Why You Should Create Content for Readers, Not Search Engines

Who’s to say search engines aren’t important? Of course, they are.

Why should you create content for people reading your posts and not so much search engines?

In content marketing, content marketers should create content for the customer while educating them and eventually solve their problem. That’s who you’re creating your content for.

You have many ways of creating the user-friendly copy and maximizing your SEO at the same time. But what’s most important is your reader. The search engine determines what’s good content based on your on-page SEO. That on-page SEO is what gets readers reading, sharing and coming back for more.

Search Engines – How They Work

The main aspect of search engines is finding the best content to rank so when a user searches for a topic, the best of the best will show up in the top ten results of a SERP.

When they crawl the web, they’ll look for the number of backlinks and number of shares. Search engines are always updating their algorithms so updating your SEO will guide the web spiders to making sure your content is on the first page.

Internet search engines look for websites for the users. It’s up to your on-page SEO techniques to determine if the page is a top-ranking website. That’s why on-page SEO is important when creating content.

Longer content works better for search engines. These are usually high-quality posts deems credible. If your content is 1,000 words or more, your website page has a higher chance of ranking higher in the search index.

• Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions describe what your website will be about. When the user sees the headline in a search engine, they’d like to know what other information is on the page.

They are like the first sentence that comes out of your mouth or what you say when meeting someone. First impressions count as the cliché says. Your headline is your smile and the meta description is what you say.

Yoast plugin gives good ideas and helps you optimize your meta description.

• Keywords

The keyword in your content should be the most relevant word that will drive web traffic.

This is important for search engines because it knows the reader. The reader is the first thing to think about in content creation. Will they be able to share it? Will they love it so much that they’ll want their friends and family to read it?

The reader has to write a search query. The search engine determines the query based on what the user generated. The user comes first, then the search engine follows what they say.

The quality of backlinks makes sure you link valuable content to your posts. Poor backlinks will decrease the credibility of your website and search engines know that. Not only search engines will be skeptical, but readers will be also.

Readers – How They Work

The idea of content marketing is to target your customers. Educate them on a certain topic, your products or services, and eventually give a solution to their problem.

Although longer content works better for search engines, readers may not want to read 3,000+ word articles all at once. At best, they may skim the material and take what they can from it. Dividing up the content into no more than three sentences per paragraph is a copywriting technique used to make the reader want to read.

If they love learning visually, give them an infographic to look at instead of a blog post. If they’re an entrepreneur looking to learn about business life, they’ll be inclined to a 2,000-word blog post or slide deck that shows them the ropes.

Readers love current trends. They see memes come up on social media all the time. If you could incorporate a trending topic into your blog, it might go viral. If they love the way you write and the content you provide, they’ll act on subscribing to your blog or buying a product from you. That’s a chance you can take.

Create original content. Your credibility is questioned when you plagiarize and don’t create content not taken from somewhere else. In your own way, if a topic has already been discussed, write for your audience and how they would respond.

• Headlines Count

What gets the user to click on it and actually read it? Headlines are the first thing a reader sees before they read your content. A good headline has to line up with good content or words.

Having a good headline means enticing the reader’s interest. When you have a great headline and remarkable content, your reader will be sure to share on social media.

Coschedule's headline analyzer can help you create better headlines that resonate with readers.

• Sharing

What’s your content worth if no one knows about it, right? Promoting your work is just as important as creating and publishing it. Knowing your platform where you’ll eventually share your content is key to getting it to the right people.

The reason many posts become viral is due to social media sharing. Let’s say you write a post about a cookie recipe. You did all the meta tag descriptions, keywords, word length, and no one read it. You check your analytics and it says zero views. You can create good content, but sharing it with the rest of the world is what’s important. The idea is to get people to act.

• Get Them to Act

At the end of your post, give them a reason to share, comment, or subscribe. Interactivity is a good way for readers to get involved in something they're interested in. Even if something doesn’t relate to them, they can send it to someone who might find it useful.

All things work together when it comes to search engines and creating content for your website visitors. Content is better served to readers.

What are some techniques you use to create your online content? Are you creating for search engines or your users?

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