Guide to Create Relevant Content That Ranks

Businesses want to be discovered. Some businesses are known because of their name. The unique selling point of some businesses is their products or services. Being discovered is the key. And the arrival of search engines has changed that. 

Search engines now present a level-playing field for everyone. Businesses from anywhere can create content and rank on SERPs. They are now vying to create their mark among the top search results via content creation.

Relevant content can help you rank on search engines. It can increase organic traffic flow while converting prospects into paying customers. It also acts as a differentiating factor between good and great websites.

So how to make relevant content?

What is Content Relevance?

Content relevance is how well a page’s content answers a search query. Keywords are important for gaining visibility. They aren’t the only factor in determining the relevance of content. Google makes sure the intent of the content matches the search query to rank them higher on the search page.  

Why It’s Important to Create Relevant Content?

Understanding what is content relevance is necessary. You must also know why it is important for online businesses to create good content.  

There are two aspects to content relevance. 

• Maximum online users do not look beyond the first page of Google.
• Search engines find you and rank you at the top through good and purposeful content. 

Hence, securing a place in the top SERPs and attaining more clicks, traffic, and conversions becomes crucial.  

Good content is also necessary to keep the visitors hooked to your website. This will ensure they keep coming back. The quality and intent of content should be aligned with your prospective customers’ needs. Good content ensures lower bounce rates, increased click-through rates, and long-standing customer relationships. 

How does Google decide what content is relevant? 

Google decides so in many ways: 

Is the search query mentioned on your page?

Google checks whether your content contains keywords the same as the search query. 

Does it mention related things?

Keyword matching is the basic relevance test. Google also considers if the page includes other relevant keywords. For instance, a page about Louis Vuitton should also contain relevant keywords like luxury brands, high-end fashion, jewelry, apparel, etc.  

Does it appear to be valuable to searchers?

When you search for the keyword Mango, Google shows you the apparel brand Mango as the top search result. The same is the case with Apple, the technology brand. This is because Google considers past interactions with the users to assess if the content will be useful for the users.  

Google also considers how fresh a piece of content is to answer queries that require the latest information, such as news.  

Similarly, Google prioritizes local search results for local queries. 

How to Make Relevant Content 

You must now understand that different content is relevant for different search queries. Before creating relevant content, you must collect the keywords you want to target and search queries to which you want to direct your content.  

Here are a few simple steps that answer the question, ‘How to make relevant content?’ 

Find out users’ search intent

Understanding the search intent behind every query is a key aspect. This helps in figuring out the relevance of your content for searchers. Google algorithm constantly tries to find why a searcher might be looking for a particular query. The algorithm then presents the search results that align with the search intent. 

You need to find the search intent around your target keywords. This is to be done to rank among the top Google search results. It lets you know why a user might search for a target keyword related to your business.   

The top search pages present a good case study to figure out a 3C formula for finding the search intent:

• Content type: Know the type of content is dominant on the SERPs for your target keyword. Is it blogs, videos, landing pages, product pages, etc.? 
• Content format: What kind of content format ranks or dominates on the SERPs? Is it guides, how-to articles, listicles, reviews, thought-leadership pieces, etc.? 
• Content angle: Does the content ranking on SERPs have a dominant angle? Is it content for beginners or updated content?  

For example, if we were to search for ‘best places to visit in Singapore,’ the content type would be blogs, content format – listicles, and the content angle is that the most updated page ranks higher. 

Include everything the searcher is looking for 

You must cover everything users search for and expect to find in a relevant content piece. To achieve this feat, we again turn to the top-ranking pages for inspiration. 

• Look for similar or common subheadings: If you find similar subheadings in the top-ranking pages, you must realize these are the queries users look for online.  If the topic is the best SEO strategies, sub-headings like keyword research, competitor analysis, backlinks, best SEO tools, and best SEO agencies will be the common subheadings you would encounter. 
• Find subtopics from among keyword rankings: Usually, a page can rank for several keywords. These keywords cover different ways of searching the same topic or concern other subtopics. To find these sub-topics

1. Use an SEO tool like Ahrefs’ Content Gap Tool and paste the URLs of top-ranking results for your target keyword or topic 
2. Don’t fill anything in the bottom section and click on Show keywords
3. Make sure the intersection filter is set to 3 and 4 targets
4. You will get a list of subtopics to work your content on. 

• Take note of the People Also Ask section: These questions can present more things people are searching for related to your topic. 
• Manual search: Consider doing a manual search to double-check if everything has been covered in your content outline.  

Making Relevant Content for People and Search Engines

Create content that focuses on appeasing the users and the search engine. Use subheadings, add a FAQ section, enlist or include search terms relevant to your topic, and optimize your content with keywords to help it rank and get read. 

Great content creation can be your organic route to beating your competitors on SERP rankings and building authoritative content people want to read and learn from. However, it is difficult to achieve and requires persistence, perseverance, and continuous refurbishing.  

This can be done by understanding your customers’ needs and publishing content that follows Google’s best practices. Use SEO tools to discover powerful ideas mapped into content that drives traffic and converts. 

Conclusion

Content creation is crucial. It is not the sole responsibility your business has. It also requires considerable time and resources. Creating content aligned with user intent and with a purpose should be the aim of the business. 

Content creation can prove valuable in the long run to improve your site ranking, increase page sessions and social shares, and build a valuable customer base.