Are You Using Blacklisted Backlinks? Check Now
Want to know how to write good content for a website?
You’re in the right place…
Website content is anything on your website that a user can use, read or interact with.
It’s split into three categories:
- Textual: This is anything written or text-based; like blog posts, news articles and even the words on your homepage.
- Visual: This is anything your user can see; like a video, an infographic or just a photograph.
- Aural: This is anything that can be heard on your site; like songs or podcast episodes.
These three can be combined to create great pieces of content.
For example, a great blog post might contain…
- 2,000 words
- 12 images
- Two videos
- An audio snippet
Although I’m sure Google will be able to interpret video and image content in the future, the majority of its search algorithms are based on written information.
Google’s crawlers can read but they’re not adept enough at viewing or hearing just yet.
(They can make out some objects and text in images.)
The more in-depth your content and the more of these different mediums it draws upon, the more valuable it’s going to be to search engines.
On the flip side, bad content can hurt your website.
If you’re creating thin content that’s stuffed with keywords, doesn’t add any value to the reader and is only there to generate advertising income… it’s going to lose favour. Fast.
What Will I Learn?
Why Is Good Content Important For SEO?
The goal of any search engine is to connect its users to the best possible content.
This means that good quality content is incredibly important for SEO as Google will only pick good quality content to not only rank highly but to index in their database.
They want to link to resources that help people…
- Find answers
- Solve problems
- Buy products
- Get accurate information
To ensure they’re always sharing the highest quality content, they constantly update their algorithms to help them cut out any bad content from their index.
Kind of like how a wolf picks off the weakest sheep in the flock.
So if you want to stand a chance at ranking in a search engine you need to be creating a website content template that is:
- Accurate and up-to-date
- Well organised and easy to read
- Long enough to cover the topic thoroughly
- Newsworthy or adding new insight to an old topic
- Utilising all three forms of content: visual, audio and written
- Referencing other sources and industry leaders
- Free from spammy links or too many affiliate links
Let me show you an example of a good piece of content and a bad piece of content.
Let’s say you were looking for a review of Rosetta Stone’s language learning software.
This first piece is a bad piece of content for someone looking for that software.
It’s poorly written, formatted and no focus on why you’d want to buy the product.
If you took the time to read any of that content, you’ll notice that it’s basically orientated around the Rosetta Stone keywor and doesn’t provide much value.
Let’s compare to this blog post which is the first Google result for ‘Rosetta Stone Reviews’.
There are some stark differences.
I’ve annotated some of them for you to see:
Their layout could be better, but the content itself is miles ahead of the other post!
I hope you can see the difference too.
Now you’ve got an initial idea of what good content is…
Let’s look at different ways good content can be presented to your audience.
8 Frameworks For Amazing Content
The first step to creating good content is putting it in the “frame”.
A “frame” is a simple way of saying the type of post you’re going to write.
Thankfully, there are lots of tried and tested ways to do this.
#1: List Posts
List posts (also called listicles) are the most shareable type of website content.
They’re great for sharing…
- Ideas
- Comments
- Tips
- Commentary
Having numbered lists makes them highly clickable and shareable.
See below, list posts always make an appearance in BuzzFeed’s most shared content:
These don’t just have to be for cheesy viral content, either.
You can use it to create many different styles of content. For example:
- Tutorials: 23 SEO Copywriting Tips That Work
- Photo Posts: 24 Best Spots In The Caribbean
- Round Up Post: 12 Expert Tips On Becoming Vegan
For example…
If I search for different types of guitar the data from a list post is extracted to show me:
There are so many benefits to list posts.
#2: How To Posts
How to posts (also known as tutorials) are the cornerstone of SEO friendly content.
Someone asks a question, you give them an answer and a solution.
This post is best written in long-form containing at least 1,500 words.
The idea being to go to depth and help the reader solve their problem.
They’re also a great place to share…
- Videos
- Images
- Audio snippets
Which is why they often work their way to the number one spot, or wind up in rich snippets, in Google for problem related search queries:
Some great examples of how to posts are:
- How To Start A Blog
- How To Start A Freelance Writing Portfolio From Scratch
- The Ultimate Guide To Travelling Cheap
These are the types of blog posts you want to bookmark!
