Content marketing is creating value for your potential customers, clients, potential audiences or whatever it is, Content has to do with that because this is how we are delivering that value so today I will discuss with you; Definition of Unique Content, importance Of creating Unique Content and How You Can Create Unique Content In 5 simple steps.
What Is Unique Content?
Unique content relates to SEO.
It means content that is not duplicated anywhere else on search engines; it is original.
Content plays a key role in the way a page ranks because search bots rate unique content highly and penalize sites with duplicate content.
Essentially, unique content is the opposite of duplicate content.
To define duplicate content:
we can say that it is identical content that has been published in one or more websites.
Unique content can improve your ranking on search engines while duplicate will drag you down.
In fact, you can even be removed from search index because of duplicate content.
Google aims to have the best user experience, and it does this by providing users with the best match for their searches.
Their complex algorithm is able to detect sites with quality, unique content so as to give searchers the best possible user experience.
When websites try to use shortcuts by duplicating content so they can rank higher, Google penalizes them. Check This In-Depth Guide To SEO
Why Unique Content Is So Important?
Your audience comes to your site to see if there is something new, and thus if you do not have any new, unique content, then don’t expect to be their go-to person. No one wants to read the same old tips now and then.
Let’s take for instance you are writing a post on how to overcome depressions.
Instead of writing the usual tips like “go for a walk, meditate, read a book, watch a movie… and so on” why not suggest something extraordinary like “start your business and quit from that job that is making you feel miserable.” But you have to provide them with a solid plan on how to start a business.
Besides appealing to search engines, unique content also appeals to readers.
Search engines will rank your website or blog higher because you have unique content that is valuable to your readers.
This will make other sites start backlinking to you, and this is how you will achieve “authority” status.
When you give your readers something of substance, they are more likely to become consistent visitors, and they will start perceiving your content as unique even when there are a lot of similar articles on the web.
They will always come to your site first and will share your articles with anyone looking for a solution you have tacked in your articles.
Think of unique, valuable content this way: If you read a unique, informative article that adds value to you, you are most likely to bookmark the site for future use.
That is the effect unique content create and this is what you should aim to achieve in your posts.
What Transpires When You Aren’t Unique?
Most of the times, you will be fighting an uphill battle because virtually every time, there will be another site that has tackled the problem you are providing a solution for.
For instance, let’s say you are in marketing consultation business and you want to write a post on podcasting to demonstrate your knowledge in that field.
So, you go ahead and create a post on how to make a podcast. Being a very popular phrase, you will find out that most of the authority sites have ranked for that keyword as well.
However, there is something most of them lack; comprehensiveness.
So, how do you stand out since most of these websites rank because of their authority?
You stand out by being different; by being unique and detailed.
Come up with a better way to present your article and employ a simple-to-understand language as well as friendly tone.
Include some of the shortcuts one can use and other marketing strategies.
This way, you will stand out from sites with similar posts because you have a unique tone, simple language, and additional tips that will benefit readers looking for “how to create a podcast” article.
However, remember that to create a detailed post, it will take you time and research effort.
If you are ready, I will walk you through proven steps on how to create unique, valuable content that will make your readers stick to your site.
5 Steps To Create Unique Content:
Step 1: Generating an Idea
- This is quite obvious but it is an important step.
- You need to have an idea of the content you want to create.
- I know you are knowledgeable in your profession, but you have to come up with a focused way to present it.
If you don’t have an inspiration for your post ideas, here are the best sources of inspiration that I use:
=> Blogs:
- By blogs, I don’t mean you restrict yourself to only blogs in your niche.
- You would be surprised by how unrelated topics can inspire unique blog ideas in your niche.
=> Social Media:
- Check the most popular and trending topics on social media and you can get a great idea for your post.
=> Books:
- Sometimes, authors point something in their books and fail to expound on that.
- If you can find something missing or something that was not expounded well, you can come up with a great piece on the same.
=> Personal needs:
- What are the common challenges that you face in your field?
- It is likely that other people face the same thing. Come up with something that addresses the problem.
=> Work Conversations:
- Coworkers discussions can be your source of inspirations.
- If you are keen enough, you will get one or two ideas from those random talks.
=> Forums:
- Go to forums related to your niche and see what people are discussing.
Most people think that I spend most of my time reading blogs and articles. But that’s not the case.
I constantly write down new blog posts, and I would suggest that you do the same. Spare some time each day to brainstorm blog ideas.
These ideas pop up when you are in your subconscious state of mind. To be in this state, you can go for a walk alone or take a hot bath.
My biggest advice I can give you is to view your niche through the lens of a profession.
Have an Evernote app as well as Google Drive to compile these ideas.
