On-Page SEO: What Makes Great Content?

Content is at the center of SEO because search engines exist to deliver the most relevant, valuable, and high quality information. When you perform a search without great content, there's nothing for search engines to index rank or present to users.

At its very core, great content is helpful, reliable, and people. First, Google actually provides a great article on its developer site with lots of self-assessment questions to help you ensure your content is meeting the highest standards. You can check it out at the link below, but let's dive into the basic concepts to keep in mind.

Great content is people First. The key is to focus on creating content primarily for users, not for search engines. It should be engaging, informative, and valuable to the target audience.

Content should demonstrate both expertise and trustworthiness, including accurate. Well, research information and citing reputable sources regularly update your content to maintain its relevance and accuracy.

Great content has a clear purpose and focus. Each content piece should fulfill a user's needs, and you should avoid covering too many topics with no clear focus.

Content should also provide unique insights and perspectives and not be duplicated or rewritten from existing content without adding substantial new value.

User experience is also important. Content should be easy to read and navigate with clear headings, concise paragraphs, and visual aids to enhance understanding.

Great content addresses all aspects of the topic thoroughly and answers potential questions users might have about the subject matter.

Following SEO best practices like using relevant keywords naturally within the content, optimizing page elements and ensuring it's mobile friendly is also important to keep in mind.

And lastly, avoid manipulative practices at all costs. Great content does not use misleading or clickbait. Titles isn't keyword stuffed and doesn't promise something that it does not deliver.

I know this seems like a lot, but if there's anything to retain from all these guidelines, it's this first one here.

The importance of understanding the needs of your customers can't be overstated when you anticipate what they need from you. You can create content to meet those needs even before they realize they have the need. Connect to them with targeted findable content based on questions, pain points, and any feedback you collect.

Content marketing works best when the strategy is centered around delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time. This means creating content for each stage of the sales cycle, awareness, consideration, and decision or conversion, and distributing this content where your audience is looking for it. By providing valuable content for each stage in the sales cycle, you're able to answer customer questions, solve their pain points, and educate them, and finally show why your product or service is the best option for their needs.

One guideline from Google that's important to keep in mind when approaching content creation and optimization is EEAT.

Google's algorithm uses a plethora of factors to rank great content. First, identifying which content is relevant for users query, then prioritizing which of those pieces of content will be most helpful for users.

EEAT is a concept Google uses to evaluate the quality of content on the web and stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. The point here really is to ensure your content can be trusted, so each of the proceeding factors all contribute to trustworthiness, but your content doesn't necessarily need to demonstrate all of them to meet the highest standard of quality.

Let's break down each component.

Experience refers to the firsthand or practical knowledge a content creator has regarding the topic. Content that demonstrates the creator's personal experience can often be seen as more credible, especially for topics where personal insight is valuable, like travel or product reviews.

Expertise measures the level of knowledge or scale the creator has in the subject area. High quality content typically comes from individuals with proven knowledge or qualifications in the topic, particularly for complex or specialized areas like medicine, law, or finance.

Authorit relates to the reputation of the creator website or organization as a recognized authority on the topic. Indicators can include external references, backlinks, or endorsements from other credible sources.

And trustworthiness evaluates how reliable and safe the content creator and website are. Factors like transparency about sources, clear contact information, and secure website practices in addition to the previous factors we covered, all contribute to trustworthiness.

Now that we understand how the overarching goal of on-page SEO is to create great content, the next few lessons we'll dive into specific strategies to help you achieve just that.