#3: Resources
Resource posts bring together tools, tips, articles and tutorials from around the internet.
They’re great for SEO because they attract a lot of backlinks and social shares, especially from the people who have been featured in the posts.
I’ve used them to great success on my blog and my audience has loved them.
You can check out this post, Free SEO Tools to see an example of one.
This type of post can be used in conjunction with any of the other types of posts.
This will create good website content.
#4: Reviews
Reviews are great value-adding content.
Like you saw at the start of this article, reviewing products is one way to approach this.
You can also review songs, events, movies, books and anything that requires an opinion.
Here are some more examples of great review posts:
- SEMRush Review – 68 Ways To Take Your Site To The Next Level
- SEO Powersuite Review: 24x Ways To Increase Search Traffic
- DC Rainmaker: GoPro Fusion 360 Camera Review
This creates original long-form content beyond just saying if it’s good or bad.
If you combine this with rich snippets you can create a Google SERP result that is attractive and enticing to click-
Not only can you add stars, your name and other information but you can also add FAQ Schema as well!
(Don’t forget to test your schema with a schema tester).
#5: Expert Roundups
Expert roundups ask experts in their industry to answer a specific question.
You then display the different answers to your audience as unique content.
This type of content is great because they attract lots of links and social shares.
The industry leaders are likely to share the post to their followers, and other sites are likely to link back for specific quotes.
Here are some examples of posts:
- 49 Expert Traffic Generation Tips
- 19 Local SEO Experts Share Their #1 Ranking Tip
- 50+ Internet Security Tips From Experts
#6: Podcast Or Video Show Notes
If your content is audio or video based this doesn’t mean it can’t be found in Google.
Using transcriptions or creating show notes, is a great way to repurpose your podcast.
I use this to add to blog posts or to send to my email list, after any video training I create:
And if you’re a podcaster…
Here are some show notes for you to look at and use as inspiration for your strategy:
#7: Thought-Leader Posts
If you run a personal blog or website, thought-leader posts can attract a lot of attention.
You take a stance on an observation you’ve made in your industry and argue your point.
This comes from the old-school origins of blogging, but it’s still super effective.
Rand Fishkin the ex-ceo of Moz.com, has used thought leader posts to help grow him and his brand over the last twenty years. (You can read his heartfelt departure post here.)
Tim Urban is another example of someone who has built an entire business around this.
His ‘Wait But Why’ blog is one of the world’s most subscribed independent blogs.
#8: Case Studies
Case studies are another great way to create good, original content.
They attract a lot of SEO benefits.
By performing an experiment or trying something new within the bounds of your industry, you can create valuable and unique content whilst sharing new ideas with your audience.
I have a lot of case studies on the blog you can use for reference:
How To Generate Ideas For Website Content
One of the hardest parts of creating website content is how to come up with new ideas.
You ask yourself – what should you write about, and will anybody care about it?
But there are a few ways to generate consistent new ideas for content which your audience will definitely love.
Audience Surveys
Asking your audience is arguably the best way to start generating content ideas.
Simply put together a survey through SurveyMonkey and send it out to your audience.
Ask them what their biggest problems are and are there topics they’d like you to cover.
You can also use Google Forms if you want a simpler looking & completely free, version.
If you don’t yet have a mailing list or an audience, you can do this through Facebook groups or other communities you’re a part of.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public is a free keyword scraper tool that pulls together search queries and FAQs.
In the search bar beneath the impatient bearded dude, type in the broad keyword for your subject. Like “hairdressing”. Then hit the get questions button.
You’ll then be presented with a wheel of questions people are constantly asking.
They’re split into questions with different intent.
This helps you decide on the right content for your site, too:
All you have to do is pick a question and write a piece of content that provides the answer.
Quora
Another great question platform is Quora.
You can see people asking and answering questions about your niche in real time.
There are a few options here:
- You could use any one of the question headlines as the basis for your content
- You can try to answer the content, see what reaction it gets and then decide whether or not to use it on your site
Depending on the topic, you’ll have to do some digging to find the real golden topic ideas.
But the important thing is this:
Someone, somewhere, is searching for answers to this question.
If they’re doing it here, they’re probably doing it on Google too.
