Content Writing Guide
Content is key when it comes to making your website visible in search engines. The structure of your content, as well as the strategic use of keywords, are essential components in helping your site rank. This guide outlines key tips in creating the best written content for your website.
Understanding Your User
When writing content, it is important to keep in mind the intention of the user reading your page. When browsing a website, users usually fall into one of three buying phases.
- Phase one is in the awareness phase when a user is doing research and collecting information.
(Example: What is a dog?) - The second phase is the consideration phase when a user is seeking specific details to solidify their decision.
(Example: What are the most popular dog breeds?) - The third phase is the decision phase when a user is informed and ready to convert.
(Example: Where can I find dogs to purchase?)
It’s necessary to provide enough information for every user to access during each of the buying phases. Don’t simply just list facts and generic information about a service, but rather organize your content in a way that informs your reader on your company specifically and the benefits you have to offer compared to your competition. Don’t write a textbook but rather make your content personable and speak directly to your customer. Below we’ve laid out a three section model that is ideal for content organization. Each section should contain 150-300 words.
Service Introduction
Your first section of content should give a brief overview of your service. Describe what type of service it is and how the service is performed. Talk about the advantages your company offers over your competitors.
Service Details
The next section should offer more specific details about your service. Discuss why your clients would be seeking this service. For example, if you’re a chiropractor describe what symptoms your client may be experiencing. If you’re a barbeque restaurant, talk about different event scenarios that would benefit from your catering service. Outline a problem or opportunity, then offer a solution through your services. Describe in detail how the service is performed and what your client can expect.
Service Overview
Wrap up your information by describing the benefits of your service and how it can best serve your client. Answer frequently asked questions or offer details on expected results. Perhaps include testimonials or reviews of your service. Offering incentives or special deals to encourage booking a service are also recommended.
Target Keywords
Your target keyword is the primary subject you want to be visible for in search engines such as “Massage” or “Catering”. It is vital to have your target keyword appear in the page title and within the first 150 words of your content.
Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market’s keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole.
It’s not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking.
- Scan top industry blogs for category keywords
- Notice that they’ve got a few primary categories and subcategories
- On top of that, most sites will have a popular section that outlines their most popular content
- Check for top content on BuzzSumo
- Explore your own content ideas on Google
- The “People also ask” box is great for getting even deeper ideas than your general topic.
- “Searches Related to” at bottom of SERP
LSI Keywords
LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) or long-tail keywords are similar phrases relating to your target keyword when a user searches a specific term, like the “Searches related…” section at the bottom of a Google page. Utilizing the use of LSI keywords can help supplement relevant traffic to your site. There are several resources online that can help in identifying useful LSI keywords, our favorite is www.LSIgraph.com. It’s free & easy to use, simply enter your target keyword and the generator will populate LSI keywords. See the example below:
Search term: Prenatal Chiropractor
- chiropractor during pregnancy first trimester
- pregnancy chiropractic webster technique
- chiropractor pregnancy sciatica
- chiropractor pregnancy pelvic pain
- chiropractor for sensory processing disorder
- dangers of chiropractic care during pregnancy
- how often should I go to the chiropractor while pregnant
- chiropractic pregnancy risks
LSI keywords offer helpful insight as to what users are searching for when seeking a prenatal chiropractor. The results can help you curate your content to be more relevant to the most popular information searched and guide the direction of your content to include specific keywords that will help make your site more visible in Google searches.
Important considerations:
- Use LSI keywords naturally in the content. If you picked the right LSI keywords, it should be easy to weave them into your content because they relate to your topic. A good strategy is to write your post as you would normally, and then go back through and replace synonyms with LSI keywords.
- Don’t keyword stuff. Don’t overuse LSI keywords or stuff them in places where they don’t belong. Keyword stuffing can actually have a negative SEO impact on your post. Only use each LSI keyword once or twice as they fit naturally.
- Stick to the main topic. The point of LSI keywords is to provide additional context to a page so search engines can better recognize the topic. Don’t try to squeeze in unrelated but high-performing keywords by adding sections of text that don’t relate to the main topic.
Geo-Modifiers
Integrating the use of geo-modifiers in your content can be useful for ranking better in local searches. Even though it may be obvious to users where you are located from one look at your page, it is still wise to plug-in location indicators throughout you content to help search engines understand how your services are relevant locally. For example, this is a description that would appear for a Swedish massage service:
Original-
“Our most popular massage, if it’s your first time at our spa or you don’t get massages often, this massage is the best place to start”
SEO Modified-
“Our most popular massage at our Denver studio. If it’s your first time at our spa in Sunnyside or you don’t get massages often, our affordable Swedish massage is the best place to start”
Plugging in the city where your service is located (Denver) and even specific neighborhood information (Sunnyside) can help you rank locally for those places. Make sure to include your target keyword (Swedish massage) while using common search words like “affordable” and LSI keywords. Integrating these different content indicators together will make your site the perfect combination for a user searching “affordable massage Denver”.
Curated Content Writing
If you’re struggling writing your content or if you simply don’t have the time, Rounded Digital offers customized content writing. Price varies on volume of work, contact us today for a quote.