Content should be your priority when thinking about search engine rankings. Quality content is how you engage, inform, support, and delight your audiences. Creating authentic, valuable content is also critical for search engine visibility. Indeed, the Periodic Table Of SEO Factors begins with the content “elements,” with the first element being content quality. In this article, you’ll learn how to rank your content higher on search engines Like Google or Bing.
Whether it’s blog articles, product pages, an about page, testimonials, videos, or anything else you create for your audience, getting your content right means you have a foundation to support your other SEO efforts.
Understand Your Audience and Their Search Intent
The foundation of any successful SEO strategy is a deep understanding of your target audience and what they are searching for. This involves keyword research to discover your audience’s terms and phrases when looking for information, products, or services related to your niche.
Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush can be invaluable in this process. Remember, your goal is to align your content with your audience’s search intent, whether it’s informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial.
Search Engine Ranking
When someone performs a search, search engines scour their index for highly relevant content and order that content to solve the searcher’s query. This ordering of search results by relevance is known as ranking. Generally, you can assume that the higher a website is ranked, the more relevant the search engine believes the site is to the query.
It’s possible to block search engine crawlers from part or all of your site or instruct search engines to avoid storing certain pages in their index. While there can be reasons for doing this, if you want your content found by searchers, you must first ensure it’s accessible to crawlers and is indexable. Otherwise, it’s as good as invisible.
By the end of this chapter, you’ll have the context you need to work with the search engine rather than against it and ideas on how rank higher in Google!
Robots.txt To Rank Content For Search Engines
Robots.txt files are located in the root directory of websites (ex. yourdomain.com/robots.txt) and suggest which parts of your site search engines should and shouldn’t crawl, as well as the speed at which they crawl your site, via specific robots.txt directives.
Link Building to Rank Content Higher in Google
As one of the top-ranking factors for Google, links are critical to improving your search engine ranking.
When it comes to better search engine rankings, you want to attract links from reputable and trustworthy sites versus sites with a bad reputation. Earning links from top websites requires some outreach.
It would be best to connect with webmasters, publishers, bloggers, and more to get some press for your content.
Outreach requires time and dedication. Getting your content recognized, however, can have a tremendous impact on your company’s exposure and search engine rankings. It can also help people in your audience discover your business. Keep reading for more tips on how to rank your content higher on Google.
What Characterizes High-quality Content
With every update, Google tries to get closer to understanding language like the human brain. The Panda update (2011) addressed thin content and keyword stuffing. People could no longer rank high with low-quality pages filled with keywords.
Since this update, Google has tried to understand language at the semantic and pragmatic levels. They want to know what people deem high-quality content that genuinely offers information about the search term they used.
Meaning of Phrases To Rank Content For Search Engines
A few years later, with the Hummingbird update (2013), Google took a deeper dive into semantics. This update focused on identifying relations between search queries. So, Google pays more attention to each word in a search query.
You ensure that the whole search phrase is considered rather than just particular words. They wanted to be capable of understanding what you mean when you type in a search query. As a result, it’s vital to rank your content.
Google took that even further. Since they rolled out the RankBrain algorithm in 2015, they can interpret neologisms. Words that have not been into mainstream language, like “corona-cation”. Colloquialisms (casual communication, like “ain’t” and “gonna”), and they can process dialogues.
Improve Your Copywriting Skills
Copywriting involves rearranging words or phrases to make them unique and relevant to a given topic. It is also a business marketing strategy involving rewriting sales letters and posts into better versions. But what makes a good copy?
Here’s how to implement good copywriting practice to rank content for search engines:
- Proofread: Copywriting would entail research, too. That is why proofreading is essential.
Compared to original content writing, which involves in-depth research, copywriting involves basic or shallow research. Even if you already have a bright idea of what to write, research will prevent subjective content. An excellent copywriting piece should include new-type content as much as possible.
- Exercise: You can improve your copywriting skills with the help of copywriting exercises. For example, practice writing headlines for 15 minutes daily and try to create different headlines for specific topics. Use words that easily capture consumers’ attention. While some use fear as a tactic, sparking curiosity through educational posts or email content is also a good idea.
Track Your Performance and Adapt
SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your site’s performance, understand how users find and interact with your content, and identify areas for improvement. SEO trends and algorithms change regularly, so stay informed and be ready to adapt your strategy.
Following these steps can significantly improve your content’s visibility on search engines, driving more traffic and engagement to your site. Remember, SEO is a long-term investment, and consistency is key. Keep refining your strategy based on data and trends; your efforts will pay off in the long run.
