How You Can Craft High-Ranking Content

By KeeverSEO Team

3 August 2023 . 2 min read

Share this post

Request a Free Consultation

Subscribe to receive the latest blog posts to your inbox every week.

Introduction

All highly-ranked sites include content that’s easy to read and relevant to popular search terms. It’s an essential element of any copywriting strategy. Even if you’re an experienced writer, you’ll need to change your approach when crafting online content. You don’t just need to create content that readers enjoy. You’ll also need to keep search engines in mind.

How to Write content for Search Engine

The purpose of any search engine is to deliver relevant and accurate results to users. If someone enters a search phrase like “healthy soup recipes,” search engines will aim to provide them with links to content that is genuinely useful to the searcher. Search engines work to connect users to links that are directly related to their search terms as well as links to high-quality sites.

Search engines utilize automated programs and scripts to crawl web content and find sites to link to. Search engines use algorithms to analyze sites and determine where they should be ranked. If you want to appear near the top of search results for popular search terms, you need to consider what search engines are looking for.

Search Engines Want Sites to Have:

Keyword density between 3 and 5 percent
Proper punctuation and grammar. Consider using Grammarly to check your content
In-depth information and high-quality content
Original content that’s well organized and simple to categorize
Pages that are focused on a specific topic
Many pages that are frequently updated
An appropriate word count. If you look at the top-ranking pages for the keyword you’re targeting, you’ll see that many of them have a higher word count. Generally, between 800 and 1,500 words for each page is best.

Writing with Users In Mind

You can find countless pages filled with information online. Although users are looking for information, they don’t want just any content. They want to find high-quality, accurate content that provides the information that they’re searching for. In addition, users want that information to be easy to find. Most users won’t scroll through ten pages of content to find what they’re looking for. Instead, they’ll click on one of the top search results. If a page targets a keyword but doesn’t provide information that’s related to that keyword, most users will quickly click away from the page. This can increase a site’s bounce rate.

Your goal should be to craft relevant content that has real value to users. You should choose the right keywords and use those keywords naturally throughout your content. Think about what someone that enters those keywords is looking for. Create content that meets the needs of those users.

It’s important to remember that fewer than 16% of users will read a full page of content. In most cases, readers will scan through the page to find the information they need. When someone visits your site, you’ll have a limited amount of time to catch their attention. That’s why you should keep these things in mind.

Most internet users want:

Short paragraphs that are separated by white space
Attention-grabbing headings that provide useful information
Writing that’s easy to understand
Bulleted lists
Links to other relevant content
The most relevant information at the top of a page

If you’re able to create balanced content that appeals to both real users and search engines, you can rank highly for valuable search terms. This will allow you to connect with users and convert traffic into sales.

What Does High-Quality Content Need?

The best content is relevant to the keywords a user is searching for. It’s important to craft content that has real value. It’s best to keep these rules in mind when creating written content.

Ideally, pages should have somewhere between 800 and 1,500 words. If a page has less content than that, it may not seem authoritative. Long pages tend to perform better in search results than short pages do. You should keep in mind that there are many aspects that are taken into consideration when search engines decide how to rank content. It’s important to maintain keyword density, especially when there are a lot of words on a page.

It’s also essential to highlight your chosen keywords. You should place the keywords you’re targeting in an H1 tag. You should also use that keyword in the first paragraph or even the first sentence of your content. Bolding or italicizing the keyword is a way to demonstrate its importance. It’s a way to showcase the importance of your keyword phrase.

To increase the page authority, try incorporating natural keyword usage while maintaining an optimal keyword density of 3 to 5% per page. This percentage reflects how much of the text is occupied by your keyword. Keeping your keyword density below 5% ensures that your content sounds natural, which is essential for user experience and search rankings. If your density falls below 3%, your page may not demonstrate authoritative coverage of the keyword phrase. Aim to use the targeted keywords once in each paragraph. Read your content out loud; if it sounds awkward, your keyword density may be too high, potentially affecting both user engagement and page authority.

The content that you write should be fully relevant to the keywords you’ve chosen and the visitors engaging with your content. If you write content that has a lot of filler, it won’t deliver any value to the people that visit your site. While quickly-written filler content could bring you traffic in the short term, it won’t lead to long-term success.

Make sure that your content is appropriately structured. When your text is properly organized, it’s easier for users to read and search engines to scan. Visitors to your site should be able to find the information they’re seeking quickly. Search engines can get a better understanding of the well-organized text and identify the goal of the page. Clear and well-organized content will have higher search engine rankings. How can you properly structure your content? Make sure that you use your keyword phrase in your first paragraph. Quickly explain what the page is focused on. Write short sentences, and try to keep your paragraphs short as well. Divide up your content with headings. That way, users can quickly scan your content to find the information they’re interested in.

Never try to optimize your content for more than 5 keywords. If you target more keywords than that, you won’t be able to properly optimize your page or craft valuable content. Instead, target between 3 and five keywords. Keep the scope of your pages narrow to ensure that the content is as relevant as possible.

