SEO Content Development: How to Improve Your Strategy and Drive Results

Originally published December 7, 2021 , updated on July 14, 2025

One of the cornerstones of great content creation is search engine optimization (SEO). But most businesses struggle to get it right. 

Content optimized simply to get clicks won’t necessarily drive growth or boost website traffic. You also need to create strong pieces that genuinely appeal to your audience. 

To improve traffic and drive engagement, you actually need to ensure your content is designed with both sound SEO principles and content strategy in mind. On this page, we give some tips on how to get it right. But first, let’s run through the basics of SEO content development.

The Role of SEO Content Development

SEO plays an essential role in content development. It improves content visibility on search engines, making it easier for people to find your blogs, whitepapers and social posts. Without SEO, even great content won’t reach the audience it deserves.

Improve Visibility and Traffic

Here’s how it works: When content is optimized correctly, it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). This means more people will see it when they search for related topics. Higher visibility leads to more clicks, and that leads to higher website traffic, which is crucial for building an online presence.

Reach the Right Audience

The goal of SEO is to identify the words and phrases (keywords) that people are searching for and then to include these in your content. Think of it as having the keys to the attention of your potential audience. When you use the right keywords,  your content is more likely to be seen by people who are genuinely interested in what you offer, leading to higher levels of engagement and more conversions.

Improve User Experience

Good SEO practices also make content easier to read and navigate. This includes using clear headings, relevant images, and providing helpful and valuable information. When users find content that answers their questions quickly and clearly, they are more likely to stay on the page.

Building Long-Term Trust

Consistently creating high-quality, optimized content helps establish your brand as a reliable source of information. Over time, as the same readers come back again and again, you build trust with your audience and improve your site’s reputation. All of which improves your domain authority and helps your content rank better compared to competitors.

An SEO content development service ensures your content is structured for both search engines and real readers – using clear formatting, engaging language and strategic keyword placement to keep visitors on your page and improve rankings.

The Role of Technical SEO in Content Development

Technical SEO focuses on optimizing your website’s backend to improve visibility and user experience. It also makes it easier for search engines to find and catalog the pages and information on your site. This is an essential part of content development because it ensures that your content is not only well-written but also easily accessible by both search engines and potential customers. 

Key aspects of technical SEO that affect UX (user experience) include: Site speed, schema markup, mobile UX and URL structures.

Why Site Speed Matters

Imagine clicking on a website and waiting… and waiting. It’s frustrating, right? Most people won’t stick around if a page takes too long to load. In fact, Google considers site speed a ranking factor, meaning sites with fast loading times are more likely to show up at the top of search results. 

Site speed also directly impacts how users interact with, and react to, your content. Slow-loading pages increase bounce rates. Meaning that visitors leave quickly, reducing engagement. On the other hand, fast websites encourage users to stay longer. 

To improve site speed, you can compress images to reduce file size and use techniques like caching to store parts of the site locally (in other words on the user’s device) for quicker access. Techniques like lazy loading also help by making images load only when needed, enhancing the overall user experience.

The Importance of Schema Markup

Schema markup gives search engines extra clues about your content. It’s a piece of code added to your website that helps search engines understand what your content is about. For example, if you post a recipe, schema markup can display the cooking time and ingredients directly on the search results page. This extra information, known as a rich snippet, makes your content more attractive to users, increasing click-through rates and driving more traffic to your site. 

Mobile-Friendliness: A Must for Modern SEO

Most users browse the internet on their mobile devices, so websites must be responsive at any screen size. Mobile-friendly sites automatically adjust to different screen sizes, making the content easy to read and navigate. This directly impacts SEO because Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily looks at the mobile version of your site when determining its ranking. If your site doesn’t perform well on mobile, it will likely struggle to rank, no matter how good the content is.

Clean URL Structures and Internal Linking

Another key element of technical SEO is maintaining clean and simple URL structures. URLs that are descriptive and include keywords make it easier for search engines to understand what the page is about. For example, a URL structure for your company’s  “About Us” page might look like this: https://www.example.com/about-us.  

