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July 26, 2021 Content Chat Recap: How To Create Content That Ranks Higher In SERPs

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Will your content reach its ideal reader through a search engine query? When creating content, it’s crucial for marketers to consider the ways that their audience searches for resources—the phrases they use, the questions they ask, the level of detail they want—to then create content that matches these needs. However, unless you’re an SEO expert, it can be difficult to understand how to make your content the top result in a search.

In this #ContentChat, we’re joined by Manick Bhan (@MadManick),  founder and CTO of LinkGraph, to discuss how to create content that ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Read the full recap below, where we explain what a SERP is, common ways to increase the SERP ranking of your content, and other ways to optimize your content for SEO. If you’re looking to learn more about the role of SEO in content marketing, check out our post on the five essential SEO elements to address with your content.

Q1: What is a SERP and why are SERPs important for content marketing?

A search engine results page (SERP) is the list of web pages that a search engine provides based on a user’s search engine query (and their historical browsing history). The goal is for a piece of content to rank high in the search results to maximize the likelihood that it will reach your ideal reader.

Q2: Which SEO components impact the SERP ranking of a piece of content?

Per Manick and Christian, there are four key areas to consider: content, authority, page experience, and technicals. At a high level, this means that you should create in-depth content (short, 200 word blog posts won’t help much for SEO) that links to high-domain sites and addresses the SEO basics.

Optimize your images and videos so they load quickly and are not too large of a file size. This includes advertisements—remember that more advertisements will slow down your page load time, which could adversely affect your SEO.

Use H1, H2, and H3 format markers.

Strategically place SEO keywords throughout the content and its SEO elements.

And optimize your content for mobile.

Sherry recommends this guide from Moz that explains the on-page ranking factors.

Q3: What is semantic SEO and how does it fit into a content marketing team’s SEO keyword strategy?

Semantic SEO is about creating content with natural language processing in mind and including your target keyword and all of the related keywords, phrases, and topics associated with that target keyword.

FAQs are helpful for building your semantic SEO.

Christian recommends a Term Frequency and Inverse Document Frequency strategy for keywords.

Q4: How can marketers improve the information architecture of their content? Where does structured data or schema fit in?

The information architecture of your site will impact the SERP ranking for your content. Submit a sitemap to help crawlers know which pages on your site are most important.

Per Christian, there are a lot of areas you can address.

Add descriptive URL slugs, page titles, and META descriptions to your content to improve its information architecture.

And use H-tags (H1, H2, H3) as a simple way to start.

Q5: What are some common ways that content marketers can increase their content’s SERP ranking?

To boost the SERP ranking of your content, ensure that your content is in-depth and includes optimized visuals.

Naturally weave keywords into your copy, and link to high domain authorities.

We recommend you start by optimizing your existing content. Learn how to do this with Erika’s post below:

Q6: What mistakes do you often see content marketing teams make when optimizing their content for SEO, or what hurdles do you anticipate they will face?

Write content to provide value to a specific audience. Do not create content simply to boost SEO.

Optimize the mobile user experience. Otherwise, you’re failing to serve a key audience for your content.

Focus your SEO strategy on keywords that are not overly competitive. Prioritize long-tail, low keyword difficulty queries to potentially drive quick wins. However, remember that SEO is a long-game.

Q7: What are your go-to tools and resources to help with SEO-related content creation?

The community shares their top SEO tools and resources below. Did we miss your favorite? Tell us the name and why you love it in the comments!

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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