Good content becomes priceless for maintaining your online presence. Yet, retaining your content’s search engine optimization quality is even crucial.

SEO is essential as it drives large amounts of traffic that otherwise costs a lot of money through ads. Have you considered that the top 3 search results on Google alone take 54% of all the traffic? Also, SEO brings 1000% more traffic than organic social media, according to Ahref’s 2023 SEO stats.

Yet, developing good SEO content is not easy. It takes a great deal of effort to come up with great content. You need to ensure your readers get the topic and your site gets the traffic. But how do we do it?

This article is just about that—making your content awesome. While no strict rules define good content, I will teach you several ways to optimize your content. It will help you rank and win your audience’s trust. So, let’s get started.

Find the Right Keyword

Remember, every content’s SEO journey starts with keyword research. A keyword with optimal stats is a good kickstart. Choosing a winning keyword for your niche and topic will be the base of your content.

Generally speaking, an ideal keyword has the highest possible search volume and low competition. Though these stats are not always decisive of your rank, they give you a good view of how hard will it be to rank for a keyword. Besides, keeping these stats in check is the whole point of keyword research.

To get started, think of a broad keyword that is relevant to your niche and topic. Type the keyword in Ahref’s Keyword Explorer or any other keyword finder. If you already have a keyword in mind, search the keyword and look for better alternatives. It is a good practice to find the most suitable keyword for your content.

Following are some stats that can define whether a keyword is optimal or not:

• Search Volume: Keyword search volume refers to the number of searches a keyword gets per month. Higher search volume means more traffic if you rank on top. Aim for a high search volume keyword.
• Keyword Difficulty: Keyword difficulty of a keyword is the measure of how difficult it is to rank for that keyword. A keyword with low difficulty is SEO-friendly especially if your site is new.
• Keyword Intent: Keyword intent is the most important aspect of SEO. The intent of a keyword refers to “why” that specific keyword is being searched online. Is the person looking for information? Or are they looking to buy a product online? It all boils down to the intent behind the keyword.
• Google Trend: The keyword trend is the popularity of search queries on Google. It gives you more information about a keyword such as how trendy a keyword is. You can compare different keywords and learn which one is trendier.

Remember, your keyword shapes the rest of your content so ensure your keyword research is not dry.

Understand your Audience

The next step to writing SEO-effective content involves understanding your audience. Google aims to provide its users with the most relevant content. And that is done by understanding what and why a person is searching for something.

That’s why covering keyword intent is so important. If you don’t know what your audience is looking for, you cannot rank. To check the intent of a query, just Google the required keyword and the results will show what the user is most likely searching for.

For example, if I search for “video games” on Google, it shows me a list of video game products that I can buy. That means most people who are Googling “video games” are looking forward to buy video games online.

However, when I search the term “new video games,” I am given a list of the lastest video games that were released, which means people who are Googling the term “new video games” are most likely searching for information and not necessarily for buying video games. The two terms bring completely different results.

That is how you can understand what your audience is searching for. Creating content that is most relevant to your audience will increase your chances of getting ranked high on SERP.

Avoid Dull Writing

Boring and repetitive content written solely for the sake of gaining traffic is not the way. Google has set its algorithms to promote content that brings new information and value to its users.

If you want to write unique content that makes a difference, you need to go all in. Unique content means covering everything your audience needs to know plus adding additional value to the content so that your audience feels valued and well-thought-of.

Here are some practical tips to avoid writing dull content:

1. Research your topic: Extensively research your topic to make sure you know everything you need in the content.
2. Brainstorm ideas: Brainstorm how you can improve your content. See how your competitors are doing.
3. Avoid copy/pasting: Just be original. You don’t have to copy/paste content as it is not professional. Try using a rephraser.
4. Site your sources: Site all the sources whenever it is possible. It shows that you’ve done your research thoroughly and leaves a good impression on the readers.
5. Rephrase your content: Use Rephraser.co to rephrase your content. It is a free paraphraser that can help you rephrase your content if you face writer’s block. This sentence rephraser can help you keep your content original and unique.
6. Express your expertise: Sometimes expertise is all that is needed to make content unique and this is what truly makes a difference. Communicate your expertise and express your opinions that are backed by evidence and experience. It will help you establish topical authority and rank high.

Remember, content is king. A good piece of content can even take weeks to get ready so there is no need to rush.

