Write Content That Ranks in 2024: Tips for SEO Beginners

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving.

In 2024, the way that search engines crawl sites is developing at a rapid speed.

Smarter than ever, these search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo now have complex algorithms, taking into account more than 200 ranking factors to decide who gets placed at the top.

It used to be a bit simpler…

A few years ago, it was a bit more straightforward to gain positions and prominence on the SERP with a few easy wins. The general assumption was that the higher the frequency of the target keyword on a landing page, the more the search engine would deem that content relevant to the user and voila – you’re at the top.

However, this often resulted in a bad user experience and was frequently abused as a strategy. Along with several other dishonest methods, this became known as black hat SEO and led to a lot of bad practice and misuse. Tactics such as endlessly stuffing keywords throughout the text and adding hidden links on pages were commonplace. This tricked the search engines but at the expense of actually creating great, naturally flowing content for users to enjoy. Great traffic, poor retention!

Nowadays, search engines have wised up to such manipulations – punishing those for using black hat techniques. If a search engine suspects you are using dodgy tactics, you may be subject to a manual review and even a penalty which severely inhibits your ability to rank organically, or even prevents it altogether in the worst cases.

So, with keyword spam, irrelevant keyword targeting and writing for a specific amount of keywords out the door – how do you write genuine content that not only attracts the audience you want, but ranks at the top of Google?

Are there any honest, truly effective ways to write high-ranking content for search engines in 2024?

Let’s take a look at some key practical tips next time you are mocking up a piece of content.

 

How to write high-ranking content for search engines in 2024

1. Keep it engaging, and human

It’s no secret that businesses are frequently using AI-technology more than ever to write content.

These platforms can be a great tool to get inspiration, check grammar or overall generally improve time efficiency – however, when solely relied upon to write content it’s likely that your content isn’t original – and the search engine knows it.

Instead, try opting for as original content as possible, where your piece speaks to a ‘gap’ in the SERP (a lot of people are looking for the answer and not many people are answering it).

Your unique voice is what sets you apart from others, you are offering an authentic perspective on a subject – use this to your advantage.

2. Make it relevant for your audience

When we are contemplating what topic we should write about, we often refer to what people are currently searching for.

You can use all the SEO tools under the sun to discover the topics with the highest search volumes and use these insights to drive a great amount of traffic to your site. Sounds good, right? Wrong.

What’s the point in driving traffic to your site, just to have users bounce straight back off again?

For example, let’s say you’re a local company who is selling glassware – but you’ve just written a piece on the 2024 Olympics. Now you have a bunch of triathlon enthusiasts landing on your site when you’re selling oval tumblers.

Just because it’s trending, doesn’t mean it’s relevant to your site, or more importantly – your audience.

Your goal is to drive qualified traffic – people likely to spend a longer amount of time on your site, and ultimately convert.

Finding current or trending topics within YOUR industry is key. Look for the key insights – high search volumes, and low competition.

Once you’ve found a buzz-worthy or novel topic – ask yourself “Does this align with the rest of the content on my site?” “Is this something my audience needs to know the answer to?” and lastly, “Am I providing some kind of value to the audience by answering this question?.”

Keep it relevant, keep giving the people what they want – you’ll soon become a trusted source/go-to for users who are looking for topical and reliable information.

3. Say ‘No’ to Keyword Stuffing and ‘Hello’ to Natural Flow

Keywords used to be king – and to an extent, they still are. When Google spiders are crawling pages at rapid speeds, they need the clearest signals of what those pages are about – content deemed to be more granularly aligned with that search term will naturally be ranked higher on Google search results.

Pages with ‘Converse Size 9 Male’ are going to be ranked higher for that specific search term than ‘Sneakers for men.’

However, when writing a blog – keyword stuffing or being too particular is the death of a good blog.

Incessantly stuffing ‘beach holidays in abu dhabi’ 10 times in the first 3 paragraphs doesn’t read well. And what’s more, the user knows you’re plugging something.

Rather, opt for an approach where those keywords are naturally integrated in the text. You’re likely to pick up rankings for other keywords when you’re writing around a subject and taking more of a topical approach.

Side note… keep in mind that you don’t want to compete against yourself in the SERP – check your other content and try to focus on unique keyword clusters within your chosen subject.

Which takes us to our next practical tip…

 

4. Answer the Search Queries on the SERP

When people are searching for a beach holiday in Abu Dhabi, what other things are they searching for?

Go deeper – perhaps they will be asking the search engines questions like ‘How to choose the right resort for my beach holiday’? or ‘best time to travel for an abu dhabi holiday?’ – those who are looking for the beach, are also likely considering the weather on their trip. The ‘People Also Ask’ section of the organic results is a goldmine for this and something you should be frequently looking to for ideas.

Answering these questions will give you a better opportunity to rank in a ‘featured snippet’ or appear in the same commonly asked questions section of the SERP that you were looking at in the first place.

Pro tip: if you want a head start in seeing what people are asking about – type your question into the Google search bar and see what Google automatically fills – this will give you a great insight into current queries.

5. Content Length Matters

When it comes to the SEO world, size does matter.

Sure, there is the argument that shorter-form online content – as we are used to seeing on social media – is a great way to grab user attention, keep their interest and reduce reader fatigue.

This may be true when users are trying to find answers quickly or if your landing page is a category description.

However, when it comes to ranking – it appears that longer pieces typically rank higher than their shorter counterparts.

Why?

Longer pieces on average tend to generate more quality backlinks – the longer the content piece (successful pieces can often be found in the form of guides, manuals, and 101s) – the more links you will tend to generate from content. For beginners, that’s others (sites) passing some authority onto you.

As a general rule of thumb, you want your post to have as much reach as possible – in the form of backlinks and shares (as long as they’re legit). The more authority your site gains, the more Google trusts you and recognises you as a valid, established source for good information.

 

So, what are our takeaways?

Mastering SEO content creation in 2024 demands a strategic and thoughtful approach – make sure to emphasise quality and relevance over outdated tactics.

As a beginner, you might also be prone to making these unintentional common SEO mistakes, so keep mindful of these sneaky smaller factors that could harm your ranking.

As search engines become increasingly sophisticated, the focus shifts from keyword stuffing to delivering genuine, valuable, user-centric content.

By keeping your content original and engaging and tailoring it to what your audience needs, you can achieve higher rankings and better user retention.

Don’t only rank well – provide a meaningful and satisfying user experience.

Happy writing!

 

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