Increase traffic and user time on your site
- Get better positions in search engine results
How to Produce Quality Content?
Here are the elements that make your content better:
The Target of your Content
Above all, don’t lose sight of the fact that you are writing for people. Your goal may be to improve your SEO, but if your content is not written for your customers, you will not have good results and you will lose ranking on search engines.
In fact, when you write for your customers, you put yourself in their shoes and start to produce very interesting content for them. Therefore, whoever reads your articles finds answers to their questions and enjoys reading you.
In the end, they can share your content to their relatives and thus give you more traffic. In addition, they will be tempted to return to your site to look for other interesting content.
The more users you have, and the more time these people spend on your content, the more Google will promote this content because it considers it to be very interesting.
However, if you write without considering your users, even if you have a good position in search engines, you risk losing a lot if Google realizes that your content is not interesting for your customers.
There are few things that can make content creation easier for you and that is having the right piece of content for your target audience. Here you need to decide the type of content you want to push out, the content structure and the overall content strategy.
Of course all of those decisions depend on the message you want to convey to your users, but you should think about all three elements before you start writing.
One of the best practices is to create a template for your content, and by that I mean how long it would be and what topics overall it will cover, what kind of writing style the content writer will use, what readability level it will be, would there be a video content and so on.
Having a template will make it easy to create content that is up to standard and goes along the lines of your marketing strategy.
Marketers use different tools like SEMrush, Ubersuggest and others to help them create a content like this by giving the idea about what the users want to read on those topics and what content market do the competitors use
The Length and SEO Optimization of your Quality Content Elements
The length of your content is very important for your SEO. Each element of the SEO must have a minimum length to give get better results.
Length of your Title (Meta-Title)
Title length (meta-title)
Your page title (meta-title) must be between 55 and 65 characters long. By respecting this number of characters, your title will be fully displayed in search engine results. This will prevent parts of your title from being cut off.
SEO Optimization of your Title (Meta-Title)
- Your page title should contain the main keyword of your content. Also, try to put only one keyword in the title, usually the main keyword.
- Often include numbers in your title. Example: How to produce quality content in 2022? The 5 best strategies for…
- Make titles with questions. With a title like “how to…?” , you arouse more the curiosity of your users. This can easily encourage them to read your content.
- Create emotion with your titles. A title that gives emotion is more likely to attract the internet users than a normal title.
Length of your Description (Meta-Description)
Like the meta-title tag, your page description has a recommended length. For full display on search engines, your meta description should be 135-160 characters long.
Make a precise summary of your content in order to allow the Internet user to see explicitly what the content is about. Keep it brief, but specific enough so as not to use more character than intended.
SEO optimization of your Description (Meta-Description)
One of the essential points to focus on is adding the main keyword in the description. By reading the description, the Internet user must find what they are looking for.
Don’t copy and paste. Search engines will know if you are copying another and will not downgrade your content’s SEO ranking. Take inspiration from others, but don’t copy them. Be original.
Use phrases that call to action. The meta-description is very important, because it can encourage the Internet user to consult your article or not. It is therefore essential to invite the Internet user through your description to click on your page to obtain a given result.
Article Length
The word count of an article is important for it. Indeed, we consider that an article which aims to be explanatory and aims to resolve a problem cannot be a short article (100, 200 words). It is recommended that your article be a minimum of 1000-1500 words.
This is not a general rule, because depending on your sector of activity, you will have to write articles with more or fewer words. The other advantage of articles with a lot of words is that you can put a lot of keywords (the main keyword and the LSI keywords).
However, note that the quality of your text is more important than the length of it. If you write a long article that is not interesting and coherent, you will lose a lot of points in your SEO ranking.
However, having a well-written article of excellent quality generates more visits and shares. Oshara therefore advises you to write articles that are quite long, but very interesting for your readers. This will capture their attention, they will spend more time on your articles and will be able to share them on their favorite social networks.
Also remember that the more time a user spends on your article, the more Google considers it to be of good quality and promotes it.
Keywords
We can never repeat it enough, keywords are the heart of your writing. If content is king for SEO, the keyword is king of content. Without keywords, your content has no value.
The keyword is, in fact, a word or a group of words that Internet users enter to do a search on search engines such as Google, Bing, Qwant and others. It is also a word or set of words that define your content.
Keywords are therefore the most important elements that generate traffic for you through search engines. Indeed, they help to give an answer to the searches of Internet users, and therefore to encourage them to click on your page. That’s why your keywords can’t be random, but must be chosen and placed according to given rules.
The Keyword must Correspond to the Internet User’s Requests.
Indeed, it is not enough to have content relating to a keyword to be effective. If you want to have more impact and be well referenced, your keywords must deal with subjects of interest to the Internet user.
Take for example, an Internet user who wants to know how to make orange juice.And on your site, you have an article that presents orange juice without showing how to make it. You will therefore have an article with its keyword “Orange juice” but because you do not cover its subject, the Internet user will not click on your link.
We advise you, to have a better chance of acquiring potential customers, to cover many subjects on a keyword. So with a single keyword you can have several articles that can respond to several Internet users at the same time.
Use of Keywords in the Introduction
Like the presence of the keyword in the page title, in the content title and others, the presence of the keyword in the introduction or the first hundred (100) words is of paramount importance.
The reader must find what he is looking for in the first hundred (100) words. This will capture his attention and he will be able to concentrate on reading the rest.
