Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important for website growth and the statistics back it up. Google alone receives more than 78,000 searches per second, the top results are based solely on SEO and there are also other engines such as Bing. Research shows that organic traffic is almost 6x better than paid search ads and 61% of marketers say improving SEO is their top inbound marketing priority. There are many ways to improve your SEO rankings but good content appears to be the driving force behind every successful website. However, not all types of content bring equal results and different sites may benefit from different types of content.

Content and SEO

The purpose of content is to share relevant written or visual media so that your audience can learn something new and share it with others. In short, content addresses some of the pain points of your audience while providing solutions. Great content is consumed and then shared with a larger audience which boosts your SEO rankings.

Today, publishing high-quality content is one of the best ways to improve your SEO ranking. There are many types of content to consider such as blog posts, images, videos, emails, and more. With that in mind, let’s explore some of the top content types that can help you improve your website SEO rankings.

Read more: Why SEO Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

Blog Posts

Blogging is one of the most common types of content and it works wonders. Blog posts are easy to produce, they provide relevant information and people are always willing to read them. In a way, blogging is perfect for both the audience and the website.

When done correctly, blogging has a lot of benefits:

• Engages the audience
• Boosts your SEO rankings
• Attracts new visitors/readers
• Grows your brand

The good thing about blogging is that there are so many options: you can write opinion pieces, reviews, lists, how-to’s, and you can also opt for guest blogging. Write a compelling headline, provide useful information, optimize the content and enjoy the results. Blog posts are excellent for SEO and this type of content will be relevant in 2020 and beyond.

Videos

Video content is growing larger and larger, just take a look at YouTube where thousands of videos are uploaded each day. Video consumption is at an all-time high and this form of content is regularly used to improve SEO rankings.

Video content has a high return on investment, however, it is harder to create compared to content like blog posts. Although it may seem that Video content curation requires a lot of time and resources, there are tools that can help us with it. Websites like Renderforest provide us with Video creation tools that we can use to create Video content with little to no effort.

Here are some ways to utilize these tools for your business.

• Create an explainer video to introduce your business/product
• Create a video showcasing your products, services, or features
• Create quick tutorials or step-by-step guides for users
• Promote your brand image via storytelling

There are many ideas for Video content and they all work depending on the business. It’s up to us to test and see what works best for good SEO results.

Long-Form Content

We’ve talked about blog posts but we cannot forget about the importance of long-form content. Although long-form articles appear to be just extended blog posts, the difference is in the purpose of the two. Compared to quick and informative blog posts, long-form articles cover topics in their depth and take way more time and resources to complete.

Source

According to a study conducted by Backlinko, Google’s first page results on average show articles containing 1950 words or more. On top of that, long-form content gets 77.2% more links and more social media shares. All of this data shows how important long-form content is for SEO and traffic. However, long-form content is harder to make compared to short-form content and it’s best to find a balance between the two.

Infographics

If you’re looking to receive those backlinks, creating infographics is a great way to do so. You can collect data, structure it and represent it visually using infographics. This type of content is very user-friendly and it brings excellent SEO results through backlinks.

You can even turn a blog post into an infographic as shown below:

Source

The appeal of infographics is in its visuals and ease of consumption. Compared to standard blog posts, infographics tend to be more concise which means users are more likely to see it and share with others. You will need more resources to create infographic content but it can be well worth it if the topic is well-researched and the visuals match up.

Podcasts

Podcasts gained a lot of traction in the past few years, partly due to availability and ease of consumption. Users can consume podcast content while driving, doing dishes, or similar activities. Creating podcasts is really no different to other content, it’s simply audio instead of video or written word. Due to the demand, podcasts are a good source of traffic and will positively impact your SEO rankings.

Research Findings and Case Studies

In a world filled with opinions, more and more people are opting to look for real data through research and case studies. If you can put enough time and resources to conduct a study, SEO results will surely follow. Case studies usually get a lot of inbound links as they get cited somewhere on the internet, which is excellent for SEO ranking.

According to Buzzsumo, this type of data-backed content can attract millions of shares. A good example of this is CMI’s annual report on Content Marketing. Although this process may be time-consuming, it’s well worth the potential results.

Social Media

Social media content is heavily prevalent in today’s culture with more and more businesses hopping on. Social media deserves a post on its own but we’re here to stress its importance for SEO and website ranking. Although it does not directly impact your SEO, a strong social presence will drive traffic to your website and improve your SEO rankings.

Furthermore, all of your website content can be repurposed for social media with links to the original. Social media audience generally prefers short-form content, but if interested, they will search the original content for more information. Business owners can leverage social media content to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to their website and boost SEO in the process.

Social media also comes with certain threats to privacy in form of data scraping, leaks, and information sharing, so you might want to consider using a VPN and there are a lot of cheap options to choose from.

If you want to have excellent SEO ranking, make sure to create all types of content. Each content format targets a different audience and you don’t want to leave anyone hanging.

Read more: Optimizing the Optimizers: New Tools for SEO Success