“Remarkable” Content for SEO

I recently read “InBound Marketing”  by Dharmesh Shah and Brain Halligan. These guys are the founders of HubSpot. If you have used twitter grader or website grader, you will know what I am talking about.

The book starts off really well and I particularly liked how they classified good content. They used Seth Godin`s term “remarkable” content which means content that is worthy of someones “remarks“. This I thought was an amazing and alternate way than to just keep saying “Good Content” or “Original Content”. And as you keep thinking of it, it hits the nail squarely on the head about what is the best kind of content writing for SEO.

Most people when starting websites or starting SEO on their websites just start using too much of their competitors ideas and eventually this “remarkable” content concept gets set aside.

Writing original content is the only real basic thing that will get you your SEO results, it is the only guarantee that will get you the conversion points you want and it will make you come out as a thought leader. Read more about why be a thought leader?

Original remarkable content gets shared, it gets appreciated and it makes you come out on top. Just like in the gold rush era, sometimes internet marketing and Seo can be about following others trails and taking a lot of chances because the rewards can be amazing. The tendency is there to just start doing something. But fortunately, unlike the gold rush era, Seo isn`t about actually finding the Gold in Google, the gold is actually already in your website, in your linking ideas, your remarkable content and your care for communication and networking. With these in place, Google will follow you.

What Kind Of Content Should You Write?

Introduction

If theres one thing that there is too much of in the internet, atleast a good percentage — its hullabaloo! Maybe you don’t believe me; but then think how much content you bothered to read from sites that don’t have any ranking, or they may have ranking but the content just goes on and on just like in a thousand other places.

I myself have been a victim of being pulled into the whirlwind of writing on and on without having some form of clarity as to where I was headed with my writing. But after a while and after writing too much manufactured content (amazing how this kind of content still got ranked) — I now had to measure conversion and performance. Lo and behold! – ranking wasnt enough. There was something lacking and I needed to know what it was.  I needed to know what I could do to help improve conversion. 

I am dedicating this blog to writing content that will not only get ranking but help with conversion. This blog reflects my personal rules in trying to be a better writer myself and I hope you may find something here that may interest you.

RULE #1 : Do not ape others

The truth is there`s a lot of confusion about writing content and SEO competition analysis itself is unfortunately somewhat inclined towards writing redundant articles and blogs. Type any keyword and gushing out come all these similar and identical content. This is the first thing about content that you do not want to do.  You do not want to write like anyone else.

Writing like someone else shows weakness and shows lack of creativity and even worse – lack of an identity. Identify yourself and what you want to write about first. The writing should be aimed directly at someone or at a group of people. It should satisfy their appetite for knowledge on what they seek.

If someone has written about it already, dont write the same thing again! Instead use the keyphrase to support others writing or find better sources to justify the conclusion or work on an infographic to support the idea but from a different perspective. The conclusion maybe the same but the depth and details will make your writing very visible.

RULE #2 : Do not write for the sake of writing

Since writing is a basic marketing item needed in internet marketing and SEO; dont write just because you have to. If you truly hate writing, get someone who loves to write to do it for you. You may have great ideas but if you cannot for the love of God sit down to type – Get someone to help you out. The worse thing that can happen here is that laziness or trying to save time on the writing effort clouds what you want to say and your ideas do not come through as well as you thought them. Writing is about communication and is an art by itself.  I pretty much always try and get help in expressing myself through writing, I want the idea and the thought to come out right.

Writing should be human oriented and worthy of human consumption. Think broadcast quality!

RULE #3: Think from scratch

Never be scared to re-invent yourself or your site. Its all about getting better and if you do spot content in your site that really isn`t working or isn`t saying what it should – pull it out! I would rather re-invent some of my older pages or contributions than to think of new material. Your work reflects upon you and although you are eager for a great future, you may be leaving bad trails behind. 

RULE #4 : Write for yourself

Its hard to write something for someone else because that person has a complete different orientation. The best person to write for is yourself. Empathy can be a skill if you want to be a good writer or teacher. Place yourself in the audience and think of what they would like to know and how if you had a lesson plan you could lead them step by step. Remember that any learning process is always gradual and not rushed. In the internet arena, you do have only a few minutes..seconds even,  to make an impression–make use of this time wisely.

RULE #5: Fill in the gaps!

Read and research what others in your industry have written about and what they are writing about. Pay attention and you will notice that while everyone is running about writing the same thing over and over again, not many are seeing the windows of opportunity by writing something on the matter that nobody wrote about at all. This will make your writing style very unique and insightful. Don`t just start to write on a feeling; research and find the gap to squeeze yourself through.

Here is a sample of a blog I thought was amazingly crafted : Rich Brooks` Facebook Marketing for Small Business . This kind of content gets shared and appreciated.

In the end, to sum it up – it seems that originality is what really helps. Not just in a unique writing style but in the entire idea-concept approach kind of way.  This is what will help your work to be read and henceforth ranked. When you are original and have something different to show, you will get conversion because there aren’t many who can do what you do.It seems simple but I guess practice makes perfect and as you may see that I myself have a long way to go but am trying to make the best of it. It`s about the journey and not the destination.

You can also read up on how customers evaluate websites and you will find that content really is King, so please pay attention to what you write.