How To Craft The Perfect SEO Content (And Keep Google Happy)

It's All About Topics Not Keywords (Are Keywords Really Dead?)

I know that it has been discussed before.

And I know you guys are sick of hearing it, but...

Let me explain.

​With the introduction of the fast moving Hummingbird Google has now gotten a lot smarter.

Well, "smarter" is perhaps the wrong word, but they at least understand what content is about without having to be told

over,

and over.

and over again.​

That means, you no longer have to use your keywords so often to get the point across - to Google at least.​ (some users may still require a bit of repetition though :>)

Hummingbird is all about semantic search, and if I may borrow Dan Shewan's words to help explain that SEO jargon: ​

​Back in the day you had to very clearly match the search with the search result. Now, Google can interpret searches and come up with smarter answers.

That is great news for us because it means: you need write naturally about your topic of choice, rather than focus on stuffing your page with keywords like a candy-filled stocking at Christmas.

​You Can't Ignore Keyword Research Though

Although you should now be focusing on "topics not keywords" you should understand that your topic is still really just keywords in disguise.

(Yay, keywords are alive again!)

Keyword research is still the key (no pun intended) to finding out what people are searching for on Google.

You need to figure out what your exact topic should be.

Because without keyword research you are just firing alphabet spaghetti at the wall (in the dark, without night vision goggles - or are there night vision Googles too?)

Sure, there are times when it's not important to focus on search engines (I am sure Seth Godin doesn't do his keyword homework) like when: 

However, if you are taking the time to write something why not do some basic keyword research and find out if anyone is looking for your words.

Kills two birds with one stone, right?

Amazing content that might also get found on Google!

Now comes the million dollar question...

How do you write content based on a topic, that satisfies your reader, but still get it ranked ​on Google?  (big question I know!)

Here is a helpful box full of tips for you:​

Optimize For Your Keywords

After all of the above talk of "focus on the reader" and "don't keyword stuff" you might think optimizing for your keywords has fallen by the wayside.

Not true.

It is still important to add your keywords in "the right places". It's a strong signal to search engines clearly telling them what your content is all about.

You will notice in many cases that the top results on Google are optimized for the search you made.​

Although it might be less important (and impactful) than it used to be, Google still takes its cues from a lot of the basic on-page SEO that you carry out.​

In a 2015 SEO survey Moz asked a wide variety of SEO pros how influential they thought on-page keyword optimization was (on a scale from 1-10). Here is what they thought:​

As you can see, quite a few got 5 and above. Meaning that keywords optimization is still a thing.

A very simple take-away from this survey is:

On-page keyword optimization is something you should still care about.

So, how do you do such optimization?

Well, if you are using WordPress, it is always worth using a helpful plugin - like Yoast or All in One SEO.​

However, there are just a few simple places you need to put your keywords. And below is a handy Pro Tip box again to make it easy to digest!

LSI Keywords - Your Keyword Cousins

Google understands what your content is about without having to see your keyword all the time.

I mentioned that above (maybe too often, I know).

They are looking for certain words, and combinations of words, as a sign that you are writing about a specific topic. 

It get​s a little confusing (like that algebra! damn).

To make it clearer, let's take a look at an example:

Your content should also naturally include all sorts of related words, synonyms and concepts.

Which leads us to the topic of LSI keywords.​

Adding these kinds of words to your content has a few handy benefits:

1. They give a strong signal to search engines about your content topic
2. They provide you with a tonne of keywords that you can rank for​

Ok, so LSI keywords are the bomb! All the cool SEO kids are using them.

But how do you find them? After all, you can't know all the related words you should be using.

Below are a whole bunch of tools you can use, including a few LSI specific tools to help you get there faster.​

Next time you write a piece of content be sure to add at least a few keyword variations and related words as you can. Some are even great to use as sections within the content and can become your headings.

Format Your Content For Success

Google is starting to pay more attention to user behavior.

That means design and formatting are starting to play a key role in rankings.

