This is, by far the most critical part of the entire content creation process.

SEO content cannot reach the right target audience when you do not use the right keywords. This practically means you have to look for those phrases and terms that the audience actively uses when searching for the type of content you want to create.

To locate the keywords, you need to understand these things:

• Who the audience is
• What information the audience needs
• Why that information is needed
• What keywords are used to look for the information

To simplify things, your research phase, the one before you start writing, should involve:

• Audience research
• Keyword research
• Topic research

Readability could be defined as the quality of the writing making it easy to read – which is vital for good SEO content.

When someone clicks on a link on a search engine and lands on a page, it takes a few seconds to decide if the content is worth reading, or if the back button is a better alternative since better content is surely available somewhere else.

When your content is very easy to read and skim, the visitor stays. This action shows Google that the content is most likely good and relevant to the query.

Readability is practically made out of:

• Clarity – What is written needs to be precise
• Organisation – Proper formatting is mandatory, together with proper use of white space
• Logic – The structure of the article needs to make sense, just like every single sentence
• Simplicity – When you need an academic degree in the English language to read an article, it is most likely not great (unless you target English language professors)

In the past, it was not a big problem if a page loaded slowly. Nowadays, it is actually a sign that the site is not offering a good user experience. As a result, Google is slowly but surely prioritising websites that load fast.

The problem is slow loading pages frustrate users. People no longer want to wait until a site loads, especially when using a smartphone or another mobile device.

BBC News previously suggested that 50% of shoppers only wait three seconds when they visit a retail page. If it does not load, they leave.

Obviously, statistics do vary from one industry to another. But the consensus is that a website needs to load in seconds, preferably under 10. As a result, the most important technical SEO part of content creation is increasing page loading speed.

Featured snippets are small blocks with information that sometimes appear on Google search results pages. They are displayed when users ask questions and Google identifies a correct answer.

It is highly recommended to format your SEO content to generate such featured snippets because the blocks with the snippets appear above the first result. This is prime search engine real estate.

To better highlight the importance of the featured snippet, Ahrefs conducted a study.

The research showed that 26% of user clicks went to the first result when no featured snippet appeared. When the featured snippet appeared, it was clicked by 8.6% of visitors while 19.6% clicked the first result.

Good SEO content has to be formatted in a way that it can get “snipped” for a featured snippet. Several tactics are used for this. The most effective ones are:

• Definitively answering questions
• Creating high-quality content that goes deep into the subject
• Including data and statistics
• Logically structuring content

The SEO industry has been talking about “E-A-T” or Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness content, for over a year. Some specialists think that it is not important while others rightfully say it is.

The topic is substantial, and numerous things have to be said about it. What is essential is to understand that Google is actively fighting fake content. E-A-T practically appeared to assess the online reputation of an author or a brand/company. When online reputation is low, Google and the user do not trust the content.

What is the link between online reputation and SEO content creation?

At first glance, nothing. When looking deeper though, it means that before, during, and after the content is created, the author can work on his/her digital reputation. The same goes for brands.

As an example, who is more trustworthy when someone needs cooking tips? Gordon Ramsay, an internationally renowned 7 Michelin stars chef with a huge online following, or Johnny, the cook from the local burger joint?

Modern search engine optimisation moved past simple content creation and now involves numerous tasks. Some come from marketing and public relations. Online reputation management is one of them.

Those who want their SEO content to rank higher can improve their digital presence and reputation, fight negative reviews by encouraging positive reviews, get cited by renowned publications, respond to user queries on social media, and more. Every little bit helps.