Here's 1 simple strategy to writing killer SEO web content for your blog.  You can be sure that you're post will be the best result in the SERPs when you rank.
Copy and Dominate in the SERPs
Don't enter the SERPs blindly, look at who's already there.
Analyze the first page of results, specifically the top 3, and take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses. Â There are two main parts to analyze and improve upon: Titles & Content
The Why
If your title is more appealing than the current results in the SERPs you will actually increase your ranking naturally.  This happens because a better title will get a better click-through rate.  You will also have an easier time holding the top result because of this.
If your content is more appealing and useful this will help your rankings because you will have a lower bounce rate. Â Also, having a higher quality of content has tons of other benefits as well… increased opt-ins, more shares, sales, etc.
Better Titles
Take a look at the top 3 titles and gauge how targeted they are. Â Are they promising to have exactly what the searcher is looking for?
Take a minute to understand the strengths of each title and also how they might be lacking.
A live example: a search for the keyword “how to rank higher” produces a first result with the title “10 Tactics to Rank Higher in Search Results”. Â This title is straight forward and takes advantage of a common yet effective tactic – the list title (10 steps, 8 ways, 3 reasons, etc.).
How could your post title be better?
Easy, there are no added benefits or buzz words in that post. Â A better title would be “9 Easy Ways to Rank Higher in Google” or “Rank Higher in 3 Fast Steps”. Â A stronger result would have apparent benefits in the title.
There are a lot of ways to create great titles for your content, but usually you can simply add a benefit that implies your result is…
- Easier
- Faster
- New
- More Comprehensive
- Smarter/Better
Tip: Number #5 would be like a post that claims “how to build 500 links” VS a post that teaches “how to build 100 links”.  It's a very competitive tactic, but there's no reason to ignore opportunity for advantage in the SERPs.  It's a dog eat dog world out there 😉
For Better Content
The next step is to take notes on the actual content appearing in the SERPs and develop your content strategy. Â Click through to each of the first couple results and see what they've got to offer. Â Some might be comprehensive, others might be lacking. Â You might even pick up a tip or two or remember a point you might have forgotten.
Figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each post or result in order to come up with your plan for the ideal blog post for this keyword.
A couple examples of how this improves your blog content:
- If one result has a cool chart the others don't, include that chart, but makes yours even more complete with extra metrics or other relevant data.
Posts with useful resources likes charts or lists are very easy to link to (for you and others). Â I made a post with a list of niche social sites on my blog – since it's a very basic resource it's relevant ALL the time.
- Use some similar info and also unique information the other results don't have.
If a visitor has already looked at another result they'll still find something new on your page this way. Â If they visit another result after yours they might not find anything new and leave quickly. Â Guess who has the better bounce rate?
- Organize your post in a better way.
Confusing organization of a post or an unclear message will drive visitors away. Â Keep your post organized and…
- Get to the point right away
Keep people interested by telling them exactly what you're offering right away. Â If your research is done right, you're offering exactly what they're looking for.
Not only does the analysis you conduct insure your result will be better, it also helps you define your post itself and give you direction before you write it. Â You can be completely confident that your post deserves to be the first result and you'll have a new, very shareable and useful post on your blog/site.
In essence, you're taking your original idea for your post and fusing it with the best parts of the current ranking content. How could you not end up with an awesome post?
Is this a new web content strategy for you? Â Do you try to rank every blog post you write?
Hello Ileane,
I like your article. I noticed that for web content to rank well, it’s not only necessary to come up with good, original content. It’s also important to polish it up for getting the reader’s attention and SEO as well.
Thank you for sharing.
I have to disagree here,Title and everything else is important, but if you don’t have quality content your are less likely to get natural back links, so you will go down automatically. Writing great content and then optimizing it is the way to go.
Kevin,
it’s good to know that you’re into keeping unique web content on your website or blog. How often do you publish to your site? 🙂
I’m not well versed when it comes to SEO. Your article is an eye-opener for me. Thank you. All I know is that when I write good content, the gods will one day favor my site with good page rank. Now I don’t have to rely on the gods so much, don’t I?
Have a nice day!
haha that’s a good way to look at it. There are always more strategies and tactics to use in order to take the success of your blog more into your own hands.