Sure, these things are not so easily measurable, but Google has their eyes on all sorts of user data to see whether people like our stuff.​ (remember they have access to Search, Youtube, Chrome, Android etc)

​What does this mean for you?

You need to format your content in the most reader-friendly way to get people to hang around longer.

After all, the easier it is to read your stuff, the longer people will stay. 

And don't forget that most people usually scan on the web, as Nielson famously showed all those years ago.

So, formatting is critical to your content's success online.

And that means it also affects SEO (Google is watching if people "bounce" from your site or stay for a while and put their feet up).

Now, let me show you how you can format your content for maximum results!​

How To Format For Maximum Impact

There are quite a few things you can (and should) do to format your content well.

Rather than bombard you with them all in one massive list, I have broken them into three sections with pretty pictures and videos to help.​

I recommend applying at least the basics and sprinkling some of the others in as you see fit.

Remember, the more your reader enjoys your stuff, the longer they will stay, and the more often they will come back.​

Beware: Stunning Headlines Ahead

​You are standing at the checkout waiting for the woman in front of you to count out her change when a magazine headline catches your attention:

​WTF!!!??? 

​Now that got your attention. What was Obama doing starting a terrorist group while he had a country to run? Where did he get the time. That man is sooooo busy.

Oh, hang on, the cashier is staring at you now - waiting!​ It's your turn. The headline distracted you.

Headlines are important.

They catch our attention and force us to ready crappy articles while waiting in line at the supermarket. It's the same online.

You are competing for attention with the other insane number of blog posts published each day.​

The father of advertising David Ogilvy is often quoted as saying:​

If your headline sucks, your blog post was written for nothing!​

That is the unfortunate truth.

Headlines Also Affect Your SEO

This idea translates to SEO as well.

We are all competing for attention on Google.

There are 10 results on the first page, and even if we manage to get there we may not get "the click".

Your headline needs to stand out on search results too​ in order to get the searcher's attention. 

It has even been shown by a few SEO legends out there that getting more clicks on your search result can move you up in the rankings​.

Rand Fishkin made a great video on how things like clicks are affecting rankings:

Although no one is actually certain this stuff works (and Google has never confirmed it, of course) it kinda makes sense.

After all, if people click​ one result more than others, perhaps it should rank higher, right?

Larry Kim of WordStream even got his hands dirty (in the data) and set out to prove it in this in-depth article.​ His conclusion:

Results that get more clicks - deserve to be at the top!​

Convinced you need to write stunning headlines? No?

What about this recent test by Brian Dean of Backlinko. He just sent his list this mail a few days ago and showed how he increased the traffic to one of his pages by 45.5% with one simple change.

​How?

Just by improving the headline​!

How To Write Amazing Headlines

A book could be written on this very topic (and indeed many have​), so I am only going to cover the basics.

Now, let's just jump in and learn some quick and actionable ways to make awesome headlines.

Steve Rayson of BuzzSumo wrote an article recently on creating viral headlines. The BuzzSumo team are worth paying attention to because they have their hands on a shipload of data.

He shows how a great viral headline is usually made up of 5 elements:

Here is an example from that post:

You can see that the headline is perfectly crafted to include all these elements and it really makes you want to click (at least if you like baking!).

Sure, you won't always include all these elements, but they are worth keeping in mind. 

Now, let's take a closer look at a few of those elements and how they can help with your headline.​

Choosing A Content Type

Choosing your content type it is going to depend on what you like to create, as well as what your audience likes to consume.

However, it is also worth thinking about what people love to read and share. Because that is what they will react to in your headline.

This chart from Noah Kagan and Buzzsumo show that lists and infographics get a lot of love on social media:

And if you check out some of my most shared posts, they usually include an infographic.

Take my recent post on internet business ideas​ - it has been pinned over 8000 times so far (and it is growing daily).

Whatever content format you choose for your content (and your headline) be careful to mix them up - it's a good part of your SEO diet.

Imagine this post's headline without emotion:

• How to write SEO Content​

Boring!

