What are the three most important components of high quality web content?

High-quality content naturally generates traffic, earns links, and gets shared on social. It’s the c...

High-quality content naturally generates traffic, earns links, and gets shared on social. It’s the cornerstone of Connected Content – our approach for building deeper audience connections and improving business performance by telling a brand’s story through strategic and engaging content, building and running intelligent websites, and reaching audiences with performance marketing. During our recently conducted Connected Content Week, Michael Pasco and I shared 12 tips for creating high-quality content that your target audience is searching for and ranks well in Google. Here are the highlights from our presentation:

1) Title Tags

This is a clickable headline that’s displayed on the search engine results page (SERP) after someone performs a search. The title tag is a ranking factor for Google. It’s vital for search. Your title tag should be:

• Clickable: compelling and interesting – they entice the reader to click.
• Searchable: includes keywords that your target audience is searching for.

Pro tip: Keep the title tag length to 65-70 characters.

2) Meta Descriptions

These are the one-to-two lines of text that appear under the title tag on a SERP, which describes what the page is all about.

Meta descriptions are not a ranking factor, but they do affect click-through rates. If you have a compelling meta description that someone wants to click on, you improve clickthrough results, which are a ranking factor. Think of the meta description as an element that works in tandem with the title tag.

Pro tip: Have a strong call to action in your meta description. (Read on for more about the all-important call to action.)

3) H1 Tags (aka Headlines)

The <h1> tag is also a ranking factor for Google and therefore important for SEO. Your headline/H1 can be the same as your title tag, but it does not have to be.

Pro tip: Use only one H1 tag per page. Including more than one H1 tag on a page may confuse Google about the primary topic of the page. Also, follow headline best practices: Make sure people understand the topic from the headline.

4) H2 Tags (AKA Subheads)

Besides breaking up your content into easily digestible chunks and helping to organize your content, <h2> subheadings are a ranking factor for Google and should incorporate semantic keywords.

H3-H6 tags have less SEO value than they did several years ago, but they still provide structure to a page of content.

5) URL

Of course, a URL is the website address for your piece of content, and it should mimic your title tag or headline by including primary keyword(s) – without unnecessary keywords such as “at,” “the,” and “to.”

Pro tips:

• Use a unique URL slug for every page.
• Keep them short.
• Use all lowercase letters (nO aLtErNaTiNg CaPs or CamelCase).
• Use dashes between words.

6) Images

Images are another Google ranking factor. When done right, images provide another opportunity to optimize. Plus, they make content more digestible – who wants to read a giant wall of text?

Here are three important image elements:

• Image name: carries SEO weight.
• Alt text: a description of your image, which supports accessibility.
• File size: affects page-load speed. Pro tip: Keep the file size under 100 kilobytes.

7) Links in Your Content

Include links in your content so long as they are natural and helpful to your reader. Links show the relationship between your site and other sites (external links), as well as relationships between different pieces of content on your own site (internal links).

As you delve into the world of links, you’ll encounter all kinds of terms such as “link asset” and “anchor text.” Understand them and incorporate them. Here’s a quick overview of essential terminology:

• Anchor text: the text that appears highlighted in a link.
• Anchor text optimization: placing keywords in anchor text.
• Backlink: a link from one website to another.
• Link building: a natural, unpaid, and organic way to boost rankings.
• Link asset: a piece of content that websites link to.

8) Keywords

Incorporate keywords into your content in a natural and relevant fashion. If a piece of content is truly about the main keyword phrase, it should contain enough verbatim and semantic iterations to rank well for it.

A note about latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords:

Google looks for words frequently occurring together to understand the topic of the page.

For example, LSI keywords for “pizza” are “pepperoni,” “Chicago style,” and “brick oven.” Use Google’s autocomplete function to get suggestions for related searches. Autocomplete suggestions can inspire short-form and long-form content.

Pro tip: Try tools such as SEMrush and MOZ to find ideas for content.

9) Content Length

In general, long-form content performs better in search, earns more backlinks, and gets shared on social more often. We know because research says so:

• Backlinko studied the correlation between word count and Google rankings and found that the average number one results has 1,890 words.

• HubSpot found that pieces of content with more than 2,500 words earn the most links.

• BuzzSumo found that long-form content gets more social shares than short-form content.

Pro tip: Don’t create long-form content just for the sake of creating long-form content. If you can answer a reader’s questions in 500-600 words, that’s fine! Mix it up with short-form and long-form content. If you uncover an in-depth topic that requires long-form content, go for it.

10) Call to Action

Every piece of content should have a call to action (CTA) such as “Learn more,” “Donate today,” or “Download our eBook.” Don’t let a piece of content dead end. Help readers understand what you want them to do next. Examples:

• “For more information about sustainability in business, visit our resource center.”
• “To get sustainability tips right in your inbox, join our mailing list.”

11) Video

Because Google cannot “watch” a video to decipher its content, it’s important to include optimized meta elements that help videos get found in search. They include:

• File name: should contain your primary keyword.
• Video title: should contain your primary keyword as well.
• Description: summarize your video and include primary keywords.
• Link back to your website: include a CTA and relevant link
• Description tags: add wherever applicable for the video platform.
• Transcript: include one on your page. They are inexpensive to make with a transcription service (Speechpad and Rev are two we like), and it gives Google copy to crawl and index.

12) Originality

Make sure your blog copy is 100% original. Never plagiarize. Unless you use canonical tags (an important tool if you choose to syndicate blog posts or other content), Google will penalize content that was published elsewhere first.

Pro tip: Use a plagiarism checker to look for duplicate content on a web. We use Copyscape, but there are others, too.

Contact Investis Digital

Whether you wish to increase your organic traffic or have a site that’s been penalized, our team has a proven track record of success with businesses across industries and niches. Learn more about our performance marketing services and then reach out to us to discuss how we can help your company drive results.