And if you are comfortable with using the pen and paper method, well and good.
The idea here is to record your thoughts the moment they hit your mind.
Step 1.5: Bubble Chart
- This is an optional step, and that’s why it is a sub-step of step 1.
- For this step, I advise you to use a bubble chart to create different keywords and use drop charts to expand them with secondary keywords.
- The end goal is to uncover content ideas.
Step 2: Competitive Research
- Once you have one to two strong ideas, the next step is to conduct a competitive research.
- This is where you break down the whole article to know the pieces your content will have.
- It involves the keywords to rank, both primary and secondary keywords.
- Failure to do this would be like displaying a beautiful art in a pitch dark room.
- It doesn’t matter how unique or interesting your content is, if no person can find it, then it will mean nothing.
- The first thing you need to do is to run a Google search on your topic to see the types of content you will be competing against. Search your topic like a normal user. For instance: if you are writing about “creating podcasts,” you can search for “how to create a podcast.”
- After running a search, look into the results on the first page.
- You don’t bother going into the second page because you are aiming to rank on the first page because that’s where most traffic is.
For each link in the first page of search results, do the following things:
=> Assess the quality of page content:
- This is relative, and you can gauge the quality of each of content.
- Overall, look if the content is written in a simple manner and if it is backed by outside sources.
- Does it contain practical information? These are some of the things you should look out for.
=> Check the date of publishing:
- The date a piece of content was published or edited matters to search engines.
- Remember that search engines like fresh content and thus if the article is old and has not been updated, then sooner or later it will be demoted to page two of search results.
- However, if the article is old and has been updated recently, then it can be hard to overtake it as search engine sees it as an authoritative, timeless piece of content.
- If the first page has more links with newer content, then you can improve on some aspects and overtake them.
=> Check page ranking:
- Page rank involves counting the quality and number of pages linking to a post.
- This determines how authoritative a site is.
- Linkbacks are very important in SEO and as this shows the strength of a site.
- The more linkbacks a post has, the more challenging it will be to beat it.
=> Analyze targeted keywords:
- This applies more to written keywords.
- Analyzing keywords used on a piece of content helps you identify the main keyword they are targeting so that you can have an idea of how to rank them better.
- To analyze keywords, content date, and page rank, you need to have several tools.
- You can use SEO Quake to do this work.
Step 3: Determine the Type of Content to Create
Okay, now that you have analyzed your competition, you can move on creating unique content.
By now, you have a feel for what content you will be competing alongside.
Some pages might not have a unique content, and they only rank high because of their strong domain authority while other play around unique content, twisting it a little bit.
Either way, you need to determine how you would like to position your content.
To do this, you need a formula and here are several ideas to check out on:
=> Timely Content:
- These types of content aim to hit for a short time.
- Contents in this category are time-sensitive and need an independent or external event to happen for them to be created.
- Commentary on current events or journalistic pieces falls in this category.
- This is only for short-term benefits as the story will not matter a few weeks from now.
=> Unique Twist:
- Content in this category specializes on twisted ideas.
- A content twist involves using the existing ideas and putting it in a new dimension.
- This tactic will apply in a niche with strong competition.
- You need to present an existing idea in a different method or form.
- Such articles perform well on social media due to their unconventional presentations, which later ranks higher on search engines.
=> New Content:
- This content takes the form of a topic that has not been covered in your niche.
- It takes some imagination and research to know the areas not tackled.
- Coming up with this content means you will have the advantage of early entry and thus the possibility of getting backlinks is easier.
=> Epic Content:
- This is among the toughest pieces of content you can pull off.
- It involves expanding what everyone has done.
- Epic content expands on a topic to make it a comprehensive piece that visitors will find virtually all the answers they are looking out for.
- This is arguably the most rewarding pieces of unique content you can create due to their evergreen status.
- The best type of content for me is epic content- that which break down content to cover all the areas you think your readers will be looking out for.
Step 4: Establish Keywords
- I have mentioned keywords countless times in this post, and I’m sure you know how important they are.
- Integrating common words and phrases within your content and using them in your Meta titles and Meta descriptions can help search engines understand your content and rank it higher.
- Know the keywords to target, and you can do this easily using Google AdWords and Keyword Planner.
- The main keyword should appear in your title, Meta keywords, and description and in throughout your content.
- The above tools will give you details of the keywords you are targeting.
Step 5: Find the Hook
Your content needs to have a hook that will bring in visitors. Make your hook stand out from other similar content.
An example of hooks include:
“In this post, I’m going to cover how for creating unique content comprehensively”
After that, outline the main points in your content.
There you have it.
I hope you enjoyed this guide To create unique content for your site and you have learned something new. This is an epic post for your information.