Over 3.5 billion Google searches are made every day. Studies have shown that over 50% of searchers click on the top three search results, while less than 25% make it past the first page. That’s why it’s more important than ever to make sure your website is optimized with top-notch SEO writing.
Google uses an AI algorithm called RankBrain to prioritize websites that provide value to searchers. RankBrain analyzes user experience signals like click-thru-rate (CTR), dwell time, bounce rate and pogo-sticking to help determine which websites successfully answer a query.
In order to create content that your readers value, you need to know exactly what they’re searching for. Here’s our guide to creating Google-friendly content that’s tailor-made for the top of the SERPs.
Understand your target audience.
The first step to creating quality content is understanding what your audience actually wants. You need to get inside your potential customers’ heads and figure out what they’re searching for. A simple and effective way to do this is by creating a customer profile or persona.
Write down everything you know about your typical customer, including their gender, age, location, approximate income, likes, dislikes, and pain points. Use this information to zero-in on what problems your target audience faces on a daily basis.
Once you’ve identified these problems, create a list of keywords your target audience might use when searching for solutions. Split your list into three categories: short, medium and long tail.
Short-tail keywords are usually single-word keywords, like “guitar” or “Apple” or “marketing”. They often have the highest search volume, but they also have the most competition, making it difficult to increase your SERP rankings.
Medium-tail keywords are 2-3 word phrases, like “guitar repair,” or “Apple laptop,” or “marketing agency”. Although they have a lower search volume, these terms tend to be more effective at attracting customers in your target audience than short tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords are perhaps the most important element of today’s SEO writing. According to a recent study, over 50% of all Google searches are four words or longer. Long tail keywords are hyper-specific, like “vintage guitar repair shop in Chicago,” or “Apple laptop customer support,” or “music industry marketing agency”.
While long-tail keywords typically only get around 100-1000 searches per month, they’re great at connecting searchers with valuable content. When used correctly, long tail keywords can be very effective at increasing Google rankings.
Now that you’ve got a list of potential terms, it’s time to put them to the test with some SEO research tools.
Research effective keywords.
Studies show that keyword research is one of the most effective SEO activities. The right keywords can help your content climb to the top of the SERPs. Thankfully, there’s an array of powerful keyword research tools to help you determine the best keywords to improve your Google ranking.
Google Trends ranks the popularity of top search queries based on time and location. Google Trends also generates a list of related topics and search queries, which can be an excellent source for additional keywords.
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool from Google Ads that generates search terms based on keywords, phrases or URLS. In addition to the quantity of average monthly searches, Keyword Planner also provides detailed information on how competitive the ad market is for each term.
You may find that the suggestions from Google are rather limited, as they tend to stick closely to the source keywords. For a broader range of terms, try using Keyworddit, which scrapes Reddit for the most common keywords used in related subreddits.
Question-scraping tools like QuestionDB provide a list of commonly asked questions based on your keywords. This is a great way for identifying what problems your target audience is trying to solve.
Using these methods, you can use SEO writing to tailor your content and give your customers exactly what they want, ensuring better SERP rankings, increased web traffic, and more sales.
Need help increasing your company, brand or website’s Google ranking? Amplify can help! Get in touch with us today.