Newsjacking
If you want to create content that’s on-the-pulse, a great way to do this is newsjacking.
Which is a fun way of saying you’ll “hijack” a news topic.
One simple way to find topics to talk about is to head to Google and search for your topic in the “news” section of the engine:
This will come up with all of the latest news stories in your niche from the last few weeks.
But, there’s an even simpler way.
You can create a Google Alert to send you an email whenever a new story is posted.
So you get ahead of the curve and beat all of your competitors.
Want to appear in the Google News section? Follow my step by step tutorial on how to get on Google news.
How To Write Great Content For Your Website
I write good content for my website by using these principles
- Write how you speak
- Longer content is better than shorter content
- Use white space and subheadings
- Link out to reputable sources
- Use videos and images
- Follow these SEO copywriting hacks
- Sprinkle keywords, don’t shove them in
So with your ideas in place, it’s time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)…
And start creating content.
But this begs an important question:
How do you go about writing good content for your website?
Although there will be a variation for every niche, the principles remain the same.
Consider these best practices when you’re creating your content:
Write How You Speak
Your content should be easy to read.
Few people open a website in the hopes of reading an in-depth University thesis.
Instead, writing for the internet should be conversational and fit the cadence of your voice. When writing your post, read sentences out loud to see if they fit how you talk.
If not, edit them to fit what you would say.
It’s also important to set a “tone” for your voice.
Your tone is how you convey your message to the reader.
In all of my writing I aim to hit these six points:
- Tell it like it is – straight & to the point
- Be real
- Like I’m talking to a friend
- No more than 3 sentences in a paragraph
- Short & punchy
- Keep it simple
This is what my readers expect of me when they come to the blog to read.
It’s also what resonates with the people I want to read my content and become part of my sphere of influence.
Depending on your niche and your audience, your tone of voice will change.
But it should feel honest and true to how you want to create your content.
Longer Is Better Than Shorter
Good content is usually longer than it is shorter, and ranks higher.
But you should never go under 500 words.
I have blog posts that are in excess of 10,000 words. That’s bigger than some books!
But they rank well and gather lots of attention.
Use White Space And Subheadings
Big paragraphs with little space around them can be intimidating and overwhelming for a reader. Especially if they’ve found your content through search.
They just don’t want to dive in and start reading.
Instead you can follow my unwritten rule of: no more than three sentences per paragraph.
This allows for lots of white space and easy, fluid movement down the page.
When you pivot to a new part of the topic, be sure to add a subheading so that skim-readers find the parts they’re looking for too.
Link Out To Reputable Sources
Whenever you make a claim in your content, find a way to back it up. This could be a research study, another blog posts or a place where you’ve read a quote.
This is great for SEO and your readers will love you for citing credible resources.
Use Videos And Images
When you make a point, try to go as deep as possible to make sure the reader gets it. You can aid in this by adding videos and images to illustrate what you mean.
Also research shows that articles with images perform better in every way.
Follow These Copywriting Hacks
If you want to know how to make your writing crisper, sharper and more readable…
I recommend you check out all of my SEO writing tips too.
Sprinkle Keywords, Don’t Shove Them In
Use your keywords sparingly.
They should definitely be in your content, but don’t force them into every possible gap.
The more natural you can make them sound, the better. If it’s jarring to find one of your keywords, there’s a good chance you’ll lose their attention.
But Matt, What If I Can’t Write?
If you feel you can’t write (or you don’t want to do it)…
You can buy content for your site by hiring a freelance content writer or outsource it to a content creation service that specializes in SEO copywriting.
I use freelance writers to help me on projects, especially when time is tight and I have more important things to do.
The best way to find freelance writers is to ask around in your network and see if any of your contacts can recommend someone.
But if that doesn’t work, you can look for writers on ProBlogger Jobs or UpWork.
Alternatively, you could just use the voice typing feature of Google Docs-
Then you can just talk about the subject like you were explaining it to a friend.
Bonus: An other solution is to use Frase.
Frase is an AI powered content marketing tool that helps people write search engine optimised content quickly and ealisy. Check out my Frase review to see how it works.
How To Create A Simple Content Strategy
A content strategy is a defined way of creating content for your website.
