SEO-friendly content should be targeted, optimised and engaging. Here we share different types of content that can add value to your website and blog.
You are looking to increase your domain authority and give your target audience the high-quality, relevant content that they are already searching for. But where do you start, when it comes to actually creating SEO-friendly content examples?
When creating content for SEO, you can opt for different types of content but they must have one thing in common: they should be engaging. Here we take a look at some different types of content resources that you can create that are both user-friendly and will maximise your SEO ROI.
1. Original content: the written word
The vast majority of search results are still text-based content. A well-written article remains one of the best ways to improve your SEO performance. Multimedia elements, such as video and imagery, can be used alongside an article, but it is the written word that usually forms the central part of this content type.
Depending on your website or business aims, original content can include your own research, case studies or well-informed, highly-specialised survey results that are specifically relevant to your business’s area of expertise. ‘Original’ means content that cannot be found elsewhere; it should be unique to your business and be relevant to what your target audience is searching for.
Text-led content doesn’t have to be line after line of copy; mix it up by using landing pages, listicles and feature stories – tell your business’s story in different ways, to attract different readers.
In order to maximise your copy’s SEO value, remember that Google is looking for ‘unique and original content’, so make sure your SEO-friendly content is kept up-to-date and fix any broken links that could negatively impact your rankings.
2. Visual content: images, infographics, illustrations etc.
Highly relevant images alongside a text-led article can be beneficial for bringing words to life and enhancing the reader’s user experience. This is especially important if you are writing about a highly complex topic, as imagery can be used to illustrate particular points.
When using images, don’t just upload a photo and move on: make sure you update the image alt text, as this helps Google to understand an image’s relevance to the rest of the page content and improves the accessibility of your content. Using descriptive alt texts offer a better user experience for those with accessibility needs.
3. Video content
If online trends have shown us anything over the last decade, it’s that people cannot get enough of video. If you are in the process of creating an SEO content strategy, you need to consider whether video content suits your business needs and if it can help you to achieve your SEO goals. But don’t worry: you don’t have to become a TikTok star overnight! Reign in those ambitions and start with video how-to guides, demonstrations of your product or service, expert interviews or even behind-the-scenes videos of your business.
To increase your video SEO value, Google is once again looking for “high-quality main content” – videos should be of good quality, with an interesting subject matter and offer an original or expert take on a topic. This isn’t easy, but if you have a unique topic to discuss, video content could work for you.
4. Audio content
For all those that say video is king and audio is out, we say – nonsense! There’s more than enough room for both. The rise in the popularity of podcasts in recent years shows that people’s love of audio is still strong. If you’re keen to try producing audio content for your business, consider how you would structure your content. Google has some concerns about audio and whether it is mobile-friendly (as it often is not), so any audio content you produce should include relevant headlines and keyword descriptions that will help users to better understand what the content is about before they even hit ‘play’.
If the idea of starting a podcast excites you, choose your topics well – you can do the necessary research as part of your SEO content strategy planning, to ensure you’re talking about things people actually want to hear about. Again, produce supportive content alongside each episode to help boost your SEO.
The bottom line
Using a mix of the different SEO-friendly content types mentioned above can be a determining factor in a user finding and exploring your site after doing an online search. Creating unique, relevant and engaging SEO-friendly content isn’t easy; it is likely to take time, research and resources before you begin to see good results from SEO. However, optimising for search isn’t an activity you do at the end of writing an article or publishing a video. You should consider who your target audience is, and discover what it is they are looking for, in the early stages of your SEO content strategy planning.
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