3 Killer Steps To Write Content That Gets Top Ranking In Google!
Everyone says that content is king. But I feel like no one really gets into what that means. If I write about how my wife takes up all the bed covers now that she’s pregnant. Is that an example of content being king? I went to a search engine conference in 2007 and some folks from Google were present. A question about search engine optimization and content was asked and the Google rep said the following. "Don’t worry about search engine optimization (seo). Just write good content!" What the f! What kind of answer is that? We all had to chuckle because Google was being as elusive as secret government agent.
Well screw that. I’m going to let the cat out the bag. I have 3 steps that have helped me secure top rankings in Google for various long tailed and regular keywords. Chances are you’ve heard some of these but I’m going to put some twists to them. So be patient.
Step 1: Write good content first!
Huh? Didn’t I just make fun of the Google guy for saying that? Yes I did. But he is right, you should write really good content first. You should actually know about whatever you’re writing about. Otherwise people will know that you’re just babbling on and will leave your site. You need to make your content compelling. Inject your personality in it. Don’t read like a text book. In most niches people find that crap boring and will not read your articles. It is possible to be informative and entertaining. I often get inspiration from reading other people’s blogs or websites. If someone does something that actually captured my attention, I do the same thing on my blog. No need to re-invent the wheel. So yes you should write good content keeping the above points in mind.
Step 2: Do keyword research on the topic you just wrote about!
Many authors would argue making this step second is not the best approach. But I have found that it works better this way and I’ll tell you why in a second. Let’s discuss where you can do your keyword research. You don’t need to pay any money to do keyword research. Sure, there are a lot of great paid services. But you can find just as good free versions such as SEO Book Keyword Research Tool or Word Tracker Free keyword research tool. Google’s keyword tool is pretty decent as well. I tend to use them all. Copy and paste the keywords you find or keep the windows open with the keyword results.
Oh by the way, another technique you can use to acquire additional keywords is to do a regular search in Google for your keywords. Sometimes at the bottom of the first page of search results you’ll find some other related suggestions. Many people don’t talk about that tip but it’s very helpful. I did a search for "jobs" using this technique and Google came up with some related keywords. Clicking on the related keywords will start a new search and there may be more related keywords as well. So you can actually get a lot of great keyword ideas using this. See the screenshot below.
So why is keyword research my second step? The times I have tried to write articles after doing my keyword research first have basically killed my creativity. I would find myself trying to force keywords in to my article instead of just writing what I felt. It made for very awkward articles. This made writing difficult and thus I did less of it. Consequently this meant that I created less content for Google to find. The whole net effect was a negative. This brings me to Step 3.
Step 3. Go back to your finished articles and include your keywords.
If you followed the tips in step 1 you’ve written some good content that is engaging and has your personality in it. Now it’s time to help people find this content by adding keywords in it. As I said previously, I find it’s much easier to go back and add keywords or swap keywords after you have already written your content without the restrictions of trying to write for the keywords. You should try to include your various keywords in the body of the article but more importantly in the title. Try not to compromise the catchy nature of your headline when adding your keywords in the title. This will help Google find your "good content" and thus help you rank well assuming you chose attainable keywords or you have a website with some great authority.
So that’s pretty much my formula for writing content that gets top ranking in Google! Do you agree? Do you have some additional tips that I missed?