How about this instead:

• How To Write The Perfect SEO Content (And Keep Google Happy)

Watch The Length Of Your Headline

Most people forget this one:

Make sure your headline fits on Google search results.

Even some pros forget or ignore it, but I recommend you keep it in mind.

Moz recommend aiming for about 55 characters to be sure. But Google are using pixels so it kinda depends on the letters.

Here is a chart that shows the most common title lengths seen in search results to give you an idea of the spread.​

There is no exact "right" number of characters, but once it's published you will know soon enough and can change it when needed.​

Cheat And Use A Headline Tool

When trying to craft the perfect headline we all like to think we are awesome, but let's face it: we often have no idea.

That is when a great tool com​es into play.

I like to keep it simple and use two tools to craft the winning headline.

1. Coschedule's Headline Analyzer​

This makes it pretty simple to test the effectiveness of your headline and compare the different versions you come up with.

They also provide a huge array of tools and tips that help make your headline better. 

Here is an example of me trying out the headline for this post and how they rate it (note the emotional and power words are highlighted):

The tool also analyzes lots of other things like:

Almost no stone is left unturned! Thanks Coschedule!

​A/B Test Your Headlines

Another great idea is to keep testing your headline even after the article is published.

I wrote a post about how you can do this in a very rough way on social media. 

The short version: compare the headlines at the same time of day on Twitter and see the reactions.

It's hardly scientific though. 

What is even better is a tool that can do it for you.

That is where the Thrive Headline Optimizer comes in.

It basically runs split tests on headlines to see which get the better reactions.

The results are then easy to see and analyse in your WordPress dashboard:

No matter how you choose to optimize your headlines, learning how to be damn better at this is well worth your while.

Below you will find many of the resources mentioned in this section and even more.

Go check them out and make your headlines rock!​

Your Links Should Not Be Forgotten

The links on your website are actually a powerful way to control your SEO.

Hard to believe, especially when we are all chasing links from other sites, but it's true.​

Outbound links

It just makes sense to me that you should be linking to authoritative and relevant content from within yours.

I guess you noticed from the amount of links in this post.

I have been doing this almost since I started blogging 3 years ago. And Google has not thrown a rock at me yet!

But many people either:​

Many of the pros have suggested that linking out is a good thing. Although there is no concrete proof of it (like most of the SEO we do to be honest).

Dan Petrovic wrote about how Google could be measuring how long users stay on linked to pages in this in-depth article on Moz.​ His main point on this topic was:

​In even simpler terms what he means is - if you link to good content, Google will reward you.

Another older discussion on this topic suggests that the pages you link to show Google what you are writing about on your page. Again, there is no clear study on this but it is worth keeping in mind.

I saved you the best one for last.

Some actual proof.

Reboot did a small study on a bunch of pages they had control over. By selectively adding (or not) outbound links on those pages they were able to show that they helped

​It starts to become clear: linking out to relevant, authoritative content is worth your while.

​However, many people are still scared of linking out. And even if they do, they seem to want to "nofollow" all the links.

I wrote a detailed post on No Follow Links recently and covered this already, but here goes (again) in case you missed it:

Internal links

Another area you have a tonne of control over is the internal links on your website.

These are kind of the "long forgotten"​ links of SEO.

Sure, they don't have the power of links coming to your site, but they are still quite useful.​

Quick Tips on Internal Links

There is actually a lot to say on the topic of internal links, so I will just limit this section to a few important ones. The rest you can read in the resources.

1. You should always be linking to your own relevant content within your site.

Both on old and new posts.​

When you publish something:

2. Where it makes sense, use the power of anchor text (ie. the keyword that you are after for that page) to create the link to that page.​

3. Links from your most "powerful" pages (the ones with the most incoming links) are useful to boost the rankings of other less powerful pages on your site.

Andy Crestodina wrote a detailed post on this idea (and many others) which I recommend you check out.

You Need To Write Longer Content​, Or Do You?

