Over time, factors that affect SEO ranking evolve. Content, however, is a rule that never changes.

With millions of pieces being written every day, competition in the content market is only growing.

Still, search engine optimizers have found a solid method for assessing the success of their content marketing campaigns. Type in content scoring or SEO content score.

You can ascertain your content’s probability of ranking for a particular topic by using a content score, which is typically offered by a content optimization service.

To help you focus your content creation efforts, the score offers insightful information about what is and is not working.

This post explores the scoring system used by content optimization tools and offers suggestions for raising a poor score.

Table of Contents

What is an SEO Score?

An SEO content score is an entirely automatic, real-time rating that indicates how competitive and optimized a piece of content is.

Its objective is to direct and inform your efforts to guarantee that you create thorough content that is suitably optimized for the given topic and well-positioned for ranking. It is typically based on SEO facts and statistics.

Content ratings assess your material in comparison to the competition, identify areas that require improvement, and take the guesswork out of maximizing it.

By doing this, you may save spending hours on tedious manual research and instead focus on creating content that is both ranked and aligned with user intent.

Notwithstanding these advantages, SERP placements are determined by a number of other variables, therefore content scores do not ensure higher or lower search positions.

Focusing on content quality

Quality refers to the depth of substance. Google and the InLinks algorithm have advanced to the point where they can distinguish valuable information from a simple pass over.

As you try to create content rapidly, consider how you genuinely cover your topic and give distinct value.

Check your content to ensure that you thoroughly researched the issue before writing. Confirm that the content is complete, contains enough headings, original facts, and thoughts, and is clear.

Use examples to demonstrate your point, give links to external and internal content that readers can benefit from, respond to all relevant queries, and include actionable takeaways that people can put into action.

While it is easier said than done, generating in-depth content that stands out from the competition is the quickest approach to capture Google’s attention and rank at the top of the SERP.

Consider the length of content

Despite the repeated statements made by Google’s John Mueller that word count is neither a predictor of high-quality content nor a ranking criteria, a number of SEO studies provide proof that longer content is associated with higher rankings.

Take this Semrush article about the components of a high-performing organic content, for instance. As Semrush’s study revealed, this does not imply that every piece you create has to be longer than 3,000 words.

Nonetheless, the length of your article should be sufficient to cover your subject thoroughly and offer insightful knowledge.

It is true that the ideal length of content for a given topic will depend on the search intent, the purpose of the material, and the needs of the audience; nonetheless, a smart strategy is to base the length of your content on the competition.

Page load speed

Page loading speed is a factor that both Google and Bing consider when ranking websites.

If your website’s users must wait even a short while for each page to load, they might abandon it.

That might lower your SEO ranking because it would shorten your dwell time, raise your bounce rate, and result in less pages being viewed.

Using caching plug-ins, ensuring that the code is clear and concise, optimizing picture sizes, lowering the amount of plug-ins, and eliminating redirection are just a few techniques to speed up page loads.

Utilizing high-quality photos has been demonstrated to boost conversion rates.

By optimizing your photographs properly, you can make the most of the ways that photos may foster empathy, build trust, and enhance user experience without degrading load times, which can have an adverse effect on your search engine ranking.

Fix broken links to boost SEO

Who wants to click on a link and then receive a 404 page? Unusable links impede user experience.

Furthermore, a high quantity of broken links is interpreted by search engines as an indication of an outdated, neglected website, which might lower your SEO score.

Fortunately, you don’t need to manually test the links on each and every page of your website. You can use a variety of tools and applications to make sure that your website is free of broken links, including:

• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• Google Webmaster Tool
• W3C Link Checker

Readability

Your audience is probably not interested in reading and comprehending a PhD dissertation each time they visit your website, even if they are well-educated.

If your content is too complex for them to understand, you don’t want them to click away and stop reading.

Your information will be more beneficial to your readers if it is simple to read and comprehend. Additionally, some experts think that Google considers readability when assigning a page’s ranking.

To check the readability of your text, you can use a number of tools, such as:

• Readability-Score.com
• The Readability Test Tool
• Readability statistics in MS Word

Social Sharing

SEO rank may be impacted by the quantity of Facebook shares, Tweets, Pinterest pins, and other social media mentions.

Adding social media sharing buttons to your website can improve user experience by making it simple for visitors to share your information and may even raise your search engine ranking.

Purchase behavior is also influenced by social media sharing: 43% of social media users have bought a product after like or sharing it on Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter, and nearly 10% of Facebook users say they have gone from liking, sharing, or commenting on an item to actually buying it.

In this case study, a pest control business that ran a campaign to encourage social sharing saw a 15% spike in organic traffic in just two weeks.

In the first month, Peep Laja was able to obtain over 40,000 unique visitors to his website, with social media sharing accounting for the majority of this traffic.

Here are several social media share button plug-ins to attempt to get you started:

• SumoMe
• WordPress Social Sharing
• Shareaholic

Final Thoughts

You can occasionally need to choose between getting more traffic from SEO and providing the best user experience, especially in the short term.

Avoid being seduced by just comparing metrics, such the quantity of visitors and page views. In the short term, SEO traffic may bring in more money, but higher conversion rates are frequently the consequence of improved user experience.

Ultimately, prioritizing user experience over SEO tactics is frequently a wise choice when considering conversion and revenue in the long run.