Overall, What’s the Most Important Factor for SEO?

Content. Content makes the (internet) world go round’. Without valuable content, there’s nothing for users to find. The whole point of trying to get visitors on your website is so that they can read the things that you have written, right?
Your visitors are who determines whether or not your content & website have value.
If you have good content, people will be enticed to not only come to your website but stay on your website. They will refer your website to other people.
They’ll share your pages & posts to their audience on social media.
They’ll brag about your website to everyone they meet.
Your website will have more eyes on it, more visitors interacting with it & ultimately more brand awareness.
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Continuously creating good and valuable content to your target audience is one of the best ways to increase website traffic. But, it’s not only beneficial to your user’s, it’s also amazing for SEO. Blogging to help give your visitors value gives the google bots more content to scan through & a better idea of what your website is about. The more search bots & search engines know about your website, the more they can recommend it to user’s looking for your type of content (aka show your website in Google search results)
Give your website visitors value. Inform them. Educate them.
(That’s why knowing your target audience is so important. How can you educate and inform someone if you don’t know what topics they want to be educated in?!)

45% of marketers say blogging is their #1 most important content strategy. – Social Media Examiner

What kinds of content can you create?
Well this, of course, depends on your website & your target audience but regardless of your industry, there’s a ton of different kind of content that might be valuable to your audience.

7 Types of Content that Increase Traffic & Improve SEO

1. How-To Guides:

   Writing a how-to guide or a tutorial that walks your visitor through an entire process of how to do something is insanely valuable. They give your user’s a solution to a problem that they’re having. These typically work the best when you’ve faced the problem yourself at some point because you can pinpoint exactly where your user’s troubles are.
   When writing a how-to guide or tutorial it’s important to break down each step clearly & include images or screenshots to help avoid any confusion. The more value & education you can pack into those, the higher the chances of generated traffic.
   My most viewed blog post is a how-to guide: “How to Make Your Website Faster”.
   This type of content is probably the most time consuming, but if you do it right, it could end up bringing you traffic consistently, without you having to constantly share it.

2. Infographics:

   Infographics present & explain information in a visually enticing way. 67% of consumers consider clear and detailed visual elements as more important than other textual and non-image based content (source).
   Visual information is processed 60,000 times quicker than written information. Infographics combine the best of both worlds and can be used as a very effective communication tool.
   Besides the fact that your user’s love infographics, so does the rest of your industry. Interesting and powerful infographics can help generate more likes, comments, shares, and engagement on social media platforms.
   They also entice others to give a backlink to your website. (Backlinks are huge for SEO). If you create an infographic, email it to others that are in your industry and share them to influencers on social media. If they think their target audience would benefit from your infographic, they’ll be more likely to share it on a social media or toss it into one of their blog posts with a link back to your website to give you credit.

3. List Posts:

   List posts are hands-down one of the most successful types of content on the web. This blog post that you’re reading right now is an example of a list post.
   People love lists. They’re informative & easy to digest. It’s the perfect way to visually organize relevant information.
   They also offer a specific promise for your user. If the headline says “5 Different Ways to Make Brownies” you know that when you click on that article that you’re going to get at least 5 different ways to make brownies.

4. Interviews:

   They do these all the time on the news & TV shows. Why not utilize this type of content for your website?
   They offer inside access to an influencer’s perspective. Shoot out an email to an important person in your industry and publish the interview on your blog. Name recognition can boost your credibility through brand association and the interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach, especially on social media (which can totally help increase traffic to your website!)
   I’ve also seen expert round-ups. They’re like a combination of interviews & list posts where writers have asked a numerous amount of experts to share their views on a certain topic and then the writer creates a list post that explains each expert’s answer. Get creative, your visitors will appreciate it!
   Nervous about sending that interview email to an influencer? Don’t be! You’d be surprised at how many people are totally willing to share their insights, especially if the influencer is passionate about their industry. (Like shoot, I could talk about web design for 48 hours straight if someone would listen!)

5. Resource Posts:

   Resource posts are like a gold mine of information. They’re typically a round up of resources about a certain subject.
   Like one of mine for example: 10+ Networks To Look At For Creative & Freelancing Opportunities
   They could also be something like “Top Resources for Blogging” and then you have the chance to list your favorite resources that you use, love, & can’t live without.
   This is a great way to toss in affiliate links, get backlinks, and give your readers a point of reference.
   If you mention someone else as a reference in your reference post, shoot them an email and tell them that you’ve given them a little shout out. Typically, they’ll be appreciative and share with their own social media audience.

6. Reviews:

   A product/service review can be extremely useful to your user’s, especially if you can do it as a “blank vs. blank” type of post. When you compare one competitor to another, it allows your visitors to get help making a purchasing decision and they’ll appreciate your insight and honesty.
   Depending on your industry and what you’re reviewing, you could point out the best and worst aspects of the product/service, why you think they should/shouldn’t purchase it, and give them an overall comprehensive opinion of the options.
   Personally, I love these types of posts, especially when I’m looking for new software, plugins or programs. They allow me to get an inside look at another user’s perspective and help me to make a knowledgeable decision without shooting in the dark.

7. Videos & Podcasts:

   I’m sure it’s not big news to find out that billions of hours of videos are watched on YouTube every month. Different users appreciate different forms of content, some like written, some like video, some like audio, etc.
   By creating alternate forms of content, you’re also allowing yourself to be found on other social media networks like YouTube, Vimeo, & Periscope. Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine? (next to Google of course). So by taking advantage of these other platforms, you’re allowing yourself to increase your brand awareness & drive traffic back to your website.
   Multimedia content can be related to infographics in the way that they’re also very good for engagement. People LOVE to share videos on social media. My Facebook & Twitter feeds are always blowing up with these. People like, comment, and share these like crazy.

Sometimes it’s tempting to write content so that Google picks up your website, but you have to remember that you’re writing your content for people, not search engines. Google focuses on your websites user experience. If you write like a robot….no one is going to want to read your content & no one will come to your website. If no one comes to your website, that’s an indication to Google that you’re not putting the user first.
So just remember, when you’re brainstorming blog post & content ideas always put value first!

Interested in learning more info like this about SEO?

Check out The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to WordPress SEO. It’s the DIY non-tech guide to understanding SEO & optimizing WordPress websites for search engines. (+ checklists, worksheets, tips/tricks, & resource guides)
I’ve highlighted the most crucial & important points of SEO, so you can focus on getting the ground work all set up on your own. I’ve focused on not only making your website better for search engines but making it better for the people that use it.