Every day, businesses publish articles, blogs, videos and podcasts to connect with their target audience, but don’t get the expected customer traction. That is because they often end up producing lackluster content that goes unnoticed. For instance, we have always wondered why our competitors ranked higher, even if the quality of the content wasn’t that different. So, a lot of research, along with testing of our content, helped us in deriving strategies to perform better than other players in the industry. Using those strategies, we have created a step-by-step guide that you can follow to create exhaustive, in-depth content that will rank ahead of your competitors. Read on. Understand the intent behind a search query Before starting to churn out content, understand what your target audience actually needs. That means, understand the intention behind a searcher’s query. Usually it can be informational, navigational, transactional or commercial in nature. A query broadly depends on the searcher’s purpose and background. For example, if the query is “best practices for job application”, some of the searchers might be candidates and some might be employers. Hence, you might have to craft your content in different ways to suit the needs of different segments of your audience. Also Read: Google Search Quality Raters Say About High-Quality Pages and Content Study the competitors Visit Uber suggest by Neil Patel to track the SEO strategies that your competitors are using. Enter the URL on the homepage to get details on SEO keywords and top SEO pages. By clicking on the “Backlinks” link on the left sidebar, get the information of the sites that are linking to your competition’s URL. Use this information to list down the sites for back linking. Increase your domain authority Create multiple content pieces that are well-researched and unique–with a length of 1,000 words or more. Once in a while, you can add extremely lengthy pieces that are longer than 2,500 words. Another way to increase your domain authority is by linking the web pages and blogs of your website to each other. The search engine prefers a strongly interlinked website. Embed videos and images in your content Did you know that 90% of any information that is understood by the brain is visual in nature? So, instead of restricting yourself to written content, embed infographics, videos or SlideShare presentations in your blog posts. You can also include screenshots to explain a particular point in your post. The readers tend to share the content more when they find it more interactive. Moreover, brand awareness and recall is always greater in case of visual content. Also Read: Why Great Brand Stories Need to Add Videos? Write catchy and unique headlines To write headlines that captivate users, perform a Google search using your keyword. Note down the first five results that appear on the search page. Tweak each headline by giving a new twist to it. For example, if you Google the phrase “Content Writing Tips,” the first result will be “9 Tips to Become the Best Content Creator in Your Industry.” Make it unique and catchy by writing something like “11 Surefire tips to Amp up Your Content Creation.” Another method is to search keyword phrases on BuzzSumo. Modify the headlines that appear on the result page to make them unique. Write your content conversationally When presenting information in your blog post, back it up with your opinion. Record yourself while talking about your topic and listen to the recording. If you feel that it sounds unnatural, start the writing and recording process again. While writing, pretend that you are explaining your topic to a friend or a family member. Read a lot of materials related to your topic using online articles, books, magazines, and online guides. Doing so will allow you to get more ideas and help you to go through different writing styles. Include a call-to-action A call-to-action is an invitation you give to your readers to take action. If you are creating a series of blogs, you can provide a link to the next or previous blog. If you finish your post with a question, ask the readers to share answers or suggestions in the comments section. You can also ask your readers to learn more by subscribing to your newsletters. If you are selling a product/service, ask them to click the buy button. Make your site faster Compress the file size of your images to speed up your site. Take the help of sites like Compressor.io to compress images without any technical support. Streamline your code by removing unnecessary and redundant elements. Visit codebeautify.org to use tools that minify codes of HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other programming languages. The plugins like Better WordPress Minify also streamline your code if you have developed a site using WordPress. Also Read: 10 Things you must know Before Building a Website To conclude Using this guide, you will not only perform better than your competitors, but can also establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. With time, the above tips will help you get more traffic and conversions with smart content.