Write Attractive Titles & Meta Descriptions

Now, imagine if, despite all the effort you put into your content, users still may not want to click on your content because it looks unattractive from the outside. How unpleasant!

This is where you need to come up with a compelling title and a meta description for our content because that’s the first thing a user sees. A good meta title and description will translate into clicks when your content starts to rank.

A good title can drive clicks even if you are somewhat lower on the ladder so that makes a big difference.

Meta Titles

Here are a few tips for writing better titles:

1. Keep it short and simple: Fancy words are not necessary–write a title that is easily read and understood. A good practice when writing titles is to keep them as short as possible.
2. Make it descriptive: Your title and meta description should be able to describe what is within the content.
3. Avoid click-baits: Click-baiting can ruin your SEO efforts. Avoid click-baiting or it can increase your bounce rate and lead to lower rankings.
4. Use your primary keyword: Try using your primary keyword in the title. Users will feel compelled to click on the title if they think you have what they are looking for.
5. Use paraphrasing tools for titles: Running out of ideas is not uncommon. Paraphrase tool such as Paraphrasetool.ai can help you combat a lack of ideas. This free paraphrasing tool can help you write attractive titles with less effort, in less time. Using a tool such as ChatGPT can also get the job done.

Meta Descriptions

Here are a few tips for writing better meta descriptions:

1. Cap at 160 characters: Meta descriptions are mostly trimmed after 160 characters by Google. So capping your descriptions at 160 characters can help you utilize the limited space to get your audience’s attention.
2. Make it descriptive: Write a descriptive meta description that clarifies what your content is about.
3. Avoid click-baits: Again, click-baits are risky. It will negatively impact your ranking.
4. Avoid passive voice: Using active voice in your meta descriptions can help you better establish a relationship with your potential customers. Addressing them in your meta description can leave a positive impression on their minds.
5. Use paraphrasing tools for meta descriptions: An AI paraphrasing tool like Paraphrasetool.ai can help you write compelling meta descriptions if you face writer’s block. It’ll save you time and effort.
6. Utilize your keywords: Meta descriptions make good opportunities to optimize your content for search engines. Utilize your targeted keywords in meta descriptions but remember to keep it natural.

Add Links

Adding external and internal links to your content is still a good SEO practice. When you link to sites or pages that may be important for the user, it helps in enhancing user experience.

Adding links also helps Google better understand what your piece of content is which is considered healthy for your site’s SEO. Linking can be done manually but there are tools out there such as Ahref’s Site Audit helps you find internal linking opportunities.

Your anchor text is also essential when it comes to linking. Using descriptive anchors is better than using generic anchors such as Click here or Website. Such anchors should be avoided if possible. Instead, this opportunity should be utilized to add a relevant keyword to your content.

Sometimes, you can run out of ideas for writing a line to add an anchor text. A good paraphrasing tool like Repraser.co can help you write a natural sentence to add your required text.

Just think of a line and the tool will help you rephrase it in different ways. You can also prompt ChatGPT to generate a sentence for your anchor text.

Take a Break & Seek Inspiration

Taking breaks is as important as researching and doing everything else. Inspiration is also vital in finding new ideas as well as creative ways to execute them. And what better time to seek inspiration than breaks? When you’re relaxed.

While working on projects for long periods of time, our minds can become numb to mistakes, making it difficult to make improvements. Taking a break helps you rewind and think outside of the box.

Remember, great things take time so if you are working on something important, taking your time to think things through is just a part of it. Working puts our minds in a state of struggle when we just want to get the job done. However, ideas often come to a mind that is relaxed and calm.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”

During your break, you need to stop working and relax completely. Try doing something like taking a stroll outside, cooking a meal, playing a video game or just taking a nap to help you relax.

Review & Publish your Content

The last step is to review your work. Simply focus on finding errors and fixing them. Review your work and look for corrections and improvements.

Note down the errors in a notebook so that you don’t miss anything and take your time to fix them. You will start to see the difference as you work through it.

Finally, publish your content.

Conclusion

Online business thrives with a strong online presence. Good online exposure is only possible through SEO-rich content that ranks well.

In this piece of content, we learned practical steps to create and optimize content that ranks.

It covers important SEO aspects from keyword research to publishing your content.

About the Author

Afrasiab Ahmad is a passionate writer specializing in crafting articles for online business marketers and users of SEO tools, with the aim of boosting their Google rankings. He consistently contributes articles on digital marketing, SEO techniques, and the latest trends in technology.