Additionally, linking between related pages within your site helps search engines discover and index your content more efficiently. It also enhances user experience by guiding visitors to more relevant information, keeping them on your site for longer.

How Technical SEO and Content Work Together

Even the best content won’t rank if search engines can’t find it. Technical SEO ensures your site is fast, easy to navigate, and correctly structured so that search engines can crawl and index your pages without any issues. Think of it this way: If your content is the product, technical SEO is the well-organized storefront that makes it accessible and appealing. 

Content Isn’t King If No One Sees It

You can write the best content in the world, but if no one finds it, it’s basically useless. That’s why hitting “publish” is just step one.

To actually drive traffic to your site, you need to share it – on social media, in email newsletters, and anywhere else relevant to your audience. Backlinks help too, so you should aim to get other sites to link to your content. Search engines take that as a sign that your content is valuable. Some good strategies for accomplishing that are creating thought leadership-style pieces, infographics and guest blogs – basically anything that gets your company’s voice out there as an authoritative source on a topic.

Clever use of internal links is just as important. If someone lands on one blog post, make it easy for them to find another. This is one area where partnering with a company that specializes in strong SEO content development strategy can help. 

An SEO content development service can also support you with other parts of the content development process: from ensuring your content is optimized for search, to helping you build backlinks. And promoting your pieces across the right channels. In other words, making sure your content actually gets noticed instead of just sitting there collecting dust. 

Track What Works, Fix What Doesn’t

Not everything you publish is going to be a home run. Some content will perform well, and some will flop. That’s just how it goes.

The key is paying attention. Are people clicking? Are they staying on the page or bouncing right away? Are they actually taking action? If something isn’t working, don’t just leave it – update it. Maybe the headline needs to be more engaging. Maybe the content is too long or too short. Even small tweaks, like reworking a paragraph or adding a new section, can make a difference. SEO content development is never a one-and-done deal. The best strategies involve test and content to ensure performance improves over time.

How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy?

Developing a strong SEO content strategy on your own can be a daunting prospect. It requires taking a structured approach to content development that aligns your content with search intent, improves user experience, builds authority and gives readers something of value to engage with. A tall order! 

Partnering with an SEO content development service can help, by providing you with the expertise you need to accurately track performance, analyze user behavior,  refine content and make strategic updates that boost engagement and rankings. 

Regardless of whether you’re working with a service or going it alone though, paying attention to the following tips and strategies can help you get it right.

Keyword Research & Mapping

Keyword research is the foundation of any SEO strategy. Start by identifying seed keywords. These are broad terms relevant to your industry. Then, expand your list using tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs or Semrush to find long-tail keywords – phrases of three or more words that people typically use when searching for your topic online. 

Next, try to identify keywords that have low competition and high relevance. The keyword tools linked above can help with this step if you filter for search volume and keyword difficulty (how hard it is to rank for that keyword). 

Once you have a keyword list, map each keyword to a specific page or piece of content. This prevents keyword cannibalization (where multiple pages compete for the same search term) and ensures your website is structured for search visibility.

User Intent & Queries

Not all searches have the same purpose. Understanding user intent helps you create content that speaks to what users really want. Here are the three main types of intent, and a short explanation of how to tailor your content for each one:

• Informational. This is when people are looking for answers (e.g., “how to develop an SEO content strategy”). To capture attention for these types of queries, create how-to articles, guides, or blog posts that answer common questions. Include FAQs and optimize for long-tail keywords to make this content more discoverable. 
• Navigational. This is when people want to find a specific website (e.g., “Google Keyword Planner login”). Make sure your webpages are well-optimized to make them easier to find. This includes ensuring clean URL structures. But you can also drive traffic from this type of search to your page by including comparison pages with competitors or FAQs about your industry among your content.
• Transactional. This is when users are searching and intend to take action (e.g., “best SEO tools for small businesses”). These users are already close to the “bottom of the funnel”. They just need a little push to convert. Pricing pages, product roundups demos and case studies are all strong options for capturing attention here. Add in trust signals, like reviews and testimonials, to seal the deal.