Ideally, you should use your main keyword in your first sentence. If that’s not possible, you should try to use it in your first paragraph. By using your targeted keyword early on, you can make that keyword more prominent to search engines and readers.

Crafting completely original content is essential for improving your site’s SEO performance. Duplicating content from other sites or even different pages within your own site can harm your rankings. Search engines value unique and valuable content, so every page should be at least 30 to 40% unique. Simply swapping out keywords on identical text across multiple pages may lead to penalties for duplicate content. In some cases, search engines might even ignore those pages entirely, lowering your visibility.

For example, let’s say you are working on SEO for Nonprofits. Instead of copying content from a generic “SEO for small businesses” guide and replacing “small businesses” with “nonprofits,” you should focus on unique strategies specifically for nonprofit organizations. This way, the content is valuable to your audience and more likely to rank well.

Original content not only helps your site avoid penalties but also ensures a better experience for your users, leading to higher engagement and conversions.

When you write online content, you need to keep both users and search engines in mind. If you write filler content that’s stuffed with keywords, it could have high rankings in the short term. However, it won’t make a positive impact on visitors, and the traffic your content brings in won’t be valuable to you or your users. Instead, you should aim to create content that users will benefit from. If you offer something of real value, it will pay off in a big way.

Essential Guidelines for SEO Content

Write Around a Keyword: When you create new content for a page, that content should be built around the keyword or keyword phrases you’re targeting. If your content touches on a theme that’s not related to your keywords, it’s best to create a new page that’s centered around that topic.

Watch Your Word Count: Every page on your site should have 500 words at a minimum. You can include as many as 1,500 words per page. If your pages contain fewer than 500 words, search engines won’t see the page as authoritative. It’s okay to pack a page with more content, but you’ll want to make sure you pay attention to your keyword density. If you’re writing more, you’ll need to use your keyword phrases more frequently.

Maintain the Right Keyword Density: The density for the primary keyword you’re targeted should be between 3 and 5%.

Any additional keywords you’re targeting should appear on the page at least one time. You can use the keyword more frequently than that if you can do so in a natural way, but you should never go over 5% KWD.

How can you calculate the KWD of a page? Just divide the number of times you’ve used a keyword phrase by the number of words on a page. When calculating density, you should look at each keyword seperately.

As an example, imagine that you were creating a page that had “Miami coffee” as its primary keyword. The page has 1000 words, and you’ve used the keyword phrase 20 times. To calculate the KWD, you can use this formula:

(2 x 20) ÷ 1000 = .04. That means you’d have a suitable keyword density of 4%.

If you’re using additional keywords on the page, you’ll need to calculate the keyword density of those phrases as well. Let’s assume that your page is also using the keyword “Twin Cities coffee shop” 3 times. You can calculate the keyword density with this formula:

(3×3) ÷ 1,000 = .009. You’d have a keyword density of less than 1%.

Structuring Your Content: When you’re building a page, you should start by creating a title. Your title should include your primary keyword. This not only helps with SEO but also makes your page more attractive to other sites that might link to it. A well-organized and focused page of content is more likely to attract high-quality backlinks, which are crucial for effective link building. Remember, the more relevant and authoritative the content, the more likely it is to earn valuable links from other domains.

Your primary keyword should also appear in your primary heading (H1).

In your first paragraph, you should focus on the topic that the page will be covering. Consider the message you want to convey to search engines and visitors. Use your primary keyword in the initial paragraph.

In your subheadings (H2), you’ll want to use your supporting keywords. With subheadings, it’s easier for users and search engines to scan through the page and find the content that they’re looking for. Group paragraphs that cover a specific theme under a subheading.

Try to put the most important information at the start of each paragraph. These sentences may appear in rich snippets, which means they’ll get more attention from Google and users. Try to include your keyword phrases in the first sentence whenever you can.

Avoid Large Words: There’s no need to show off your vocabulary when you’re writing SEO content. Instead, you should craft content that’s easy to read. Try to use short sentences and words that consist of two syllables or fewer when possible. You should aim for a Flesch reading ease score of at least 60.

Include Questions In Your Content: Try to predict some of the questions that users might be asking when they search for your keyword phrase. Use those questions as your header or subheader.

Start by providing a basic answer to that question, and then expand on that in the sentences that follow.

End With a Call to Action: When you’re wrapping up your content, you should use some sort of call to action. You could encourage visitors to contact you at a specific phone number or link to your contact form. Think about what you want readers to do when they get to the end of your page. Come up with a phrase that will direct them towards that action.

Proofread Your Content: It’s impossible to overemphasize the importance of proper spelling and grammar. You can’t just count on spell check to catch your mistakes. You’ll have to read over your content to make sure that everything is right. Simple mistakes, like mixing up “your” and “you are,” are easy to make, and they can reflect poorly on your content. When possible, you should look over your content with fresh eyes. This will make it easier for you to spot any errors.