SEO Content is Crucial for High Page Rankings

SEO Content is Crucial for High Page Rankings

Without the regular addition of unique, fresh, search engine optimised (SEO) content, your website is unlikely to perform well and certainly won’t bring you the traffic and conversions you would like.

Beautiful website design, great UX, proficient and secure web development and a digital marketing strategy that will provide high ROI are all crucial to website effectiveness, but at BORN Thinking we know and understand the benefits of SEO content creation.

Power to your content

Adding content to your website isn’t merely about word counts and high frequency, it’s about making sure your pages, and subsequently your website, are ranked highly by the search engines. The only way to do this is to focus your content on the following factors, all of which will help you achieve high page ranking:

Branding: Your main pages should focus solely on your brand, your key business model messages and creating opportunities for your target audience to achieve their aims, whether that’s making a purchase, making an enquiry or finding the answers to their questions. Whatever the type of page you are uploading, from home page to landing page, e-commerce product page to blog, the key elements of your brand should be clear on every page. If you dilute your brand message by using unrelated, general interest blogs or paid-for content which is used on thousands of other similar sites, you risk damaging your page rank. Your users might not realise that the content’s not unique, but the search engines certainly will.

Keywords: Knowing what keywords people are searching for is fundamental for effective page ranking and search results need to engage us from the moment they’re returned. – even the meta description can be make or break for a user when deciding whether or not to visit your page. Keywords, keyword phrases and the on-page linking of keywords is therefore crucially important, not only for the visitors but also for the search engines, as it is the use of keywords throughout your site that will determine whether your page ranks highly enough to appear on the first page of results (because let’s face it, when you’re scouring the search returns how often do you go onto the second page of results).

Readability: Most writers (and especially non-writers) like to show off their flare with language. However, simplicity is often key for website content. If your content is passive it will not engage your readers, if it is too convoluted or full of jargon, it will be impenetrable. Making sure you keep the language straightforward is the best place to start if you want to appeal to visitors and search engines alike. Use a really strong H1 (main title) – again, don’t get too clever or visitors won’t know what they’ve landed on – and use short paragraphs interspersed with really useful (H2s and H3s) sub-headings to help the readability.

Tone: Obviously some content will need to be more serious than others, so tone is an important factor to consider. However, even the most solemn of subjects should be approached in a way that makes the content interesting and readable. Be careful not to patronise your audience (if that’s not too patronising in itself) and an active voice goes a long way in keeping the audience engaged and keeping the content relevant.

Know your audience’s limitations: A common mistake made by website owners is to publish content full of jargon and technicality. Yes, your target audience will expect you to be skilled and knowledgeable and it’s important that your content shows you know what you’re talking about, but you will need to impart your knowledge without including language and concepts that the layperson will get lost in. Unless you are writing exclusively for your peers, it’s best to keep asking yourself whether a 14-year-old would be able to understand what you are writing (this is a fairly arbitrary age choice, but in this day and age, 14-year-olds are very sophisticated in their understanding of web-based media). If your reader can’t comprehend the meaning and purpose behind your content, you have probably failed to make it suitable for a good ranking.

Know the value of your pages: Sometimes it’s tempting to create a website that has very few main pages and then to put all other content into blogs and news feeds to keep it simple. However, your user (and the search engines) will want to be able to find everything they need quickly and easily once they’re on your site. Making sure your most valuable pages are prominent and in well-ordered menus and navigation bars is key. Whenever you create a page about something really important to your business, product or service, make sure you link to it from other relevant pages or it could get lost and its value won’t be recognised by the search engines.

Mix your media: Writers usually think that words are the most important element for imparting a message, designers think it’s the look and feel of the website that hooks the user, and the techies believe it’s the UX and web development that are most important. Well, (and I’m a writer) effective content that is likely to rank highly is a combination of all three. The clue is in the word – ‘content’ – because effective content means a mix of text, videos, images, graphics, banners, and even the linking.

Call to action: BORN Thinking can help you develop your content to include effective calls to action. This may include clickable buttons, online enquiry forms, and even plain old CTA text to help you garner sign ups, subscriptions, enquiries, phone calls, and sales. Give us a call today on 01243 786728 to find out how we can help you improve and implement effective call to actions. Or why not fill in our quick enquiry form (see what we did there.) Giving your visitor clear opportunities to complete their goals is another important factor in SEO; make sure they can see how to contact you and/or how to purchase your products and services, keep the CTA language tight and engaging, and your content will be effective.

The best ranking opportunities start with SEO

By publishing website content which focuses on the above, you create the best opportunities for the search engines to find and rank it highly. In turn, once the users land on your page, your well-crafted SEO content will work hard for you in increasing your conversions.

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