I guess the unique content part is very important – If other sites have not written about the topics that you have, you can expect a ton of traffic for them. There are topics like that and it takes a lot of time to identify them. But then, time invested is worth it.
Definitely, you can’t expect to be the first person to write about anything ever, but you can remix content and put it together in a better way than it has been presented before.
I think it’s important to keep focus on how to improve the content on your site at all times. Especially for a blog -> your content is your main value proposition.
It is not easy to write unique content at the moment. I often Google before writing one and it seems like many people wrote about my topic earlier. However, it doesn’t mean that my posts couldn’t get better rank. I tried to optimize the title and have been successful many times. So I think SEO is as important as content.
Can’t argue that the first and most important SEO factor is obviously “content”. However, I do agree that proper use “Titles” can make or break good rankings on the SERPs. All you need is a bit of creativity and a sharp eye for properly using those keywords where they matter most 🙂
Certainly, a major point I wanted to stress with this post was simply looking at the titles of your competitors in the first place, and then optimizing. I think factors like a properly relevant result (based on keyword usage and intent of searcher) and a more appealing title can go a long way before engaging in other SEO practices like link building.
Agree. First things first, right?
Thanks for sharing. In addition to focus on quality content, i would also like to mention keyword density. Focus on a few keyword phrases and reapeat these keywords 2-4 times pr 100 words you write (keyword density: 2-4%). Why do this: It will help you get a better rank in the search engines.
If you use wordpress, there are actually several plugins that will help you with this task more or less automagically.
Hey Rick,
Thanks for your feedback. I do have to disagree though about keyword density. The problem with using KWD as a metric is that you don’t know what an ideal density is. You would need access to the entire index of related docs and also understand the weighting factor Google applies to account for different lengths of content in order to find the perfect density.
This is one good strategy, I will be implementing this one on the current website im working with.. Good one Ben
preach on, preach on. Everyday I wake up and turn the computer on, I’m learning more more about how to strategize successfully in creating better web content for my visitors. I’m not as professional as other sites are “yet”, but taking my transformational baby steps in striving for excellence, so I can be a better content publisher in days ahead. I’m also discovering that taking advice from fellow successful publishers has not only kept me humbled, it has enormously helped me to improve in my content diversification.
I agree, brother. Thank you for responding to my comment 🙂
Great article, You’ve mentioned very effective ways to outrank your competitors… It’s really important to find the weakness in top ranking articles and use in yours. I certainly try to follow them.
Post Title is key, if you form your title based on what people could type in search engines, or at least make it as close as possible, there is a good chance your post will be picked up by search engines faster simply because of the way you phrased and arranged keywords in the title.
I have tried this in the past and it worked, 1 of my posts got more attention than the rest simply because of its title.
this explains now why most of my newest content that has “keyword rich call to action post titles” being indexed by search engines virtually immediately after hitting the publish button. I’ll be sure to double back in the near future and reread this post again, for more publishing inspiration! (smile)
I’m sorry if this question is obvious, but if I want my dry cleaning company to get on the first page, and I analyze my competition and put better titles on my pages, when do I start writing articles?
Where do I post my articles?
Any help is appreciated.
Hi Ben,
I agree with you, title tag is one important thing for SEO, because search engine also make this as one factor to rank blogs in SERP. Still keep your title tag short and clear to make it more SEO friendly.
The importance of unique content ever since google changed its algorithms is extremely important, besides that the fact of having new content added to the site is very beneficial to google rankings, but yeah, good idea by taking some information off the top sites, it makes sense because they are obviously doing something right to be ranked so high.
I think writing relevant content is essential. I agree that a catchy title can get readers attention to your article and has high SEO value. Thanks for your article, I’ll be following your tips.
Hi Ben,
Nice post! Everyday I’m searching for new techniques in improving my website and today I’m lucky to see this blog of yours. Well better web content will surely bring visitors and if they will like your site they will become your avid fan. Most of the websites that I have seen are just full of graphics but less content. One blogger said that the internet nowadays are full of garbage. That is why I strive hard for my website to be a “MEATY” website.
Great article, Ben! As much as possible, I try to rank with in every blog post I write as much as I can. I have to admit that I’m still struggling with it. Will definitely give your tips a try. Thanks!
