In a recent webinar, Jon Lightfoot, founder and CEO of Strategic SEO Solutions, remarked, “When we think about [SEO] success, we frequently think about ranking on the first page of Google.” “But there’s something more [essential] than being [at the top], which is ranking for the appropriate keywords.”
Keyword stuffing or overemphasizing keyword density will not help you rank for the topics your target audience is looking for. Quality content that people appreciate and search engines identify as authoritative is critical to success in this sector.
Here are three content tactics that Lightfoot recommends businesses use to help them achieve SEO success.
Identify User intent
“The intent behind the [user’s] search,” Lightfoot explained. “When it comes to your approach, there are four buckets to understand and nurture.”
He identified four areas of user intent, each of which refers to specific information or services that users are looking for. The following are the details:
Searchers who are looking for information, such as a response to an inquiry.
Users that are seeking a specific website.
Commercial: People who are looking for information about a product or service.
Transactional: People who are looking to buy things or services.
“How can we harness this and put it to good use for our businesses?” “The first step is to conduct keyword research,” he explained. “Understanding what people want to receive from these searches is at the heart of this, so you can generate material that serves them.”
When it comes to determining user intent from keyword data, it’s important to look at more than just volume. It necessitates a detailed examination of the types of material that those words and phrases produce in search results, as well as an understanding of what viewers expect from these searches.
Prioritize Content Quality, not Quantity
“Getting to the top of the search results is only half the game,” Lightfoot said. “Remaining there is the real battle.” You must be aware of content quality indicators.”
When studied collectively, metrics like bounce rate, time spent on the page, and the number of page views can provide marketers with a greater understanding of user behavior. They can show you how engaged your readers are with your material, indicating which sections need to be revised or removed entirely.
“It’s about [optimizing] qualitatively so that we can nurture the key metrics, and Google rewards us by keeping our positions,” Lightfoot explained.
Rather than focusing on churning out a large number of articles, marketers should focus on increasing the quality of the material they already have. This entails making the most crucial on-page elements as clear and user-friendly as feasible.
Here are some tips on how SEOs might increase the quality of content in a couple of these areas.
Use target keywords in the title element, with the most important terms at the top. Create them in the same way that competitors who are doing well in search do.
Heading tags: This element defines the body text of your page, so make it relevant to the information.
Internal linking: To encourage viewers to investigate relevant pages on your site, use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text.
Focus on E-A-T through external linking and Footnotes
“Building E-A-T expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – will come not only from what you say but also from the areas that can back what you’re saying,” Lightfoot added. “When you use external links to give users extra information, it shows that what you’re saying is backed up by other sources.”
“Linking to reputable sites demonstrates your worth and qualifications,” he noted.
Linking to trustworthy external sources demonstrates to readers that you took the time to create the greatest material possible, especially when that content is linked with relevant anchor text. But, more importantly, this procedure aids in the enhancement of your own content’s credentials.
Lightfoot also suggests including additional information in the form of footnotes, something many websites neglect to do. Incorporating these resources gives your stories more context and demonstrates that the material is from reliable sources.
“Footnotes are a terrific approach to strengthen your content while also establishing expertise, authoritativeness, and reliability,” he stated.