Creating content that ranks on search engine result pages (SERPs) is essential for driving traffic from organic search. The higher your page appears in the SERP, the more likely it is to attract clicks from potential customers or readers. Luckily, you can follow a few key strategies to create content that ranks well on Google and drives traffic. One of these strategies is to submit post to high-authority websites in your niche that accept guest contributions. This way, you can leverage their existing audience and authority and get a backlink to your own website.
1. Choose Relevant Keywords
The first step in creating SEO-friendly content is pinpointing relevant keywords you want to target with your post. Use keyword research tools like SEMrush or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to get an idea of what topics people are searching for online, then incorporate them into your posts where appropriate.
2. Optimize Your Headers and Page Structure
It’s important not only to have relevant keywords throughout the body of your article but also in the titles and subheadings. This helps ensure users and search engines understand what they’re getting when they click through from the SERP page. Additionally, ensure headers are structured properly using H1, H2, and H3 tags so visitors know how each section relates to one another—it also makes scanning easier for readers!
3. Write Informative Copy That Engages Readers
When writing copy for webpages or blog posts, keep reader engagement in mind—and be sure not to stuff keywords into every sentence to improve your ranking. Focus instead on providing helpful information that will encourage readers to stay engaged with your post until the very end—this will naturally help improve rankings over time as users spend more time reading and less time quickly clicking away due to poor-quality content.
4. Include External Links
Linking out to other reputable sites within your post adds credibility while helping search engines better understand what type of resource they’re indexing in their results pages—which will ultimately boost its ranking power if done correctly! Just be sure you don’t link out too much as this can hurt rankings due to thin content concerns; aim for around 1-2 external links per 500 words at most if possible.
5 . Add Internal Links Whenever Appropriate
Internal linking is another easy way to boost rankings by providing visitors with additional resources related to your topic without having them leave your site entirely; this keeps them engaged while also signaling relevance to other pages indexed by Google! Try adding internal links wherever it makes sense within an article – just be careful not to link out too much again, as this could lead users down rabbit holes unrelated to their original query, which could hurt overall engagement metrics over time.
6 . Use multimedia where possible
Including images or video in an article can work wonders for increasing user engagement and reducing bounce rates; after all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing visuals interspersed between blocks of text? Multimedia also helps to break up long articles that might otherwise seem intimidatingly long at first glance – so consider incorporating some sort of visual element whenever it makes sense, or whenever you feel it would help readers (or yourself!) on their journey through a particular piece of content!
7 . Include structured data markup in your post
Structured data markup allows you to add additional context to specific elements within an article, such as product reviews or local business listings that may appear near the bottom or middle of a given page; this helps to give bots additional clues as to what type of resource they will find when crawling through a piece of content, so don’t forget to include these snippets whenever appropriate!
8 . Analyse & track performance over time
Once you’ve published a new piece of content online, it’s important that you don’t just sit back and relax and expect great things in return – you need to actively monitor performance over time using tools such as Google Analytics to see where things stand after certain periods of time (e.g. 1 month). This will allow you to spot any issues early, before they become major problems down the line, so you can take corrective action immediately before any further damage is done!
By following these steps closely when creating new content for SERP ranking purposes, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t see improved performance over time, both in terms of organic traffic levels AND overall engagement metrics!