- Define Your Goal
- Get Clear On Your Audience
- Research Your Search Queries And Keywords
- Set A Regular Posting Schedule
- Set Aside Time Each Month To Write
- Repeat steps 3 to 5
It means you can generate ideas and continue to deliver over the long-term.
Let’s take a closer look how to quickly set one up:
Step #1: Define Your Goal
The first step is to look at what you want to achieve with your content.
If you’re on this site, it’s probably attracting people to your site through SEO.
But get specific: how many people do you want to attract and in what sort of time frame?
Step #2: Get Clear On Your Audience
Figure out who the “persona” of the person you’re writing for.
- Who are they?
- What are their problems?
- What are they searching for and why?
This will help you choose things like:
- Where to share your content
- When to share your content
- The type of search queries you should target
Step #3: Research Your Major Search Queries And Keywords
What are the major keywords you want to target?
What types of searches are people performing to find them?
This should directly link to the last step.
You can do this by using some of the methods in the keyword research section of this guide, or you can use some of the idea generation tools mentioned above.
Step #4: Set A Regular Posting Schedule
Decide how often you’re going to share content on your website.
- Do you want to do it every day?
- Do you want to do it every week?
- Do you want to only do it every month?
But it could also be overwhelming for your audience. You’ll need to test this one.
Step #5: Set Aside Time Each Month To Write
Define time in your schedule to write.
Once you start posting content…
It’s important to keep your blog fresh and updated with new content.
Set aside time in your schedule that’s protected for content creation.
Your website will thank you for it.
Step #6: Repeat Steps 3 To 5
It’s that simple.
Research queries to generate ideas. Post regularly.
Set aside time to write, and actually do the writing!
Wrapping It Up
Website content is anything on your site that a user can interact with, learn from or use.
Good website content is important for SEO.
Google’s job is to connect people to the best content for their queries.
If your content is below standard, it won’t make it far up the rankings.
If you want to attract people to your site and have more success with building links to your content, you need to be sure it’s outstanding.
There are eight types of good content I recommend you use:
- List posts
- How to posts
- Reviews
- Resources
- Expert roundups
- Case studies
- Thought leader posts
- Podcast/video show notes
Don’t forget: Once you’ve published your content, submit URL to Google to get it indexed as soon as possible so people can find it in the SERPs.
If you don’t know how to do that, check out my complete search engine submission guide – NO SEO submission software required!
Now you understand what makes great content, it’s time to leverage that with some SEO copywriting techniques.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start writing website content?
If you want to write for the web, either as a freelancer writer or for your own blog, just follow these tips:
- Use titles and headings
- Create a clickable table of contents
- Include your keyword in the content
- Use multimedia and spaces to break up the text
- Be concise, go straight to the point
- Write for a middle school reading level
- Use the active voice
- Check your grammar
What is website content example?
Some examples of web content are product/service brochures, manuals/tutorials, presentations, white papers, industry reports, case studies, fact sheets, ebooks, webinars, and podcasts.
57 Responses
How can I add Meta Keywords on wordpress?
This is what I think about meta keywords https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/on-page/meta-keywords/
Wonderful Post.
It includes almost everything newbies need to ace content creation.
Keep it up, Matthew Sir!
Cheers Affan Khan!
Always, thanks for the tips Matthew! For sure this is one of the newsletters worth being subscribed.
Thank you, Carlos! Cheers :)
Thanks for your important information.
No worries :)
Great info!
This has NUMEROUS broken images.
Just checked and couldn’t find any!
Found you via Brandbuilders podcast with Bradley glad I found you, the content on this post was really helpful and was just what I need to hear this morning during my writers block, thanks. Look forward to checking out more of your stuff.
Thank you Carlos & Welcome to my blog!
Wow! What a great article, and so useful. I appreciate how in-depth it is, which is just how you write posts.
This post gave me a ton of content ideas, and the right way to go about writing it.
Thank you!
Glad to hear that. Good luck Gale!
Great and very informative article.
There are some methods here I have not thought about and may implement with my newer blog posts. I usually have list or point posts separately, but will try to do both in one when the content asks for it.
I love these kinds of posts since they offer great content and value.
Great news! The best way to find out whether it works or not is to try it!