On the other hand, if he does not find what he is looking for in your first words, there is a very small chance that he will continue reading and a very high chance that he will leave your site without having spent a single minute. However, the more time visitors spend on your site, the more your SEO is positively affected.
Finally, we advise you to place your keywords in:
- Your Meta Title
- Your Meta Description
- The titles and subheadings of your content
- Your intro
- Your links
- Descriptions of your images
- The text of your content etc.
Avoid Plagiarism
Quality content is above all original content. Each content must be written without copying from others.
Google hates copied texts. You can take inspiration from texts on the net or from your competitors, but always take the time to rewrite them in your own way and add your knowledge.
Second point, also avoid copying yourself. Google not only penalizes copying others, it also penalizes when you copy yourself.
When you want to add new information to a topic, rewrite another article or update the article you already have. Do not copy the old article or just republish it, instead add new information.
How to Structure Your Quality Content
Clear and readable content is a must, that why you need to structure your content, concise and easy to understand. Here are some tips to help you do that.
One H1 Tag (No More, No Less) Per Each Quality Content Article
The H1 tag is actually the main title of your content. It is therefore important to have them on each article and not have more than one on any content. This is very important for SEO.
For better SEO, it is essential to have your main keyword in the H1 tag. So, already when we read your title we will know what the content is about. Furthermore, search engines rely a lot on H1 titles to know what the content is about and offer it to Internet users.
Finally, we would like to remind you not to have less or more than one H1 title for your content. In addition, do not put the same title on two different pages. You therefore need a single title per page. It is very important to keep this rule in mind.
It seems simple, but many times people forget about it and downgrade their SEO unintentionally by having multiple H1 tags or having none at all.
Sub-Headings (h2,h3,h4 etc.)
The h2, h3, h4 and other tags represent subheadings for your article. They make it possible to provide several pieces of information and classify them so that they are clear and easily readable.
Thanks to subheadings, you can make your text breathe. Unlike h1, the h2, h3, h4 headings can be used more than once in content. Note that the numbers in front of the h (2,3,4..) do not mean, second, third or fourth subheading.
It is just used to determine that each title of a given number is the subheading of the title with the number that comes just before it. In other words, h4 is the subheading of h3, and h3 is the subheading of h2.
On a website, they look like this:
< h1 > Title of the page < /h1 >
< h2 >Subheading 1 < /h2 >
< h3 > 1st subheading of Subheading 1 < /h3 >
< h4 > 1st subheading of the 1st subheading < /h4 >
< h3 > 2nd subheading of Subheading 1 < /h3 >
< h2 > Subheading 2 < /h2 >
< h3 > 1st subheading of Subheading 2 < /h3 >
< h2 > Subheading 3 < /h2 >
In addition, you must have a logical order by following the explanations given above. So avoid placing a h4 directly after a h2. You must necessarily insert a h3 between the two.
Bulleted Lists
Bulleted lists are like classification tools that make a long, heavy paragraph more readable and clearer in bulletin points. They make it easier for the Internet user to read and make the text clearer and more airy.
Take, for example, writing the recipe for cooking Canadian pancakes, especially the list of ingredients.
Here are two examples of writing for this:
- Formatting Style 1:
To make the Canadian pancakes, you will need 500ml fermented milk, 2 separated eggs, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 250g flour, half (½) tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt.
- Formatting Style 2:
Ingredients for Canadian pancake:
- 500 ml of fermented milk.
- 2 eggs separated.
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
- 250 g flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
- 1 tablespoon of sugar.
- 1 teaspoon of salt
It is clearly seen that draft two is easy to read. So don’t hesitate to add them into your content.
Optimize your Content for SEO
You have now written your article, well-structured and clear, you now need to optimize it for natural SEO . For this, you need to develop a linking strategy.
Internal Links
Internal links are used to associate the pages of your site with each other. This strategy is called internal linking. This strategy can also help you increase traffic to your site.
Your visitors will be able to easily access other pages of your site. Some will come for just one article and end up reading three, four or more.
All this will help your SEO, because the more time visitors spend on your site, the more points Google gives you and considers you as a site with good content.
Thanks to internal links, you can direct Internet users and search engines to your most successful pages or the most important pages of your site.
External Links
An external link or backlink is a link that links your site with another. There are two types of external links. We have the external links that are on your website and those that are on other websites.
For example, you can create an external link in your content by adding a link to another website that does not belong to you. This can help you cite your sources or make your content better by directing readers to content you recommend to them.
These are usually sources where you get your info, or websites that have a full article on that given term that explains the things in detail.
But, there are also external links on other websites that link to yours. External links work both ways and improve your SEO if the links you add have authority. In order to have internal links that boost your website, the most important thing is that they are contextual.
Avoid Dead Links (404 Error)
Dead links are links that do not go to any pages and create the famous 404 error page. These links are often created when you change the link of a page and forget to reenter the new link in the articles in which you put them on.
It is therefore very important to regularly check whether you have any 404 errors on the page and to correct them quickly. In case you have these links on multiple pages of the site, just add 301 redirects to the new link. Thus, each time the Internet user clicks on the link, he will be automatically redirected to the new link.
If you have read the article to this point, then you can be proud of yourself, because you now know how to produce quality, structured and well-optimized content for SEO.
If you need help with optimizing your content don’t hesitate to contacts us. We run the best digital marketing agency in Montreal.
