In part I of SEO copywriting, we talked about the importance of writing for search intent and information keyword selections. For this part of the series, we will tackle two more important steps in making your content rank in Google: top ranking pages and unique angles.
Top Ranking Pages
There is more than one consistent reason why Google ranks the same pages in the top 3-5 positions for a target keyword. Behavioral factors, links and exposure all play a role in page ranking for the SERPs. The end-game is pinpointing the reason for the rankings.
If you use a keyword explorer search and focus on the SERP analysis, you should be able to see your keyword and the top ranking pages it appears on. This should convey the quality of content on that site and if it’s ranking, it’s probably quite good. After all, hundreds of people would not link to poor-quality or mediocre content. The beauty in this result is it also tells you what parameters you would also likely be required to achieve in order to have similar amounts of links to your page in order to be able to rank.
An in-depth review of each of the keyword explorer search pages is really necessary in order to get a feel for what Google is considering “quality content” for this keyword. It will help your writers to grasp why these pages rank where they do and also provide a general grasp of commonalities between the posts like topics they each discuss and the forms of language they use.
Beyond this, you should also make evaluations as to the relevance of the content to the keyword, design in terms of layout and outline, format which includes lists, images and videos. This review should be done on the top ranking articles in the search.
Unique Angles
Google has become a universe of its own. You better believe, if you have a keyword it can be likened to a star. It is guaranteed there are already a million articles on that keyword. The question is, how is it possible to write something better than what is already out there? Something – unique?
Is it even possible at this point to create completely unique content? Most likely not, so don’t freak out. Coming up with a unique angle means that you have to find your creative side, unite with your chi, become one with the universe! Or, just find a unique way to present your material that you think a target audience will really relate to while at the same time others would find helpful and want to link within their article information. If you don’t, no will link to it and you probably won’t rank – so, no pressure.
Bottomline: there’s not much point in developing content unless you can establish a unique angle. The fact is, it will be difficult to rank with other top ranking posts unless you follow their format, design, methodology and vibe.
Once you can throw that unique angle up into the dark sky and see it glitter like a universe of stars, draft your post.
Next month, part III of our summer series will cover: link context and captivating intros.