Good content is still key to a successful website. But what makes good content? That’s the million-dollar question, right?

Higher Google Rankings = More Traffic

You can rank well with higher-quality content. This can be observed with Google focusing more on user experience signals like click-through rate, bounce rate, and pogo, among others. But how much of a difference does that make?

Well, a #1 ranking gets 10x+ the traffic of position #10 for a single keyword. Top-ranking content ranks for many more keywords and can bring in 30x+ traffic.

In other words, quality beats quantity when it comes to content in most cases. Here are the author’s six keys to achieving just that.

  • Key #1: Search Intent: Addressing search intent is the most important thing you should focus on with your content. In a nutshell, it means giving people what they’re looking for.

  • Key #2: Speed To Value: Get to the point. Don’t waste people’s time. Some readers want just the basics, while others need in-depth information. Understand what your audience needs and implement it successfully.

  • Key #3: Scannable: Readers scan content in an F shape as shown in Nielsen Norman Group’s “F-Shaped” Eye-Tracking Study. Eyes start at the upper left of the page and move to the right. Then, they jump down a bit and do it once more. Finally, as they scroll down, they look at only the left side of the content until they see vital phrases or terms that are relevant to them. So when writing for F-shaped scanning, use “Information-carrying words” at the beginning of paragraphs, include subheadings, bullet points, and turn to short paragraphs.

  • Key #4: Comprehensive Content: Remember that you don’t want your readers to go back to Google. Keep them on your website by making your piece comprehensive. Do this by making content actionable, linking to further reading/resources, defining and avoiding jargon for a beginner audience, and also defining the “job to be done”, or defining what the reader is trying to accomplish and helping them to achieve it.

  • Key #5: Up-To-Date Content: It’s essential to refresh your content regularly for several reasons. Bad user experiencecan be a result of outdated and incorrect information, and when people stop clicking & referring to it, traffic goes down.

  • Key #6: Make Your Audience Talk: When competing against sites with higher Authority Scores, creating an audience that is willing to talk about your content is especially important. Set up a system that gets people talking about your content so that they’ll share it and spread it, and link back to it.

What’s your own experience – as both a user and content provider – about what works best?