As Google continues to emphasize authentic content, writing posts that address the clear intent behind a user’s search query is becoming increasingly significant. Unlocking the power of specificity in your content is the key to directly addressing the searcher’s needs, enhancing user experience, and increasing the likelihood of satisfying their queries.
Working within tighter parameters helps ensure that your writing is directly relevant to what users are searching for. Follow these three essential strategies to craft laser-focused content to outshine the competition.
1. Choose the Right Long-Tail Keywords
Narrowing down your topic for a new post (or evaluating the intent of an existing page you plan to update) starts with keyword research. Pulling the most fitting long-tail keywords is the best way to get specific. A head keyword will typically be, unsurprisingly, short and broad (such as home decor), but a long-tail keyword will typically be lengthier with more information (such as home decor ideas for living room).
The more long-tail the keyword, the more concentrated you can be:
- home decor
- home decor ideas
- home decor ideas for living room
- home decor ideas for small living room
While the shorter keywords will often have much higher search volume, these also tend to have more competition. Due to specificity, long-tail keywords usually indicate a stronger intent to convert or engage.
Finding the “unicorn” keywords is the goal. Choose the best, winnable keywords; those that fit the topic precisely and can compete with similar content on the search engine results page (SERP).
Keep the copy sounding natural and do not overuse keywords on your page (that’s called keyword stuffing). Take time to research and craft a title and outline using your strongest keywords for the H1, H2, and H3 headers.
2. Follow E-E-A-T Guidelines and Fill Content Gaps
Helpful content means creating specific, in-depth copy showcasing your expertise on a particular theme. Following E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines can help you construct a “complete” article. Google’s team of quality raters uses this set of criteria to assess the quality and reliability of web content for ranking purposes. If you lack the knowledge, avoid adding that content or outsource it to a subject matter expert.
A site audit is a smart way to find gaps and ideas for creating new content, removing unhelpful content, and discovering pages to update with new targets or more information that better answers searchers’ related queries.
When your content is well-researched, detailed, and accurate, it positions you as an authority for that subject matter to earn higher trust amongst your audience and improve credibility in the eyes of search engines.
3. Reduce the Bounce
General and broad topics face tough competition from numerous websites targeting the exact keywords. However, when you focus on niche subjects, you are likely to face less competition, making it easier to stand out in search results and attract organic traffic.
Designing your content to be specific can also help reduce bounce rate (the rate at which users leave a page without interacting further). When users land on a page that precisely matches their query, they’re likelier to stay and engage with the content instead of returning to the SERP.
Specific pages also increase your chances of being featured in rich snippets or other special search result features. These features can provide you with greater visibility and clickthrough rates.
As search engines become more sophisticated in understanding the context and meaning of content, getting specific allows you to incorporate relevant terms, synonyms, and related concepts that can help improve your overall semantic SEO and rank for related queries.
Being thorough when creating SEO content helps you stand out in search results, improves user experience, establishes your authority, and puts your pages in a better position to navigate the evolving search landscape.
