Have you ever searched Google only to be disappointed with the results – none of them fully answer your questions, or aren’t helpful at all? Well, this is what Google is trying to solve in its latest update!
Last December 5, 2022, Google launched the helpful content update which basically means that Google is prioritizing content that is “written by people, for people” in its results pages.
Oftentimes, the top results that appear in Google are pages that offer little to no value but were able to rank because they were stuffed with keywords. In an effort to give users a better experience, Google’s new algorithm is designed to display high-quality content, or in other words, content packed with unique and valuable information that people will enjoy reading.
Creating a people-first content plan is the key to dominate the search results this 2023. If you want your SEO efforts to bring results, read along to find out how you can create content that both users and Google will like.
Understand your target audience
Without a clear understanding of who you are writing for, your content may miss the mark and fail to connect with your intended readers. That’s why when creating content, always start with your target audience.
These are the essential information you need to know about your audience:
- Demographics. How old are they? What do they do? Where do they live?
- Needs and goals. What are they struggling with at the moment? What are they trying to achieve in the short-term and long-term?
- Where do they hang out online. What digital platform are they active in? What is the most effective marketing channel to reach them? What content format and type do they interact with the most?
Coming up with a buyer persona will make this part easier – if you need help with it, download our playbook to get your free template so you can understand the background, interests and preferences of your target audience better.
Another effective way to get to know your target audience better is by taking advantage of psychological characterization. You will be looking at the:
- Psychographic. What are the personality traits of your target audience?
- Location and culture. What are their norms, beliefs, traditions and language?
- Behavior. How did they interact with you in the past?
This will help you gain a better grasp on the motivation and values of your audience so you can create content that speaks to them on a deeper level – making it more likely that they will engage with your content, share it with others, and ultimately become loyal followers.
Long story short, the first step in writing quality and engaging content is understanding your audience. This part may require some work but it will help you write content that your audience can resonate with.
Organize your content
Organizing your content has two benefits – it helps Google find the information it needs faster, but more than that, it helps your audience digest your content easily.
When your audience can better understand the flow of your content, the message sticks longer and that ultimately leads them to take action. One of the most effective ways to organize the body of your content is by molding it according to the awareness stage of your customers:
- Problem Aware – when people search the internet, most of the time they are looking for an answer to a question or a solution to a problem. Highlighting the problem in the beginning of your content will provide a discussion about the problem and amplify the need for a solution.
- Solution Aware – once you have shed light on the problem, provide actionable and detailed solutions to the problem. This will open the eyes of your audience to solutions they haven’t thought of.
- Product Aware – position what your business offers as the best solution to the problem. Put an emphasis on what sets your product or service apart from the competition.
The awareness stage is the initial part of the buyer’s journey and has a major influence in turning leads into paying customers. By adapting this process as the structure of your content, you will bring clarity into the challenges of your audience and ultimately compel them to journey with you until their problem is solved.
Resources and tools to use in content development
Before creating content, you want to make sure it falls into your audience’s interests – why? Because if not, they won’t read it.
Coming up with relevant, unique and fresh content takes work but fortunately, there are many tools out there that can help you. Here are the notable ones:
SparkToro
Knowing your audience is as important as the content itself – Sparktoro is a tool that “helps you discover people’s sources of influence: who+what they follow, visit, read, watch, & listen-to.”
The key to creating better content is by knowing your audience on a deeper level, here’s how this tool does that:
- Delivers comprehensive insights on the behavior of your audience so you can understand them better.
- Provides the demographics of your audience from the basic information such as gender and age to essential ones like skills, interests and even political standings.
- Give the terms, phrases and hashtags your audience uses online so you can communicate better with them.
- Reveals the social media accounts, websites, podcasts and YouTube channels your audience engages with online.
In a nutshell, Sparktoro is a tool that will help you understand what appeals to your audience the most.
Semrush Topic Research Tool
Semrush is a popular SEO tool used by marketers, content writers and SEO experts. Its Topic Research feature gives insight on what content people are looking for online.
It basically generates the top headlines, subtopics, questions as well as related search queries, giving you a better grasp on what is piquing people’s interest. This tool can move your content work faster and save you hours of work.
Google Search Console
Google is the go-to place where people look for answers to their queries online so it’s a no-brainer to take advantage of the Google Search Console. If you have been publishing content, this tool will give you valuable insights so you can plan better content in the future.
Google Search Console basically tracks the performance of the content on your website. If your content is performing poorly, look into its weakness so you can improve. If it is performing well then build upon it.
Frase
Frase is another powerful tool you can use to create content that people will enjoy reading. Powered by AI, this tool has three standout features:
- First, you can create an outline based on your top competitors’ content. Do not reinvent the wheel – that content ranked for a reason, might as well emulate what works!
- Second, the AI can write a draft based on the outline you chose. In other words, you can create content based on your search competitor but still unique.
- Third, it provides insights on what your best content opportunities are. Frase can be integrated with Google Search Console and so you can easily spot which content your readers are leaning towards, making it easy to plan future content.
In short, Frase helps you create content that ranks in Google and captures your audience’s interests.
Takeaway
A ‘helpful content’ strategy is a people-first content plan, or in other words, it’s content created with your audience in mind. To create content users can connect with, you need to spend time and effort in knowing and understanding your audience – their struggles, desires and interests. Only then, you can create content that matters to them.
Fortunately, there are numerous resources and tools out in the market that can help you do so from audience research to competitor analysis. These tools will give you better insight into what content will give your audience a satisfying experience. This blog post was written with the help of Copysmith’s Blog Kickstarter. Want to save hours creating quality content? Try Copysmith today, no credit card required. Sign up to unlock your unlimited 7-day free trial and start writing engaging content for free.