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When companies don’t invest in SEO content, it’s often because of one big misconception: that SEO content equals long, boring, keyword-stuffed blog posts.

This couldn’t be more wrong.

There are many types of SEO content that go beyond the long-form content that aims to incorporate as many keywords as possible in order to rank well in Google.

In this article, we’ll discuss which other SEO content types you can include in your content strategy to rank higher in the search engines, reach your target audience, and guide them through the different stages of your marketing funnel.

What Is SEO Content?

SEO content or Search Engine Optimized content is any type of content that is created to rank high in the search results and/or attract backlinks from other websites. It can be written content such as blog posts, visual content such as infographics, audio content such as podcasts, or audiovisual content such as videos.

In most cases, SEO content is based on keyword research to increase its chances of ranking high, whether that’s on Google, Spotify, or YouTube.

In this article, we’ll focus on written SEO content.

6 Types of Written SEO Content 

1. Pillar pages

Pillar pages or hub pages are a type of long-form content that is optimized for a (broad) core keyword. This keyword corresponds to an overarching topic that’s essential to the company’s activities and that is broken down into different sub-sections on the pillar page.

The pillar page touches upon all the aspects of the core topic but doesn’t go deeply into them. Instead, it links to more specific blog posts on each of these aspects.

A good example of a pillar page is Betterworks’ OKR page. It answers the question “What are OKRs”, explains why they matter and links to other posts and pages that provide more information on using OKRs in your business. It also links to examples of OKRs and provides templates to create your own.

The goal of this post is not to convert but to 

  • Build authority and trust.
  • Get users to click and stay on the website.
  • Create a solid internal linking structure that makes the website more user-friendly and helps with SEO.

2. Lead gen-focused posts

Lead gen-focused posts are a type of long-form content that targets the supporting keywords for the main hubs or pillar pages. In other words: they are posts that go into a specific aspect of the larger topic that’s addressed on the pillar page.

If we look back at the Betterworks example discussed above, OKRs are the main topic, while OKR templates are a subtopic that gets its own blog post on the Betterworks blog.

However, lead gen-focused posts stand out from other types of long-form content because they include a lead magnet that incentives the user to take action – usually, to subscribe to an email list. The lead magnet can be an e-book, a video, a template, or a White Paper like the one Beekeeper promotes at the bottom of their article on internal communication trends.

3. Landing pages

Landing pages act as an entry point to your website for new leads and aim to convert those leads. At first sight, they are sales pages with strong copy to persuade the visitor. However, these pages also have SEO value when they’re optimized for a product-related or transactional keyword.

Gmelius’ Shared Inbox page targets the keyword “shared inbox” which is also a Gmelius product feature. The page ranks on the first page of Google for several related keywords. It shares which companies are using Gmelius, shows screenshots of the Shared Inbox feature in action and lists all the things you can do with it.

At the bottom of the page, there are two clear calls-to-action: one to watch an interactive tutorial, after which you can book a demo, and the other to request a demo directly.

4. Highly-targeted BOFU posts

Bottom-of-funnel blog posts often follow the content format of detailed buying guides that help users decide which product is the best for them, or that break down why they need a certain product and what they should be aware of when buying.

These types of posts generate organic traffic by answering purchase-focused search queries and targeting transactional keywords that are not targeted by any of the sales or feature pages on a company’s website.

Beekeeper’s article on enterprise collaboration software is a piece of long-form, high-quality content that explains in detail why it’s important to use this type of software and which problems it solves. It also gives examples of companies that are successfully using Beepeeker – which just happens to be an enterprise collaboration software – and the successes they’ve achieved.

At the bottom of the article, users can download a guide on how to transition their team to collaboration software. This guide enforces the goal of this page, which is to convince teams to use collaboration software. And if the article already did a good job, the user can request a Beekeeper demo with the same form they need to fill in to download the guide.

Because of how detailed it is, this type of guide allows you to easily incorporate long-tail keywords without making it look like a “typical” SEO blog post.

5. Industry-specific posts

Industry-specific posts aim to draw in ideal customers by showcasing the brand’s expertise. These posts are often long-form articles that incorporate long-tail keywords to drive traffic. They can follow different content formats, such as listicles, how-to guides, and thought leadership pieces.

Beekeeper’s article on manufacturing compliance is only interesting to readers who fit their ideal customer profile of being managers at manufacturing companies and so whoever reads this post is more likely to become a customer down the line.

As these types of blog posts are highly in-depth and not sales-y, they’re also great for generating backlinks.

6. Awareness-creating guides

Awareness-creating guides are top-of-funnel content aimed at introducing your brand to your target audience. They form one of the often many touchpoints needed to build the trust required for someone to convert.

A good example is this Beekeeper post about operational excellence. Its primary goal is to rank in the search results so it can put Beekeeper in front of anyone who is looking for information that’s related to Beekeeper’s product.

SEO Content Doesn’t Need to Be Boring

There are a lot of different types of SEO content you can create to drive traffic to your company site. Long-form, keyword-focused blog posts are just one of those content types. A solid SEO strategy takes into account the different stages of your marketing funnel and matches content creation efforts to it.

While using keywords is crucial for on-page search engine optimization, it should never go at the cost of creating high-quality content, nor does it have to.

Get in touch to discuss how you can generate more traffic by creating content you can be proud of.

Want to generate more traffic with content?

We can help. Reach out to discuss how you can generate more traffic by creating content you can be proud of.

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Author

Sofie Couwenbergh
Sofie is an SEO-savvy content strategist, consultant, and writer. She helps brands generate more qualified leads and keep customers engaged with engaging optimized articles like the one you’ve just read.
Flow SEO Blog

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