It’s not a big thing for copywriters who write articles for a company’s blog to focus on character counting, keyword frequency, or formatting. The SEO professionals who are driving the content for the blog keep repeating that this is the wrong approach. Search engines are increasingly focusing on user preferences. This means that exactly what a real person considers interesting and useful comes to the top. We’ve prepared a few guidelines to help you create relevant, interesting, and easy-to-read articles that will appeal to users and search engines.

Focus on narrow topics

Experts agree that it is better to divide materials into subtopics. A subtopic is a part of one thematic cluster. Thematic cluster is an array of content, one way or another connected by the main part of the content. Why is it more effective to catch the reader’s attention with a help of subtopics?

In the subtopic, the competition is lower. Targeting for a common topic like ‘SEO’ is too broad. Millions of your competitors are using SEO as their keyword. Your content will instantly get lost in the world of texts and web resources, especially if you are just starting to develop a content strategy and the site has not yet gained authority.

Conduct Research to Maintain Trust and Authority

Consumer confidence in media is at an all-time low today. Therefore, it is now more important than ever that your content is trustworthy. One way to maintain credibility is through research that supports the hypotheses you make. Even if you’re describing your personal experience, quotes from relevant research will add weight to it.

Structure text for readability

Users, and search engines along with them, love content that is interesting and easy to digest. Therefore, the format of publications plays an important role – interesting headings and subheadings, lists and text take-offs that stand out from the text must be present in a high-quality article.

Anchors of the chapters of the article, placed at the beginning of the text, are also convenient for readers: they demonstrate the range of issues covered in the text, and also provide an opportunity to reuse some keywords. These elements are quickly and easily “digested” by the reader.

Add some media

Visual content is easier to perceive and better remembered than “naked” text, so it is advisable to use in the text:

• screenshots;
• Photo;
• infographics;
• charts;
• video;
• gifs;
• memes.

By using visual materials, you increase user engagement. A variety of visual elements will also make the examples in the text illustrative.

An interesting fact: if you want to stand out in the mass of content, you should focus on its quality. This is one of the best ways to build your authority in your niche, engage an interested audience, and raise your site in search results.