Topic Clusters

Search engines favor well-structured websites with strong internal linking. That’s where topic clusters come in. Instead of creating isolated blog posts, organize content into pillar pages and support cluster articles (deep dives into specific subtopics).

For example, a pillar page on SEO content strategy could link to related subtopics like keyword research or content optimization. This helps search engines understand relationships between topics and improves overall SEO performance. Internal linking also strengthens site structure, helping pages rank higher.

Some tips for planning your topic clusters: 

• Use keyword research and customer pain points to decide what clusters you need. And what each one should contain.
• Make sure your clusters are consistent for easy readability and search. For example, using terms and headings consistently. 
• Update your content pillars and clusters regularly, to keep them current and strengthen authority.

Human-First Content

While SEO is important, content should always prioritize real users over algorithms. Google’s Helpful Content Update emphasizes content that is useful, engaging and easy to read. So what does that mean for your SEO optimization efforts?

To make content human-first:

• Write in a conversational tone instead of stuffing in keywords.
• Use clear, concise language and break up text naturally for readability.
• Add images, videos, or infographics to enhance engagement.
• Provide real value by answering user questions and solving problems.

By focusing on readability and relevance, SEO content development becomes a seamless experience for both users and search engines.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Google evaluates content quality based on E-E-A-T principles. Creating content that meets these principles helps you rank higher. And gain you long-term credibility. A strong SEO content strategy includes content that covers at least some of these areas. Here’s how it works:

Show experience by sharing firsthand insights, case studies, or testimonials with your readers. These can include examples of how your products or services work, but also experiences that led you to develop a specific offering. In other words, acknowledging pain points to show you understand where they’re coming from.

Demonstrate expertise by providing well-researched, in-depth information on your site or blog. That might include industry analyses, news commentaries or new ideas (though leadership). 

Establish authority by citing reputable sources and linking to credible references so that readers know your content is trustworthy. Industry studies, white papers and analyses can all form part of this strategy. Even better, create your own to show real industry authority. 

Build trust by checking that your content is accurate and that data and sources are transparent. Use secure connections (HTTPS) and demonstrate that you value your user’s time and privacy by being upfront about compliance with data laws, cookie requirements, etc.

Avoid Duplicate Content

Don’t duplicate your content in the same exact format across multiple URLs. In other words, try to avoid multiple pages with the same product descriptions or blog posts on them. 

Duplicate content confuses search engines and  can dilute your rankings by forcing them to choose between competing pages. It also splits link equity which weakens overall SEO performance.  To prevent this:

• Ensure all content is original. You shouldn’t reuse large blocks of text across your site. But you can reword and restructure content for different channels or to appeal to different audiences.
• Use canonical tags to signal the preferred version of a page, to tell search engines what to index and rank.
• Audit your website frequently, using tools like Screaming Frog, to find duplicate content issues. Then merge or delete repetitive pages.

By following these steps, you can build a robust SEO content strategy that improves search visibility.

Types of Content to Include in Your Strategy

There are a lot of options when it comes to the type of content to create for your business. Our list below covers some of the key types of content that businesses use for growth, and how each type boosts traffic and engagement.

Reference Content Says: “We’re the Experts”

Reference content includes ebooks, white papers and research papers. These types of pieces take a deep dive into a subject, problem or solution, and show your subject matter expertise.

Take the example of a B2B SaaS business marketing the benefits of AI agents to their audience, and how to choose a solution. A strong whitepaper on this topic might cover the basic development of this technology, how it’s being used in workplaces and industries, and what it means for the future of automation. In this case, the paper is accomplishing two things: it educates the audience on cutting-edge new technology and it positions the company as a leading source of information and AI solutions – like this whitepaper that we completed for AI automation experts, Hypatos. 

This type of content has several benefits for your brand. For one, downloadable papers are a great way to get email details for a mailing list and build up a database. Because the reader is already interested in what you have to say, it’s likely they’re a good target for future content. Reference content also positions companies as thought leaders in their industry. Good papers can also generate backlinks as other companies and individuals link to your content to support the same or similar ideas. Which, of course, leads to more website traffic and better search rankings.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that this type of content can be tricky to produce on your own. If the subject matter is complex, it can be hard to break it down into digestible chunks for your audience – so it may be worth using SEO content writing services that have experience with this type of writing.

