In this article, I share my proven process of creating well-performing content for my website that you can easily replicate.
If you want to make a living writing, you most likely aim to achieve the following — to be in front of as many readers as possible.
Like other content creators, you come up with topic ideas, do some research, spend hours writing a piece that only experiences a so-called “spike of hope.” You are excited to see the rising views right after the content publication, but in a few days, they are gone. What do most writers do in this way? They start working on a new piece hoping for better luck.
If you believe your content deserves more views, but it does not happen for some reason, perhaps, the following stats will come you down:
Over 90% of all online content gets no views on Google, according to Ahrefs study. It’s a painful truth not many content creators know.
As a marketer, I admit creating searchable and insightful content is challenging. I experimented with different content formats and styles for years before I learned how to create content that hits Google’s front page.
Do this before you start writing.
Believe it or not, search engine bots are your first readers!
The Google bot crawls the web like a spider, looking for new content. Once the Google bot detects your article, it “reads” it (it’s called indexing), and only then your content becomes searchable.
If you want to create content people will discover over again, you’ll have to please search engines too. How to do it? By creating content that both readers and search engines bots can understand.
Keyword research can help you grasp whether people are interested in your topic. At the same time, on-page optimization will help you create articles that will hit Google’s front page.
First things first.
Do keyword research before you start writing to maximize your chances for successful performance. Here is how.
1. Come up with a topic. Any idea will work here.
2. Check your topic’s monthly volume and competition.
As a marketer, I use Ahrefs content writing tool for SEO for research. However, you can try the following alternatives:
Your keyword has the potential to rank well on Google if it has middle to low competition and at least 100 global monthly searches.
Here is how I did keyword research for one of my website’s pages. Nothing too complicated. Pick one tool and see what it will suggest to you.
3. Collect keywords related to your topic
The average length of Google’s first-page content is roughly 1447 words, according to Backlinko research.
If you want to hit Google’s front page, you have to know what’s already there. You need to spy on competitors!
Besides, remember that Google favors in-depth and easy-to-read content which answers users’ queries.
Below, you can find my keyword and competitor research example for the “Content marketing books” article.
Notice how many keywords I’ve collected? Thirty-five semantically related keywords were collected with the help of various tools.
Once you finish spying on competitors and doing keyword research, it’s time to do some magic with the help of on-page SEO.
These simple strategies will help you create optimized content and outperform competitors.
Cook Collective reaches thousands of people online with its single-page kitchen website.
An entire business can be built around one web page!
How does that website do it? The answer is — it has high visibility in search!
The following strategies can help you make your content searchable:
1. Optimized H1
Apart from a curiosity gap, there is at least one more reason to pay attention to your headlines, according to John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate::
“When it comes to text on a page, a heading is a really strong signal telling us (Google) this part of the page is about this topic.”
The headline is one of Google’s ranking signals. If Google gets what your page is about, it has the potential to rank higher. The sky is the limit when it comes to headlines creatives. However, make sure you avoid using headline phrases users are already fed up with.
2. Optimized meta title and description
Don’t confuse H1 (your article’s title) with a meta title. They serve different purposes.
H1 signals to readers they are in the right place and will soon read the content they came for.
The meta title is displayed on the search engine results page. You stumble upon hundreds of meta titles when you search for anything online. Like other online users, you click on the most relevant and catchy meta titles.
How to optimize meta title and description? It’s easy. Follow this tip, and your articles will always be in line with Google’s best practices:
Include your target keyword into the title, as close to the beginning as you can.
Add your target keyword and semantically related keywords into the meta description.
You can see my best-performing website article based on impressions below. The article is optimized for the “content marketing books” keyword. I use the “All in One” SEO plugin to customize meta titles and meta descriptions for WordPress websites.
3. Optimized introduction
Don’t underestimate the power of introductions.
The first paragraphs determine whether people will keep reading your article or skim and leave it right away.
Your introduction should not only be catchy for readers but also optimized for search engines to hit Google’s front page.
As a marketer, I use the following strategy that helps me optimize content at its best:
Include your target keyword and 2–5 semantically related keywords in your introduction section.
Highlight the keywords in the draft for better visibility.
Here is how I effectively optimized the introduction of my blog post.
4. Optimized sub-headlines H2, H3
Like H1, subheadlines help structure your content, improve the reading experience, and separate topics within an article.
By structuring your content, you help your readers find what they need quickly.
I use the following strategy to optimize sub-headlines:
Include 3 to 5 H2 sub-headlines in your long-form content.
Use H3 subheadlines inside the H2 paragraph. It helps to visualize the content hierarchy.
Use semantically related keywords in your sub-headlines.
Here is how I effectively optimized H2 and H3 titles in my blog post.
5. The body of your content
If you’ve read this far, you are determined to crush search engine results with your content!
Let me share one more tiny tip that will help you create well-optimized content.
I’ve collected 35 semantically related keywords for the “content marketing books” article, and I used all of them!
Google has a developed algorithm that understands the intent behind the keyword. Those who look for the best content marketing books will be happy to read books on copywriting, social media, blogging, and many others. These directions are part of content marketing. Therefore, they should be covered in the article.
Nowadays, an optimized content piece has nothing to do with how often you use your target keyword in the copy. Instead, it’s about creating an in-depth article that holistically covers the topic.
Don’t be afraid to include a dozen semantically related keywords in your content if you believe it will only make your article more helpful.
Be bold and keep experimenting. After all, SEO is about experiments, wins, failures, and learnings.
Final thoughts
No worries if you hear the strategies mentioned above for the first time.
So many bloggers disregard these simple truths that you will have a competitive advantage if you nail them.
I published over 200 blog posts on this platform and spent hours on weekends and weekdays writing without rest. I improved my writing skills and the speed of writing, but I also learned the following:
“You will significantly reduce your working hours and increase your output if you start writing for your readers.”
The good news: now you know that even one well-written and optimized piece can make a difference. What’s left for you — to act!
Interested in creating content people want to read? Grab my free guide “How to Discover Popular Topics For Any country In a Few Minutes.”