4 Reasons Why Great Writing Helps You Rank High

Oh, those coveted first 10 positions in SERPs! The things we’d do for them.

10 years ago, it was rather simple (but terrible!): stuff your 300-word article with the same keyword until it becomes unreadable for the human eye. Repeat the process 100 times and you’re golden.

Luckily, those days are behind us.

Now we speak of authority content and of human-centric content as a means to rank high AND get conversions at the same time.

Is it simple?

No, not anymore!

Is it worth it?

Definitely!

Great writing is about respecting your reader first and foremost. However, it comes with added benefits. The fact that it helps you rank high in SERPs is one of them.

As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I often get asked a series of questions that get roughly the same answer:

How can I rank for this keyword?

What do I need to do to rank high for this phrase?

How can I get my website to rank higher?

How can I get leads from organic search?

As you might have guessed, the answer to all of these questions is great content.

Let’s see how it can help you rank high.

4 Reasons Why Great Writing Is Your Key to Ranking Higher

Here’s the thing: when I start telling people and even some of our potential clients what great writing entails, my popularity suddenly drops. It’s hard work and I’ve never tried to hide this.

Precisely because very few people are good at this, the prices of copywriting services have soared so much in recent years. People know that good copy and great writing sell, so they are worth every penny.

However, some of those who aren’t accustomed to the not-so-new ranking factors have a hard time believing that great writing is enough to rank high in SERPs.

These are the reasons why they are wrong:

1. Great Writing Is Long Form and In-Depth

When you really want to get to the bottom of a story or topic, you write a lot about it. You explore every angle, you reference it appropriately and, by the time your readers are finished going through it, they are educated, informed and empowered.

Obviously, you can’t do that in 500 words.

So you write more.

Do you know who else loves long form content?

Google does.

When you write a lot on a topic, you get the chance to repeat your keyword multiple times naturally. Plus, you use a lot of LSI keywords that tell Google you really know what you’re talking about.

Consequently, you rank high for one or more keywords.

Take a look at the average length of top-ranking content from a research conducted by SERPIQ and quoted by BuzzSumo.

According to another study by CoSchedule, the average length of a high-ranking blog post is 2,070 words.

How can you write long form content without being boring, you ask?

The short answer is: give people what they want to read.

Hunt for questions that needs answering and for keywords that your audience inputs into search engines. For instance, you can visit Quora to learn what people have recently asked about your industry.

After browsing Quora you can easily come up with a list of questions that you can then answer in a blog post or a series of blog posts.

Keep one thing in mind, though: make sure that your content is targeted. In other words: make sure that those questions come from your buyer persona aka the type of reader you can turn into a paying customer.

Next up: start crafting your perfect blog post. Head on to BuzzSumo to see which are the top ranking posts on that topic. Those are the ones your blog writers need to beat.

Need help crafting blog posts and other content and copy collaterals that rank higher and bring in customers? Learn more about our copywriting and content writing services.

2. Great Pieces of Content Have Great Headlines

…and what do great headlines get?

That’s right – more clicks from organic searches.

According to Moz, 80% of readers never get past the headline.

Unless it’s a great one. Then people will read your content and come back for more. This is how you also get blog subscribers, social media fans and paying customers.

Why does this matter and how does this help you rank high?

Well, since the most recent Google algorithm updates, you have to be popular to become popular.

This paradox means that the most popular websites, those that get the most clicks from organic searches, as well as other sources (direct traffic, social media shares and more) will automatically be ranked higher.

Yes, great writing didn’t just make Hemingway popular, but also quite a few blogs. And the more your readers are happy with what they read, the better your ranking.

3. Great Writing Keeps People Clicking through Your Posts and This Helps You Rank High

The bounce rate and the average time spent on page are two key blog metrics. They tell you how much people love your writing.

The relation is simple: if they got to one of your blog posts and loved it, they will read it until the end – this increases your average time spent on page. Better yet, they will want to read more. So they will click on other pages to get to other articles or to learn more about the awesome writer responsible for a certain piece.

You guessed it: these two metrics are tell-tale signs for Google that you should rank high.

Think of it this way: Google wants its users to be happy with the results they get. And so should you! One of the ways in which Google (and other search engines) can measure this happiness is the time users spend on your website and their level of engagement.

If the average reader bounces back to SERPs as soon as they click on one of your links, it means there’s something wrong with your website. And you won’t be ranking as high as you want.

Once again, great writing saves the day and helps you rank high.

4. Great Writing Gets You Backlinks

…and we all know how important those are, right?

In fact, this happens in more ways than one – and all of them help you rank high.

First off, we have the simplest relation ever. Just like in boy meets girl à boy likes girl à boy marries girl. Reader reads your piece à reader likes your pieces à reader links to your piece on their blog.

The result – you get a new backlink and you rank higher.

Then there’s the convoluted relationship that involves social media.

A lot of SEO experts have had trouble finding a direct relationship between social media influence and page ranks.

But a relation exists.

Cognitive SEO discovered that the larger the influence on social media, the better the page rank.

It’s quite easy to understand: with greater social influence, your amazing content has better chances of being discovered. Once that happens, all of the above do: people read it more, spend more time on your website, share it on their own social channels, link to it and, finally, you start to rank high.

Wrapping Things Up

Want to rank high? Even higher? Highest? Write well, write often.

That’s it!

People wrongly assume that search engines are working against bloggers and content writers. They don’t. They have a direct interest in getting people to the best pages on the internet. Remember that there is more than one search engine, so all of them have to stay competitive.

Their key is coming up with new ways to put the best content available online in front of their users.

Your key is to be the creator of that content.

Need help with boosting your SEO through great writing? The team of hand-picked SEO copywriters and content writers at Idunn has already helped dozens of companies rank high and get leads through amazing pieces of content. Get in touch with them: