The good news is that in a world full of low-quality content, you can stand out by publishing content that’s helpful, interesting, and meets the needs of your audience and . Unique content also triggers the Google algorithm when it crawls and indexes page. It gives Google the message that your website is active and becoming more authoritative in a specific niche, and establishes you as a subject expert.
Trust me, this task is easier than it seems! You don’t have to be a writing whizz to create really excellent content—you just need to make it as useful and helpful as possible to your audience.
So how do you write useful content? Here are four simple steps that will get you there.
1) Start with your audience’s frequently asked questions
Before you write anything, take the time to truly consider your audience. What questions do they have that you can answer? What might they be searching for in Google? Chances are you already know a few of these questions, so start creating a list. These will become your topics for the content you write.
Next, start researching the questions people are asking. Try searching for the questions you already came up with, and look at the search results that exist. Then look on the search results page for a drop-down menu called “people also asked.” This will give you related questions that your audience is asking, and it’s a great place to start developing topics to write about.
To find out more questions your audience has, you can use the suggested searches in the search bar as you type in words related to your business; go on forums where people are discussing relevant subjects and see what questions are being asked; and record the questions that you get from your customers and clients.
2) Write complete answers
Now that you have a list of questions your audience has, it’s your job to answer those questions to the best of your ability. Don’t just write basic, introductory information, either. Write as much as you need to write to give a complete answer to the question, and then think about what questions your audience is likely to have next and answer those as well. The more helpful and thorough your answers are, the better your content will be, and Google rewards helpful content by showing it to more people. If you create particularly helpful content, you’ll gain more links from other sites as well, as people share what you’ve written.
3) Don’t bury the answer
It’s frustrating to click on a link looking for an answer to a question and have to read a 5,000-word article only to find the simple solution you’re looking for buried in a sentence halfway through. Get straight to the point rather than writing excess content just to pad your word count.
Use clear subheadings, bullet points, and bold and italic fonts to make your article or blog post easy to navigate. If you’re answering your readers’ questions thoroughly, you may end up with some rather long pages, and these visual distinctions play an important role in helping the reader find what they’re looking for. Ensure your subheadings clearly convey the information that will be discussed and use plenty of paragraph breaks to make reading easier.
Visual aids can also add a lot of value to your writing, and sometimes including a graph, a chart, or an infographic can be a great way to convey information effectively and make your page more shareable.
4) Write for humans
Remember that the content you’re writing is for people, not just for Google’s algorithm. Keep your content concise and engaging. Don’t add fluff your readers don’t need—often you see a great deal of this fluff at the beginning of an article, and while an introduction is important, it’s not necessary for it to be long. Prioritize readability and helpfulness (answering your reader’s questions thoroughly) over selling a product or jam-packing your content full of keywords.
Now more than ever, it’s important to write high-value content that gives your audience what they’re looking for. Remember that the more helpful you can be to your audience by giving them direct and complete answers to their questions, the better your content will be, and Google will prioritize high-quality, helpful content over low-value content that doesn’t satisfy the users’ needs.
