When it comes to creating online content, one of the biggest challenges is striking the right balance between making a positive contribution to your SEO campaign while also appealing to the real people who will be visiting your site. In the world of modern SEO, people are the most important asset, so rather than producing keyword-stuffed text you will need to produce relevant, useful and interesting content that’s tailored towards your audience.
Essentially, search engine optimisation involves putting high quality content onto a site to boost its positions on search engine results. Google displays search results in order of relevance and authority. It’s all about quality rather than quantity, so simply filling up your site with text won’t be sufficient if that text is spammy or stuffed with keywords.
Quality content will be persuasive, inform the customer, or serve another useful purpose. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to understand your target audience and consistently make content that will appeal to them. Include your important keywords, but make sure they are naturally incorporated into the text rather than obviously forced in. There are two main categories of keyword:
- Informational, such as “how”, “why”, “what”, “who”, etc. As the name suggests, these keywords are usually aimed around answering a question or providing essential information. They can be used to engage an audience, capture their attention and build a positive image around your brand.
- Commercial, such as “buy”, “order”, “find”, etc. Users who search for these keywords are generally looking to take some kind of action, such as purchasing a product or service.
Low quality or duplicate content won’t do anything for your site and may actually harm it, but if your visitors know they will always have something relevant and new to read when they come to your site, they’ll keep on coming back for more and are also likely to share your content on social media.
Don’t neglect your headlines, either; if you have a headline which makes people wa
nt to click on it from search engine results, you will naturally drive traffic and links towards your site even if they don’t go on to read the rest of the article, contributing to your SEO campaign. Headlines which are direct, to-the-point and promise to answer a pressing question tend to be the most popular.
Besides the content itself, there are other factors which need to be considered in order to make sure your website works for the real people who visit it. Site speed is one of the most vital considerations, as a slow loading site will simply lead to frustration and the vast majority of visitors will simply leave, never to return. Ensure your site loads as quickly as possible, otherwise it’s likely your efforts to create high quality content will have been wasted.