Writing seems like hard work. And it gets even more difficult when you enforce keyword integration intelligently without breaking the flow and ensuring no spam based on Google updates. Yes, we are talking about SEO content writing here.
SEO articles have different word limits. From 90 words to 5,000+ words, you can easily find descriptions, articles, blogs, white papers, case studies, web pages, etc., all over the web. Of all the types of SEO content mentioned above, the most difficult to create is large content. Content that exceeds the 5,000 word threshold. But such in-depth articles, when written intelligently, can help dominate the SERPs.
In this article, we are going to talk about how to write these types of articles with absolute competence.
First, because?
You must be thinking that in this day and age where everything is short and fast, who goes for long and boring? Good deal. People of this generation may be flash fans, but they are hungry for knowledge. So when the TG (Target Group) is ready to read the information, most business targets are sorted by default. Some more reasons are listed below:
· Best Ranking: The longer the better. This has been proven times and often by multiple studies. A study by serpIQ conducted in the year 2012 showed that search engines were displaying content that crossed the top 2000 words. Another recent study from Backlinko and HubSpot showed that shorter pieces of content were outperformed by longer ones. If we put the studies aside and take into account your personal experiences, you will also have found that for any keyword that is in high competition, the search engines always come back with a long and very informative article.
Advice: Do not limit. Just provide complete information regardless of the number of words.
· Better Sharing: Longer pieces of content tend to get more shares and this fact is proven by the data collected by BuzzSumo.
Advice: You also know the importance of sharing. So just don’t shy away from long articles.
· High relevance: When it comes to factors that Google considers when ranking a website, the list includes content quality, page engagement, backlinks, etc. But only a few people know that the relevance of a topic also plays an important role in impressing Google. After the Hummingbird update, Google has a better idea of whether a search is a question or a topic. For example, “Actor Thor’s real name” is a question and you don’t need to return with detailed information about Chris Hemsworth. But on the other hand, a question like “advice on web content writing” demands a lengthy piece of information as it is a topic. According to research by MarketMuse, it was concluded that detailed content is considered relevant to the topic and therefore ranks higher compared to shorter content for multiple keywords.
Advice: Choose a topic and your keywords wisely.
· Easy conversion: Conversion in this case involves capturing leads. One of the best tricks to attract potential customers is content updates, which are video tutorials or downloadable PDF files. Such updates can only be offered with long posts, as short posts will not have enough information.
Advice: It’s pretty simple; GREAT CONTENT is the key to content marketing strategy.
Second, how?
Since you now know that bigger is better, let us show you how to create great content.
In addition to a lot of research, here are certain things that can help without fail.
· Step 1 – Choose the best keywords: Since great content demands time and money, you’ll want to target keywords only where their ROI is highest. Therefore, your focus should be on mid-tail and wide keywords or those that strike the balance between competition, traffic, and business goals. To do that, you will have to consider these 3 things:
Oh Search Volume: It’s important because it has a direct effect on the number of actual customers you can get. Furthermore, it is also useful for establishing a standard traffic volume that will generate a high ROI within a specified time frame. AdWords Keyword Planner can be a great help when you want to find search volume.
Oh Competition strength: The success of your great content also largely depends on the quality of your competitors’ content. The reason some keywords are easy to rank for is simply because your competitors’ content isn’t up to scratch or the domain isn’t strong enough. In such a scenario, you should start by analyzing the first 10 results for your specific keywords. You can take the help of any SEO tool to get the statistics. It’s pretty hard to beat the top 3 finishers, but it can be done if your content is right. In addition to this objective analysis, you can collect some samples of the articles written by your competitors and compare them with yours. You need to make sure that your content is well-formatted, detailed, image-oriented, strongly headed, and SEO-optimized.
Oh Business objectives: In the end, it becomes extremely essential to ensure that the content leads to the fulfillment of business objectives. This can happen if you find out the journey of your prospects and the keywords they enter. Accordingly, you will be able to set the business objectives of the selected keywords. Below are the different types of keywords used by customers at different levels of their journey:
Oh Decision level: If you’re looking for conversion, try targeting keywords with buy, buy, purchase, discount, coupon code, deal, etc. When a customer uses such keywords, it implies that they are at the decision level and are looking for discounts before buying. Another set of decision level keywords has review, comparison, v/s, etc. Such customers are aware of the solutions and just want to confirm that they are making the right choice. They can be easily converted if the ad copy is compelling. The problem with these types of keywords is that their search volume is quite low and it becomes difficult to create long content with them.
Oh Consideration level: Keywords used at that level have the desired balance between search volume and business goals. These include words like affordable, cheap, better, superior, etc. These customers have a high chance of conversion when these words are used with a specific product, service, or category.
Oh Conscience level: Keywords at this level have a high search volume but a low level of meeting business objectives. These will include words like what, how, why, etc. For companies that have a strong sales funnel, these keywords are great targets for creating meaningful content. If you are planning to capture leads or are selling something big, you should target those keywords as they have lower completion and ranking for them becomes easier.
By following this step, you can get the keyword cream that will be best for creating lengthy content. The second step is to select the correct format to facilitate the creation of content.
· Step 2 – Choose the best format: Once you’ve zeroed in on the keyword, you’ll need to choose the correct format that you want your content in. You can have it in the form of a list, infographic, guide, tips and tricks or a thought piece. Lists are easier to write and are also recommended because they allow you to integrate various keywords and also focus on them. In a list, you can use different keywords as a subheading. Another advantage of choosing the list form is that the flow and structure of the article is maintained.
· Step 3: Choose a scheme: After selecting the format, the next step is to create a quality assurance scheme. This is how you can do it.
o Define the general sections
o Divide into subsections
or Expand subsection
o Hyperlink to data/research sources, if any
or add examples
The last two points are quite important as they raise the value of the content.
Step 4: Hire professional writers: The last step would be to hire professional SEO content writers. Let’s face it, no matter how much you surf the web for tips and tricks, you can’t match the experience that writers have. You should leave the work to the professionals for the best result.