Why Content Creation Matters the Most in SEO
Does SEO improve your content’s performance, or does your content improve your SEO performance? Content and SEO are like pedals on a bicycle; you must push both to get somewhere.
This post looks at the importance of content creation in SEO.
Content is King, SEO is Crowning (and Content Creation is the Catalyst)
The old saying “content is king” still stands. Content communicates—and you want to ensure that you are communicating well.
Good impressions generate business leads, positive word of mouth and brand recall. A poor impression, well, that’s harder to fix than tomato paste stains in Tupperware!
But your content isn’t going to make any impressions if no one sees it. That’s why SEO is critical.
Did you know that content creation plays a fundamental role in your SEO strategy
What is Content?
For clarity, content refers to all the words, visuals and audio on your site, blog or social media. From the words (copy), images and infographics to videos, music, and podcasts. Your content captivates your audience and conveys information about your services.
Content marketing is a form of inbound digital marketing. It uses content to attract prospects at every stage of their buying cycle and takes them on a journey to become customers. Content creation is the process of content production.
How Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Works, Broadly.
SEO, search engine optimisation, is the process and collective steps of making content rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). In layman’s terms: ensuring your content comes up on Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Yahoo (let’s stop there).
Metadata, markups, backlinks and, of course, keywords are part of SEO. They tell search engines what your content is about so that they can match it to the relevant search query. But that’s not all.
Search Engines (SEs) don’t just take your word for it. Your content must speak for itself. They want to make sure people find what they need. So, they can detect the user intent behind a query. For example, suppose two people search for “Pizza.” In that case, Google knows who is likely looking for recipes to make pizza versus looking for pizza delivery.
Search Engines will rate the quality of your content to determine if it’s worth ever seeing the light of page one or not.
The Role of Content Creation in SEO
The stakes have never been higher to consider SEO in your content planning rather than creating content and trying to optimise it later.
SEO and content creation go hand-in-hand. Search Engines are weighing user experience more in their algorithms. Layout and design, reading ease and navigation all contribute to UX, which improves site performance and, in turn, credibility with Google.
Keywords are still important, but delivering value in an attractive, pleasing way matters just as much.
Optimise Your Content Creation Process
SEO isn’t something you “do” to content once it has been created. To get ahead today, you need to keep SEO in mind from the start of your content creation process. Here’s how.
Be User-Centric
Keep your users (target market) front and centre when devising your content topics. It helps to have a buyer persona and ask yourself, what are their pain points? What sort of information are they seeking?
Create for Intent
Keep the user’s intent in mind and create content that speaks to that. If their pain point is expensive building material, then they are looking for an essay on the quality of your material. Quality was never in question. Try to provide a solution, like how to negotiate better rates with suppliers or cost-effective alternatives.
Choose the Appropriate Content-Type
Your buyer persona will also guide you on what type of content will resonate with them. If your persona has a long daily commute or spends time working with their hands, they might favour podcasts If they are practical and enjoy “how-tos”, a follow-along video would perform well.
Do SEO Research
Once you have your topics, research them. We often fall into the trap of thinking our audience speaks the same way we do. So, while you feel “VoIP Service Provider” seems like an obvious search query, “Telecom Companies” is a less competitive keyword that still performs well. This means that it’s easier to rank for that keyword.
Know SEO-Best Practice
Avoid do-overs or trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. If you’re aware of SEO requirements and best practices, you’ll know what will or won’t work while briefing content creators.
Speaking of content creators, we have gathered the best designers, developers, and copywriters in their fields. Take a look
Take the hassle out of content creation.
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