While there are still many websites out there whose m.o. is to spew out as much shoddily written content in as little time as possible, Google has made it quite clear over the last couple of years that quality is what will continue to inform page rank moving forward. Article length, keyword use and other SEO content best practices like H1s and meta titles will, of course, be meaningful, but how and what you write increasingly determines where in the SERPs Google places you. With that in mind, below are three ways to make significant improvements to your content.
Improve Your Vocabulary
The larger your vocabulary, the better writer you tend to be. While this is certainly not a hard and fast rule, and using big or complicated words in place of shorter, more straightforward ones is not a sign of writing quality, the more words with which you have to express thoughts and ideas, the better content you will likely write.
A great way to improve your vocabulary is to play word games like Scrabble. Scrabble not only forces you to rely on your own verbal intelligence to come up with words and score points, but comes with the added benefit of exposing you to your competitors’ vocabulary as well. Keep in mind that there are helpful websites like unscramblex.com out there that will put together word combinations out of the tiles you are dealt.
Use a Readability Tool
Readability, typically calculated as a score out of 100, refers to how easy it will be for someone to read a document or piece of text. Grammarly, for instance, bases their readability score on the average sentence and word length in your document, among other things like the use of passive voice and transition words. If you are using WordPress to publish content, a great way to make sure you are writing with internet standards and expectations in mind is to install the Yoast SEO plugin–which makes sure you are writing content that will be easy for a wide range of people to read.
Write for E-A-T
E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trust, and they are the defining criteria with which Google makes content quality evaluations for SEO purposes. Google has made major moves towards a quality or quantity model as far as content is concerned in recent years, and to be evaluated and ranked highly, article length and keyword use are not enough.
Your content needs to convey the authority and expertise of the writer and others in the field and demonstrate trustworthiness by doing things like utilizing outbound links that point to reputable sites and having credible people guest post for you.
Conclusion
Content writers with a dedication to expertise, authority and trust, who work on constantly improving their ability to employ language, and who write with readability in mind will come out on top in this new era of quality over quantity. Keep the above three content writing guidelines in mind and make your content stand out above the rest.
