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According to Google, content is one of the top three factors that determine the ranking of your website. Therefore, the need for creating good content has amplified now more than ever. But what constitutes good content? Is there a formula you can follow that allows you to deliver perfect quality content?

The answer to that question is both yes and no. Yes because by understanding a few concepts in depth, you can definitely ensure that your content is good. And no because if you blindly follow the tips without customizing it for your own site, there is nothing and no one in the world that can save you from creating disastrous content. This article should give you a good understanding of the elements required to create high-quality content whether you have a blog or business website. Read it thoroughly, understand it and analyze how you can implement it for your own site.

1. Strategize First. Build Later

Many people first build their content and then stuff keywords and links into it. This highly increases the chances of your content looking forced and irrelevant. Instead, start with researching keywords and study user intent.

Find out which keywords users are using to search for websites such as yours. Then, build a thorough strategy with the kind of content you require, how you wish to place your keywords, what links must be included in the articles, etc. Your final step should then be drafting the content accordingly.

2. Define the Statistics

Statistical factors like length, quantity and format are important factors that must be pre-defined. And the good news is there are well-defined formulas to this. For example, it is established that articles with 1000+ words rank better as it demonstrates that you know what you’re talking about.

Another smart tip is to have a clear call to action in the content. Allow the users to click and redirect to relevant pages if they desire. This gives you the freedom to design the user’s buying journey through your content.

3. Define Your Design

Draw out a working structure of the content you create. Define the layout i.e. number of titles, sub paragraphs, variants, etc you want in the copy. Ask yourself how relevant is my content to a user who lands on the page? Is my website/page providing any real value to the user? Is it solving his needs?

It is important that your content is easy to read and the information it provides can be grasped in a quick scan of the article. This can be achieved by adding multiple titles and H1s, making the highlights bold, etc. Create stuff that is shareable to widen your organic reach.

4. Serve Correct Content

There’s nothing attractive about wrongly written content. Have you ever enjoyed reading an article full of spelling or grammatical mistakes? The answer is no. So even if there’s no evidence at the moment that grammar affects ranking, it is a primary factor controlling the user experience. So never forget to proofread your material. It is advisable that you get another person to proofread your content to be doubly sure.

Alongside correct language and formatting, add as many sources and links as possible for your user to check your credibility. The benefits of this practice are twofold.

• One - it establishes a line of trust between you and your user.
• Two - it makes Google think you are thorough and know what you’re talking about, thus improving ranking.

5. Find Your Niche

Every business has a unique value that it offers to its customers better than others in the marketplace. Find that niche of yours.

Don’t try to turn up in infinite search results. Instead, narrow down your scope to the point of knowing exactly who your target audience is and then reach out only to them.

It is better to be specific to a small targeted crowd than be vague to a large crowd. Do a demographic research and find the persona of your end consumer. Understand its psychology, belief and other characteristics. Having this information will allow you to design a content strategy focused exactly around your customers. This will improve your conversion in a huge way.

6. Semantic Search

We all know that search engine’s algorithms are constantly updated and improved to make the experience of the end user smoother and smoother. And these changes require us to alter our strategies to fit the latest requirements as well.

For example, earlier Google used keywords to match relevance to the user’s search to generate search results. But now, Google has moved from being keyword specific to being semantic. It gathers all related keywords and tried to establish a concept out of it. It takes into considerations all synonyms and related words to give out search results that belong to a common concept rather than exact keywords. The idea is that your website should be able to answer all doubts the user might have.

So keeping this in mind, create content with keywords pertaining to a concept rather than isolated keywords.

7. Learn To Use Your Keywords Right

Stuffing keywords have always looked unprofessional and shabby. But it worked, so we did it. But it is time to STOP. Google has learned to identify this and doing this will do you no good. It might even be harmful to your ranking. There is no perfect number of keywords in a document. An easy way is using the ‘find’ function to see the number and intensity of your keywords and if they appear stuffed, start removing the unnecessary and forced ones.

Instead, use synonyms. Like I mentioned earlier, Google identifies concepts and picks up synonyms and related words to form a search result. So instead of repetition, go for synonyms and make it look natural.

8. The Technical Side of Content

Understanding the technical side of content is just as important as the creative side. Good content from a technical aspect is material that loads quick and easy. So avoid using images or any other form of media that might take longer to load.

Next, make sure your website looks attractive on a mobile device. Even though web pages are now responsive, additional focus on the visual design might be of great help. Fox example, center aligned text looks better on a cell phone.

Additionally, keep your URLs short. All successful pages have short URLs and that’s enough reason for you to do so. Also make sure that all the important pages are there in the sites XML map. Let Google identify and understand you!

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9. Establish Authority

If you supply enough quality content to Google, it will help you establish authority over your competitors assuming you’re an expert in your niche. To achieve this, you must try to find the perfect balance among the 3Vs -

• Volume - It is good to have a healthy amount of useful content over the internet that helps your user.
• Velocity - Try to be consistent. It is a better practice to release one article every week than releasing 10 and then going dead for a month.
• Variety - while your content needs to be narrow and specific, find variety in the information you serve. Analyze all aspects of your user’s behavior and create different kinds of content to satiate all his needs.

10. Remain Traditional

With all the above mentioned new information, do not turn your back to the traditional SEO techniques. They are still very much effective and will help you go a long way. Therefore continue linking relevant posts with other articles, categorize your content well, add relevant keywords in headlines and anchor text, etc to keep reaping the benefits of these timeless tactics. The idea is to continue the existing methods but upgrade the quality of the overall content so as to enhance your user’s experience by tenfold.

A successful content marketing campaign can be a huge tool in the success of your website. And designing a perfect campaign requires you to understand all of the above factors and implement them well. It goes without saying that you’ll need to perform a few trial sessions before you find your sweet spot. But once you do, you’ll learn that the benefits are truly worth it.

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