I love this post Ben!
Getting a page/post to rank high always feels like you just do your best and see what happens. It’s too abstract, especially for people with highly logical brains.
Your way of competing is more structured, and you kind of know what you will get, because you got what the number 1 ranked post/page has plus more/better.
It’s a bit like with backlinks. I know how many backlinks my competition has. But it is very difficult to get the exact same amount and strength and then go over it. You just try to build an amount of high quality links that you think will be enough to beat the competition.
Great insight into dominating the search engines! A quick add-on about titles; clarity always ranks higher than cleverness (even though I, personally, tend to gravitate more toward the clever titles..)!
nice titles sir,cool points and great pointing view.keep writing more articles for basic blog tips 🙂
Great article and great tips! I also consider titles to be of extreme importance when it comes to the success of an article – and also the first paragraph. If these are well written, then you’ll certainly be more successful than most of the bloggers.
WOW!! This is a cool strategy. 🙂 Very condensed facts. Thanks Ben. I would definitely be implementing this one 😀
hey nice share..content of a blog must catch the readers attention and shud provide them with solution or new innovative ideas….
the title of course is the first impression that a visitor gets and if that is good its sure to bring in more targeted traffic…
nice share
Regards
Aniket
If you have blog related to SEO and blogging then you cannot come up with unique article every time but yes you can write unique titles to dominate the search rankings. Just great article dude. I got the point. Well written with awesome idea. thumbs up for you Ben.
Thank you for this article…I learned something new again..:)
Hello ben, your a great blogger and a helpful one. Your post is packed with a good source of information that can be applied and your thoughts, ideas you’ve shared is very useful to make as more productive enough. Thanks for sharing this it really helps a lot to make my content better. I will try this one right away.
We have been trying to move up in the SERP for a while and it seems we have cracked the top of the page. We researched what the others were doing with their site, blog, social media and link building and we sought out to do it better than what they were doing by simplifying our layout and generating original and relevant content at a constant rate. Here’s to rising more!
hi Cory,
To rank higher in the search engine results pages, I would strongly and positively recommend creating more press releases/article content to be submitted to article & press release directories. In turn, this will help to raise you higher in the [search engine results pages], in addition to lifting your overall page rank, while sending you more web traffic, and potentially increasing your online advertisement revenue, a.k.a. —> “$ gUaP$”! =)
I personally felt inspired to reply to what you said in your comment here. Like yourself, I too always seek new and positive avenues online, in increasing online visibility, while “being of service to others in a positive way” n’ [passing along the inspiration], by way of valuable information sharing 🙂
Stay humble & hungry =)
my assumption is that the best bloggers and internet marketers today made the biggest mistake starting out, in developing their content strategies. Am I correct? 🙂
very fantastic strategy…………i will definitely follow this
SEO is one of my weaknesses. Thanks to this post, I am one step closer to having it become one of my strengths.
I agree with your article 20% title 20% description and remaining 60% for content quality content is only way to increase the ranking and traffic on your site.
I agree most with the title factor, having a good and attracted title may case in generating a lot of traffic specially from search engines, good content are really important too.
Thanks for the post really like it.
Thank you very much for the article.
As for me, I am still a beginner in the world of blogging and I really appreciate this kind of article because it is clear and simple. It shows me what to do to improve my skills ! Thanks again and sorry for my English, it is not my primary language !
very nice points brother.really writing content is very hard task now.your new ideas really amazing 🙂
Hey ben Amazing article. I once put my phone number in the title of a blog I was ranking for and I actually believe that helped my get more click throughs and actually had some people call me and buy the product I was promoting through my affiliate link.
So catchy titles do work 🙂
I think that’s a great strategy as you don’t have write fresh content all the time, you just need to write some points which your competitors lacks or that makes your article much informative plus interesting.
I agree with aanchal. It may seems slightly unethical but by law, you did not do anything wrong. It seems pretty legit as well.
It certainly makes the brainstorming process easy!
To be clear, I’m suggesting to rewrite in a totally unique way and make it your own entirely. Usually I’ll have an idea of what the content should be and come up with a quick outline that I then build upon after the competitive analysis. No copy + paste involved!
I always marvel at the people who are able to generate great titles for their posts. Its very hit or miss with me – but I know it is important.