Why Newsjacking Really Works

Sprout Social defines newsjacking as: “…the process of adding your thoughts and opinions into breaking news stories. It’s piggybacking on trending news topics to get yourself noticed”.

It’s a highly recommended form of content and a good way to insert yourself into whatever the current narrative and headlines may be. But you have to get on it early – which means identifying a newsjacking opportunity before it really starts trending. In fact, ideally, your turnaround needs to be within an hour or two. Any later, and you will miss the window of opportunity.

Newsjacking is great for SEO as search engines prioritise stories and headlines that relate to trending stories. It leads to better engagement and more website traffic because your content is fresh and relevant. All of that makes newsjacking a great tool to add to your content strategy. But be careful to think through how you use it. Because done poorly, newsjacking can backfire spectacularly. 

Use Video for Maximum Engagement

Videos have proven to be the most engaging type of content for a while now. It’s been noted that websites with video get more views, that video content gets more engagement, and that video is better at holding the attention of an audience.

So, if video isn’t part of your content plan yet, it definitely should be. These days, you don’t even need top-of-the-range cameras to create a good video. Many content creators use their phones for video creation. There are also numerous free video editing software programmes that are easy to use and new AI video generators are coming out just about every week. Combine those tools with a great script-writing team and you have everything you need to succeed with the format. 

Infographics Are Great for Complex Concepts

Just like videos, an infographic is an easy-to-consume piece of media. It can get a lot of information across in a clever and engaging way – and these work really well as images within a text-heavy piece or as standalone posts on social media.

They can also be a good way to communicate complex products or services, because many people are visual learners that prefer images to text when discovering a new concept. Tapping into that market with infographics can encourage a different kind of audience to visit your website for more details. 

Listicles Are Easy Reading

List pieces – or listicles, as they’re often called – help break up long pieces of text by presenting information in point form.

For example, think of how difficult it would be to navigate this piece that you’re reading now if it wasn’t subdivided into sections like this one about types of content. Exactly.

Separating everything into subheadings or listing makes things easier to read and is less taxing on the brain. It’s also an interesting way to present information. Good, relevant lists are often linked in other websites too, which improves your website traffic and leads to new website views.

Create Killer How-to Guides

One of the most searched phrases on the internet is “How to…”. So, answering those questions with your content is a sure-fire way to attract attention.

It has to be relevant to your field, of course. You wouldn’t create a guide on how to service a car if you’re a tour operator. But you could create a guide on how to travel the world on a budget, or how to make the most of a solo holiday.

A how-to guide can also be specific to your company. For example, if you offer an online project management tool, your how-to guide could simply be “How to get started with our online project management toolkit”. These types of guides are usually popular with new users or potential customers. And they can make a great starting point for developing explainer-style video content.

The Future of SEO: AI, Voice Search & What’s Coming Next

SEO never stays the same. AI is making it easier to research and optimize, but it’s also making competition tougher. And with voice search growing, people aren’t just typing simple keywords anymore – they’re asking their questions directly.

If your content doesn’t match how people actually talk, it’s going to struggle. Think conversational, question-based phrases like, “What’s the best Italian restaurant near me?” instead of just “Italian restaurant NYC.” The way people search is shifting, and SEO content development has to shift with it.

The takeaway? Stay adaptable. Keep testing new things. SEO isn’t about finding one strategy and sticking to it forever – it’s about adjusting as the game changes. Or finding a partner in content production that can help you get it right as the landscape changes.

Conclusion

In summary, a well-planned SEO content strategy ensures your content ranks well and reaches the right audience.  It’s about more than just keywords. It’s about creating valuable, human-first content that builds trust and drives results. But knowing what to write and how to optimize it and, of course, keeping up with SEO trends, can be overwhelming.

That’s where Goodman Lantern comes in. Our expert SEO content development services help businesses craft high-quality, search-optimized content that stands out. Whether you need blog posts, website content or a full content strategy, we can make it happen.

Get in touch today, and let’s take your content to the next level.

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