Really nice and interesting post. I was looking for this kind of information and enjoyed reading this one.
I hope you will apply what you’ve learned.
Fell free to share your experience and result with us!
Informative Content
Thank you, Sonali. Now, it’s time to put on practice what you’ve learned!
Nice post! Thanks for sharing with us.
No problem… hope you were able to pick up some helpful content writing tips.
How do you make your images and graphics? Which software do you use thank you very much. You can’t imagine how much we appreciate you thanks again my brother. I’m from the states
I work with Kapa99
Great post as it covers most of the aspects of content writing in nutshell .
I certainly hope so, thanks
wow! nice article…i love this site
Thanks very much :)
I kinda like the simple way you make your points Mat. i will still have to settle down and read this article again.
is there a way to reduce my website bounce rate?
Take a look at this – https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/on-page/reduce-bounce-rate/
Thank you very much because you are willing to share very useful information to many people
That the main purpose of my blog – glad it’s doing the job!
Thanks for this article. it helps us a lot!
.
Happy to help :)
Great post!! Thank you very much for sharing.
No worries – hope you can use these tips in your own content :)
Really impressive post. I read it whole and going to share it with my social circles.
Thanks for the shares – hope it was helpful Sourav
Hi Matthew!
Thank you for this post.
Do you think that those without a content team, or those blogging part-time (for instance, I can spend 8 hours max to blogging on weekly basis) should write long-form stuff as well?
For me, writing a 2000-word post (from the first word to a phase where I can hit “Publish”) takes approximately 1.5 weeks.
I’m worried that this phase is too slow for Google to notice my writings … what do you think?
Cheers,
Timo
Hey Timo – I think you should take a look at the content length of your competitors who are sat in the top spots in the SERPs and then write with their average word count in mind.
Matthew, thanks for writing this all down. I think often in our scene we tend to focus too much on writing for SEO – and forget to make our content appeal to PEOPLE first. Although both have their place, focusing on people will eventually make SEO also easier.
Very true Arie, search engines take user experience seriously.
Hi Matthew,
Just Before reading this article I was doing a meeting with my content team and I was telling them to give reference links on related words. Give government, research, study official links to back up your data.
and you have also said the same thing here, I am glad to read your article.
Great minds think alike :)
Thanks a lot for this, Matthew. It’s true what you say, as I already do many of these content factors you mention and my site content is above-average. Over time, my sites have been rewarded more and more with increased traffic & ranking etc.
I wasn’t aware of that podcast so I’ll take advantage of the tips about hiring writers which is what I’ve not yet been able to do with good results.
Have a good day, and thanks again!
Hey Marty – glad to hear of your success’ so far. Good luck finding a good writer and when you do… hold onto them :)
Thank you Matthew for this awsome post actually for few days I was looking for the posts like yours, like what type of contents should I write for my blog and now this problem solved now I got stuck in what types of topics should I cover I am really getting tired from this. Can you help me or share some tips… Thanks in advance Matthew…
Yeah easy – ask your audience what they want and then give it to them.
Awesome advice. As a freelance writer, I love the practical tips, and I’m sure my clients will appreciate them as well. Thanks a lot.
Haha awesome – glad to hear it Timothy
Great post as it covers most of the aspects of content writing in nutshell. But it is easy to say than doing!!!
Practice makes perfect!
Your post is really simple and attractive to read until the end;
my question is here about how grammar strength is important while writing content.
Is that enough to make understand what reader required or it should be as highly professional in language?
because why i am asking; am not native English speaker as like you dear;
if it is important then you can add in this post also.
Yes you need to have good grammar.
Thank you so much Matthew for such an awesome post! I took notes and am currently planning out a content creation schedule for one of my client. Do you have any tips on hiring freelance writers?
Should we send them your “23 SEO Copywriting Hacks That Get Instant Results” post to read, or should we let them do their job?
I know it might be hard for some people to receive suggestions about the way they work. I was wondering how you deal with that :)
Well when you hire anyone, it’s on you to provide them with an exact process/writing guidelines you want them to follow. And also remember you get what you pay for. I talk about it more in the last 15 minutes of this podcast – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/marketing-mantra-by-99signals/e/63375028?autoplay=true