Top 7 Types of Content to Improve Your SEO Rankings – a Guide
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important for website growth and the statistics back it up. Google alone receives more than 78,000 searches per second, the top results are based solely on SEO and there are also other engines such as Bing.
Research shows that organic traffic is almost 6x better than paid search ads and 61% of marketers say improving SEO is their top inbound marketing priority. There are many ways to improve your SEO rankings but good content appears to be the driving force behind every successful website. However, not all types of content bring equal results and different sites may benefit from different types of content.
Content and SEO
The purpose of
content is to share relevant written or visual media so that your audience can
learn something new and share it with others. In short, content addresses some
of the pain points of your audience while providing solutions. Great content is
consumed and then shared with a larger audience which boosts your SEO rankings.
Today, publishing
high-quality content is one of the best ways to improve your SEO ranking. There
are many types of content to consider such as blog posts, images, videos,
emails, and more. With that in mind, let’s explore some of the top content
types that can help you improve your website SEO rankings.
Blog Posts
Blogging is one of
the most common types of content and it works wonders. Blog posts are easy to
produce, they provide relevant information and people are always willing to
read them. In a way, blogging is perfect for both the audience and the website.
When done
correctly, blogging has a lot of benefits:
- Engages
the audience
- Boosts
your SEO rankings
- Attracts
new visitors/readers
- Grows
your brand
The good thing
about blogging is that there are so many options: you can write opinion pieces,
reviews, lists, how-to’s, and you can also opt for guest blogging. Write a
compelling headline, provide useful information, optimize the content and enjoy
the results. Blog posts are excellent for SEO and this type of content will be
relevant in 2020 and beyond.
Videos
Video content is
growing larger and larger, just take a look at YouTube where
thousands of videos are uploaded each day. Video consumption is at an all-time
high and this form of content is regularly used to improve SEO rankings.
Video content has
a high return on investment, however, it is harder to create compared to
content like blog posts. Although it may seem that Video content curation
requires a lot of time and resources, there are tools that can help us with it.
Websites like Renderforest provide us with Video creation tools that
we can use to create video content with little to no effort.
Here are some ways
to utilize these tools for your business.
- Create
an explainer video to introduce your business/product
- Create
a video showcasing your products, services, or features
- Create
quick tutorials or step-by-step guides for users
- Promote
your brand image via storytelling
There are many
ideas for Video content and they all work depending on the business. It’s up to
us to test and see what works best for good SEO results.
Long-Form Content
We’ve talked about
blog posts but we cannot forget about the importance of long-form content.
Although long-form articles appear to be just extended blog posts, the
difference is in the purpose of the two. Compared to quick and informative blog
posts, long-form articles cover topics in their depth and take way more time
and resources to complete.
According to
a study conducted by Backlinko, Google’s first page results on
average show articles containing 1950 words or more. On top of that, long-form
content gets 77.2% more links and more social media shares. All of
this data shows how important long-form content is for SEO and traffic.
However, long-form content is harder to make compared to short-form content and
it’s best to find a balance between the two.
Infographics
If you’re looking to
receive those backlinks, creating infographics is a great way to do so. You can
collect data, structure it and represent it visually using infographics. This
type of content is very user-friendly and it brings excellent SEO results
through backlinks.
You can even turn
a blog post into an infographic as shown below:
The appeal of
infographics is in its visuals and ease of consumption. Compared to standard
blog posts, infographics tend to be more concise which means users are more
likely to see it and share with others. You will need more resources to create
infographic content but it can be well worth it if the topic is well-researched
and the visuals match up.
Podcasts
Podcasts gained
a lot of traction in the past few years, partly due to availability and ease of
consumption. Users can consume podcast content while driving, doing dishes, or
similar activities. Creating podcasts is really no different to other content,
it’s simply audio instead of video or written word. Due to the demand, podcasts
are a good source of traffic and will positively impact your SEO rankings.
Research Findings
and Case Studies
In a world filled
with opinions, more and more people are opting to look for real data through
research and case studies. If you can put enough time and resources to conduct
a study, SEO results will surely follow. Case studies usually get a lot of
inbound links as they get cited somewhere on the internet, which is excellent
for SEO ranking.
According
to Buzzsumo, this type of data-backed content can attract millions of
shares. A good example of this is CMI’s annual report on Content
Marketing. Although this process may be time-consuming, it’s well worth the
potential results.
Social Media
Social media
content is heavily prevalent in today’s culture with more and more businesses
hopping on. Social media deserves a post on its own but we’re here to stress
its importance for SEO and
website ranking. Although it does not directly impact your SEO, a strong social
presence will drive traffic to your website and improve your SEO rankings.
Furthermore, all
of your website content can be repurposed for social media with links to the
original. Social media audience generally prefers short-form content, but if
interested, they will search the original content for more information.
Business owners can leverage social media content to increase brand
awareness, drive traffic to their website and boost SEO in the process.
Social media also
comes with certain threats to privacy in the form of data scraping, leaks, and
information sharing, so you might want to consider using a VPN and there are A lot of cheap options to choose from.
If you want to
have excellent SEO ranking, make sure to create all types of content. Each
content format targets a different audience and you don’t want to leave anyone
hanging.
