Every business owner and marketer dreams of having the website and content others rave about.
It’s this type of attention and trust that leads to more deals, stronger relationships, and increased revenue.
Chances are you’ve thought at least once about what it would be like to have the best content in your niche.
What if you could have remarkable content with a few powerful principles and consistent effort?
And why is unique content important for SEO, including for both editorial planning and budget allocation?
There are several benefits to unique SEO content which we’ll look at in this blog post. Read now to discover why unique content is important for SEO and simple, yet effective steps you can take to revolutionize your posts.
The number one reason unique content is essential for SEO success is because it’s more useful. Among all the chatter about this SEO technique and that SEO technique, one content creation principle stands above them all: helpfulness. Putting yourself in your reader’s shoes before you write a single sentence is the most important way to create unique content.
There are millions of blog posts out there about the same topic. What makes yours any better? The usefulness of every step you included.
You may remember Google’s 2022 helpful content update, in which the search engine juggernaut announced they’d be prioritizing content that’s original and helpful, not just lengthy or SEO optimized. This means content with a human touch quickly became the most powerful way to drive organic traffic.
Do you offer an easier way to understand a process, or a faster or less expensive way to do it? Do you infuse your own way of solving a problem into your content? This is the type of content readers love and search engines reward.
The more original your content is, the more your brand stands out. Most people have read a blog post like “How to Get More Traffic to Your Website” but few people have come across a headline like “The 16 Best Ways to Drive Free Traffic to Your Site.” The former is generic whereas the latter is both specific and enticing, because it mentions the best ways to accomplish a valuable task cost-effectively.
There’s no shortage of information today; what people are lacking is reliable strategies that lead to proven results. By putting fresh thought into age-old topics, you demonstrate your expertise and make it easier to attract attention in a marketplace that’s growing noisier by the day.
When researching new topics for your editorial calendar, ask yourself, “How can I create content on this topic in a way no one else has before?” If you can answer that honestly, your content will already have an advantage few other businesses attempt to harness.
Not long ago, people used to try to game Google’s algorithm by copying old content, changing a few sentences and headers, and posting it on their site again. The idea was to repurpose most of one’s work under different titles to garner more organic traffic.
Google and other search engines caught onto this quickly and began downranking sites that recycled content. Readers can also tell whether or not your content is original and thoughtful, so you should never cut corners.
Making each post unique supports Google’s expertise and authority guidelines–parameters that determine how trustworthy a brand’s content is. Without meeting this benchmark, you’ll be shuffled into the millions of websites that never get seen or visited by readers.
Another major benefit to unique content is your rankings stay high longer. Achieving high rankings is the first step to reliable organic traffic, and the more thoughtful your content is, the longer your posts stay on page one (ideally the top three positions) of Google. This creates a positive feedback loop where the higher rankings you achieve, the more traffic you get, which improves more of your rankings, and so on.
Original, even mind-blowing content if possible, is the fastest way to get higher rankings. If you’re writing content that’s never been written before or from a brand new perspective, people will pay attention in greater numbers. The higher clickthrough rate your work achieves, the more Google prioritizes your URLs for its keywords.
Unique content is so helpful for your business that you can’t afford to neglect it. Unfortunately, content is a commodity, so content that changes your readers’ perspectives or habits requires a whole new level of intentionality.
Here are the top three best practices for upleveling the uniqueness of your content:
One of the most effective ways to make your content stand out immediately is to commit more research to your writing and editing. Most content marketers don’t dig deep enough to provide an empirically sound argument for their answer or strategy.
If you’re going to write a blog post about the best strategies for email deliverability, including every detail someone needs to know is the bare minimum. Providing your own case studies or findings takes your post to the top. Email marketing is such a complex matter that cursory coverage simply doesn’t cut it.
Similarly, if you’re creating blog content about a highly technical topic like reaction injection molding or open circuit voltage, you must have expert-level knowledge. Your target readers will be able to tell instantly if your content is authoritative, so make it excellent the first time.
One of the most overlooked ways to create original content is to include stories and perspectives from your own life. Stories are the oldest form of human communication and still work better than any other marketing technique.
Think back to when you first started your business. What kinds of obstacles did you encounter, and what types of challenging decisions did you have to make? Who did you talk with during these chapters of life and what were the outcomes?
These are real moments from your life that are identical to timeless storytelling elements (setting, conflict, dialogue, resolution). The next time you sit down to write a blog post, incorporate a moment in your business or life that relates to the problem or question at hand.
One of the simplest ways to increase your content originality is adding more images and videos. Most people prefer visual content, yet the average blog post doesn't have more than three images, and only 23% of bloggers include a video in their posts. Imagine how much your posts will stand out as soon as you add visual elements!
The best way to do this is embedding a relevant video (ideally one of your own) at the top of every blog post. Readers see it before scrolling to the rest of your content, and a significant percentage of them will watch some or all of the video before reading the content.
The video acts as a supplement to your well-researched written content, making all of your content more authoritative and engaging. You no longer have a bland blog post like everyone else on the Internet; you’re offering a multimedia experience.
Knowing why unique content is important for SEO puts you ahead of the majority of small businesses. Unique content also demands time and effort to create. You won’t become authoritative overnight and it takes creating enough of it to see what your audience appreciates most.
As you see what content takes off, you’ll have a clear view into how to best serve your audience. Keep delivering what they want most, and you’ll have the best content in your niche before you know it.