If you want to please Google, you need to write the most useful piece of content your readers have ever seen. 

​That might also mean writing long-form content to get on page one for the keyword you are targeting.

It might.

And, it might not.

Let me explain.​

There are certainly enough articles out there telling us that longer content is the way to go. Just read this article or this one from Neil Patel published just last month - I could go on, but two is enough to keep you off the streets.

These articles don't actually suggest long-form content for the sake of it.​ But they are putting their weight behind it.

On top of these kinds of articles, the number of times I have seen the chart below leaves me without fingers to count on:​

That chart "implies" that you need to write longer content to rank on page 1 of Google (2455 words to be exact - so get busy!).

Ready for another "you have to write longer content" chart?

This next one might disappoint you.

Tim Soulo of Ahrefs (hi Tim, love your work!) also wrote this very interesting piece recently where his team found that longer content is ONLY a very slight ranking factor (the correlation is 0.08, which is quite low in case you were wondering).

Note: And look! We only need to write 760 words to rank in position 1! This chart is way better!  (ignore my Australian humor)

Perhaps Your Content Should Be Shorter Instead

The opposite (of long content) can also be proven to be true: take a look at this post on CopyHackers. With examples like Seth Godin, IFLS and Disney, they show how short-form content is the way to go. At least for those 3 publishers.

There is certainly "some" data out there supporting both long and short content. However, a lot more people seem to moving in a different direction.

Time For The Long Content Backlash

​It's not that people are now against long-form content. Instead I think it is better to say they are making sure we understand that it is not "the" answer to ranking higher in Google.

Rand Fishkin, the king of taking the complex world of SEO and making it simple, had this to say back in April

Rand is not the only one to say this, but I think that quote sums it up well. He then went on to say that we should produce the right content instead.

Content that​:

A similar idea was aired by Ramsay Taplin on the Blogging Tyrant when he wrote about long form content. His post's conclusion is worth noting:

Long-form content is not the only thing you need to get to the top of Google. And in some cases it is not worth it at all.

Let's sum it all up in this handy (even sexy?) Pro Tips Box.

Should You Write For The Reader Or Search Engines

Depending on who you ask, you should either write for the reader or for search engines (SEO).

It doesn't always seem like an easy choice, right?

We love them both!

Lucky for the reader, content creators are swaying towards the side of the "people" (yay for us!) and we are getting far better content (like this awesome post- give me a tweet!).

But what is this amazing, people-friendly content that I am talking about.

In rough terms, it is content that is:

Such great content in turn leads to all the other fun stuff like shareable, rank-able, link-worthy etc. (what other marketing words can we use!)

Back to the People vs SEO.

Which is it?

Should we write for the reader or should we write for search engines?​

A great debate went on not too long ago on Inbound.org where this very issue was discussed in detail by some very smart people.

So, rather than me trying to be just as smart, I thought we might as well check out what they had to say...

​Josh Garofalo had this to say:

And similarly Sean Kirby had this to say:

But I think Rand Fishkin (yes, him again) summed it up best with this:

​Write For People Who Use Search Engines

To summarize, I think you should do this:

1. When you write content you should focus on helping people

2. However, you should also try to optimize that content for SEO (keywords) where possible

Why do both?

Because a lot of your traffic will come from search engines and you might as well do both.

You don't have to sacrifice readability, appeal and helpfulness in order to optimize your content for SEO. Not anymore (as the earlier sections showed).

Google no longer needs to be given the keyword 50x to understand the intent of your content, so just be more subtle and optimize where necessary.

In other words, sprinkle in your keywords, don't ram them in with your fist!

How To Write The Perfect SEO Content

That is a lot of information to take in, I know.

But SEO is becoming more complex and starting to be affected by everything we do online.​

I believe that if you are a content creator of any kind, then this stuff is important.

You need to know how your content is affected by SEO and vice versa.

Rather than memorize this stuff:

I recommend you grab my SEO Content Guide (a handy summary of this post below).​

​You won't regret it :>