One of the biggest questions often asked of an SEO Agency is Why is my site not ranking?. One of the many elements is the content, but what does that mean for you? At SMX Sydney earlier this year, there was a Copywriting for search presentation by Chris Thomas head of Melbourne-SEO firm RESEO.

So the first question often asked, is if you should write for people or for search engine rankings? It can be possible to satisfy both requirements with smart planning, structure and quality content. This post seeks to expand some of the points covered in Chris’s presentation with a fictitious example of a tennis equipment store with an expanding sports holiday side business and how a web marketing agency can help.

So the first point is to make sure you research your topics to understand that there is a demand for what you are going to produce and that there is interest in the topic.

For a tennis business running a WordPress blog, there isnt any point taking the time to write a blog topic on a general topic such as racquet types or court services or picking a complex topic outside of the businesses expertise such as tennis ball material density. Lets say our fictitious owner is a Wimbledon fan and makes the trip each year and has recently started a side business selling tennis holiday packages with a local travel agent. They have contacted their local web marketing agency to find out how content writing can help grow their presence online and potential market.

Based on the owners experience, a web marketing agency has advised to focus on a blog around Wimbledon as this makes it easy for the owner to create relevant content and they understand the industry.

The owner has spoken with their web marketing agency who have advised to include a few relevant keywords that target tennis holidays. They have also advised that a majority of the interest for Wimbledon is UK-based and their competition will be as well.

• Travel to Wimbledon,
• Wimbledon hotels, and
• Wimbledon tickets.

It is possible that the owner can work with the local travel agent to write up some great detailed reviews on hotels, travel options and ticket packages. These topics should typically be targeting around one to three phrases for each page/article and each article has to be unique and relevant to the Wimbledon blog.

The other important element to consider is how this Wimbledon content relates to the blog and the overall web strategies. Travel is a very competitive industry so how would the owner compete with large websites like Webjet.com and Wotif.com?

The best way is to make this Wimbledon blog/website a niche or authority on this topic would be to expand the content on the topic. This includes ensuring that based on the audience the articles need to be readable, compelling and interesting. In Chriss presentation he advised that marketers need to ensure there is a significant amount of text content with around 250 to 500 words per topic.

Another important element is fresh content for search engines and as the event is only held once per year a continual production of new content each month needs to be in place. Recently, USA Today had detailed coverage on Wimbledon’s new retractable roof. Since a popular newspaper has written an article on the retractable roof it is likely people are now searching for more information. There should be enough for at least three blog articles on this topic:

• Review of the new Wimbledon retractable roof comparison to last year,
• Past games affected/delayed by playing without a retractable roof weather, and
• Past structural changes to Wimbledon stadium history.

There is also a general interest around past games, winner profiles and even weather patterns. This is another area of content for the blog that can be added each month to increase the sites authority on the topic of Wimbledon.

Since the owners business revolves around tennis equipment the owner should also look at writing up several articles around past Wimbledon winners. They can examine equipment choices with lots of specific details, images and even video of product in use. If the owner has the resources it will be useful to expand their articles by also offer reviews of the equipment choice by of the rising star players that maybe the next Roger Federer.

These product articles help to build the authority of the website and are also useful for building trust and credibility.

One of the important points that Chris also outlined in his presentation is that there is a need to consider hiring a copywriting professional to assist. These professionals can help with directly producing conversational articles often within hours of receiving a request.

Quality keyword research is critical in ensuring relevant articles are being written as part of the overall web strategy.

So game, set, match – content is the winner!