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5 Writing Tricks to Make Your SEO Content Rank Higher

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5 Writing Tricks to Make Your SEO Content Rank Higher

We know that Google loves quality content, so we try hard to make ours comprehensive, well-formatted, and valuable for the audience. The problem is that it’s not enough for high rankings in SERPs: We need top-notch content focusing on SEO.

That’s where writing tricks come into place.

Proper search engine optimization matters, but it goes far beyond keyword density and content usability today. SEO writers take a step further and develop many advanced strategies to help content rank higher.

In this article, you’ll learn five of them, with practical tips and examples to consider for writing your SEO content.

What is SEO content?

First, the basics. What is SEO content, and why is it critical?

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SEO content is writing assets crafted and formatted for better visibility and higher rankings in search engines. SEO content creation includes working with ideas, planning, writing, and optimizing for more traffic, user engagement, and ultimately convincing the target audience to take action.

How SEO content helps rankings:

  • It serves for better visibility in engines. According to CTR studies, the top three results in SERPs attract more than half of all clicks. So, the higher your content ranks in Google, the more people will see and click on it.
  • SEO content facilitates more backlinks. High-quality, well-optimized, informative writings attract natural backlinks and their quantity influences positions in SERPs.
  • It ensures strategic use of keywords for a Searcher Task Accomplishment (STA). As specified by Oneupweb, STA is “the idea that search results should be determined by the objectives of the user performing the search, and the satisfaction the user experiences when they receive those results.” SEO content satisfies user search intent, thus contributing to this Searcher Task Accomplishment idea.

It also serves your content marketing endeavors: With properly-optimized content, you’ll boost its visibility in search engines, engage users to click for more organic traffic, and thus influence your page’s overall rankings in SERPs.

5 writing tricks for SEO content creation

Now it’s time to reveal actionable writing tricks for stellar SEO content that guarantees organic traffic and higher rankings for your content in SERPs.

To start with, try the following five:

1 – Use APP or PPB methods when writing intros

You know that behavioral factors influence SEO: Google’s robots rely on them when estimating how users interact with your page to understand if it’s relevant and good enough to rank higher in SERPs. What can you do to hook visitors and motivate them to stay on your page longer, thus influencing its dwell time and bounce rate?

Write SEO content intros accordingly.

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Yes, it’s a title that grabs users’ interest. But it’s the first paragraph (introduction) that holds this interest and encourages users to keep reading. You know the general rules of writing intros for SEO content, don’t you?

  • Make it short (no longer than 250-300 words).
  • Use a target keyword in the first paragraph.
  • Consider bucket brigades (transitional phrases) to make each sentence flow into the next and “glue” readers to the page.

SEO and marketing specialist Brian Dean takes a step further and develops two formulas for writing intros: APP and PPB. Both are compelling and worth trying when you craft SEO content for your website.

1) APP = agree, promise, preview.

First, you provide a statement (a problem) your audience will agree with; then, give them a promise (a hint about what would help them solve that problem); and finally, share a preview of what they’ll find in your content (a solution).

The introduction for the blog post you’re reading right now follows the APP method:

2) PPB = preview, proof, bridge.

First, you tell about what they’ll find in your content; then, share some proof (why should they care; why should they trust you?); and finally, write a transitional sentence that would build a bridge to pass the reader on to the text.

Brian often uses this type of introduction in his blog posts:

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2 – Add <div id=”featured-snippet”> where appropriate

Optimizing for featured snippets is among the most effective SEO tactics to influence rankings and drive more traffic. Also known as Position 0, snippets appear above other content in Google SERPs as a definition, a bulleted list, an image, or a video clip.

We all want our SEO content to get there, right?

It would grow traffic, boost a website’s visibility, and add more credibility to a brand you promote.

While there’s no universal method to guarantee your SEO content a place in snippets, some writing and formatting tricks can increase your likelihood of getting there. One of them is an oldy-moldy <div> element in the HTML of your content page:

When you write a definition or a step-by-step list right after <h2> or <h3> questions in your content, format them with the <div> element and an id attribute. Like this: <div id=”featured-snippet”>text</div>.

For example:

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3 – Write and publish 10x content only

The term “10x content” comes from Rand Fishkin, meaning the content that’s at least “10 times better than anything else produced on the topic.” The writing trick to produce such content is using a Skyscraper Technique:

  • Find the top content piece on a relevant topic.
  • Craft your better version of it.
  • Reach those linking to the original, weaker content piece to ask if they’d like to link to your improved and updated version instead.
  • Outreach others to offer your 10x content.

The 10x content is about following Google’s E-A-T guidelines: Expertness, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are what SEO content needs today to rank high.

It’s also about semantic SEO that helps generate more traffic to your website. So, do your best to craft original content assets of high quality to please both Google and a user and represent your brand as a reputable one.

4 – Format SEO content like a boss

Content usability is also critical. The more comfortable it is to interact with your page, the longer visitors will stay there, indicating to Google that your content is worth ranking higher.

So, if you want to achieve better visibility and engagement for SEO content, consider its formatting. These tricks can help:

  • Follow the rules of web writing. Reading online is 25% slower than from print, so why not ease this job for your website’s visitors? Use short sentences and paragraphs, think of simple text structure, remember about <h2> and <h3>, use bulleted points, mark critical info with bold, etc.
  • Avoid content usability blunders: left-align your texts, use correct spacing around subheads, consider the color combination between your text and page’s background, and be mindful of font size — all of this serves for better readability.

When formatting, remember your target keywords: Include them in headings, the first and last paragraph of your SEO content, and <alt> tags of your visual content. Yes, image SEO matters here, either.

5 – Use custom visuals

Let’s face it: SEO writers often use the same-looking pictures as featured images and throughout pages. That’s because such visuals are copyright-free.

A small problem:

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Too many websites use the same pics! They all save the list of resources with free yet beautiful images — and address the same image collections whenever they need a picture for their blog. Even if you optimize such a picture for SEO, it won’t bring you any results in rankings.

Why not generate custom visuals for your SEO content assets? With free graphic design tools like Canva or others, you can craft original and 100% relevant images. Screenshots with explanations work as custom images, either.

Here go the benefits:

  1. Such an image is another chance to win Google’s featured snippets as Image Packs.
  2. A custom image with original graphs, data, and statistics in it triggers users to share it with their audience, backlinking to the original. Thus, you can build more links to your website naturally.

Over to you

Now that you know how critical content optimization is for your overall rankings and marketing success, it’s time to apply this knowledge in practice.

Not only should your SEO content be comprehensive and valuable for the target audience, but it also needs to follow the rules of web writing you’ve learned in this article. So, do your best to avoid formatting blunders, optimize content for snippets, use custom visuals, and hook users in content intros to influence behavioral factors.

All these tricks, when done right, are your one-way ticket to the top of Google’s SERPs and more traffic.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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