Searchers looks out for the least & highest list no. when searching. So instead of 7/8 tips writing a 10-15 tip list-post would be beneficial. On the other hand anything less than or equal to a 3 tip list-post could also attract the searchers and tempt them to click on the link.
Good point, the number of steps or tips your article contains should also be targeted to your audience. I decided to try something different out here – just 1 tip, written concisely.
I find that titles in the Serps work best if there is a balance between ‘eye catchingness’ and the seo benefit received from actually having the full keyword phrase in the title. I always find it much harder to rank for keywords if i don’t have them both in the title and the url. So I attempt to bring readers in by incorporating the full keyword phrase into a catchy title. Something that posts like these always highlight for me is how woefully lacking my content is in terms of organisation. I think as you said i may be driving readers away with a lack of organisation in my posts. Anyway thank you for the interesting post.
Having proper titles is so important. It’s amazing how many sites I see that do not have basic on site SEO taken care of.
Very helpful tips and I fully agree that an excellent title can tempt a visitor to click the title and go through the article.
I don’t try to rank every post I write, although I pay attention to my basics that I do on every post for good SEO. It’s a good point to analyze the 1st page and take note of the competition and what they’re doing right before adjusting your post. Thanks for the good reminder and push inthe right direction!
Danelle Ice / Home Ever After
very cool list – some of these I know, but always looking to add to my list of resources – might want to add market samurai or social adr as well
Hello
Enjoyed your article on search engine optimization (SEO). I am not into internet marketing; but, merely looking for ways to popularize my new site on anxiety attacks. You have provided me some very helpful tips. Thank you 🙂
Ellie
I’ve never really thought to analyse the top 3 competing sites and then to make sure my pages have superior content to them. This makes perfect sense though, in allowing you to reduce your bounce rate. I’m going to make this part of my strategy, along with tyrying to improve my page titles.
that alone should motivate you to keep creating content and work overtime on it too 🙂
Ben and Ileane,
Great set of tips….rising in the SERPs has been a constant learning effort for me. I never really thought about exploring the first couple results for a keyword then fixing what they did wrong on my own posts (but you can bet I’ll be on top of that now).
One other thing I would add too is to not overlook your META description. While not used in ranking so much anymore, it is displayed to the user in search results and a well written description can certainly include your CTR significantly.
Wonderful i agree with your thoughts this makes perfect sense though, in allowing you to reduce your bounce rate. I’m going to make this part of my strategy, along with tyrying to improve my page titles. Thanks for sharing.
Some great advice here thanks. I’ve been trying to reduce the bounce rate on one of my sites so must have a good think about the titles and header information to keep browers for longer.
I so need to do write better headlines which is why this is on my list of things to master really soon. Do you have a listing of sources I can refer to?
Everything you said is spot on. I use the keyword in my home page article at least 3 times with BOLD, italic and underlines for extra attention. this works as my sites are 1st page. Copy and Dominate is a good way to get a higher rank – copy your competition….and dominate.
I launched my nail art business last year but now need to get my web site bringing in some local clients so this for me is superb for me. But please don’t shout at me if I keep coming back asking what you think are silly questions. I tell you what I will do your nails if you do my website LOL.
Have you noticed Google is doing split-testing with titles? If users find (and click through) to your site with search terms regularly enough, Google will sometimes rewrite the title in the SERPs with those search queries.
It’s interesting to watch – haven’t collected enough data to see whether it has a measurable effect yet though.
Awesome tips here, my friend. i agree for content quality content is only way to increase the ranking and traffic on our site. and I fully agree that an excellent title can tempt a visitor to click the title and go through the article.
I’m always looking for useful tips on how to create better web content. Please keep blog posts like this coming 🙂
Hm, do you really think adding a benefit to the title tag is wise? I can understand visually that it might grab more clicks, but what about purely just from a ranking perspective. I’ve always seen KW as title tag obviously. I guess it comes down to links, getting you there… then a benefit KW rich title tag would be the icing on the cake for CTR purposes once your there.
Being original is one thing but these days, readers are more into reading not only original, but quality content. For instance, a childhood story can be written in two different ways – original thoughts and polished original thoughts. Content that is polished as well as original is ought to capture readers’ attention.