So, you’re building a content strategy? Well, that is just excellent news! But first, pause for a second to digest this tip from your pals at WordHound…
It’s not just about what you say; it’s about how you present and organise it, too.
Sure, you may have the most brilliant, witty and groundbreaking content ideas of all time. But if they’re structured in a way that just doesn’t make sense – for whoever (or whatever) may be trying to read it – the whole project is simply not going to work. It’s not going to deliver the kind of results you’d been hoping for. It’ll almost be like there was no point in you being born in the first place. Yike!
So, how do you structure content that keeps everyone happy? Let’s examine two scenarios that most of us have found ourselves in at some point:
Scenario 1 – Structuring content for users
You’ve rustled up some amazing content. It’s engaging, entertaining, and easy to read. Your audience will love it! It’s structured to please humans, which is kind of the point of content, isn’t it? After all, we’re not writing for robots (yet!). But hold up. There’s one tiny problem. No one’s going to read your content if they can’t find it. And to be found, your content needs to impress one crucial gatekeeper:
Google!
The issue? Google, while sometimes eerily human-like, isn’t actually Keith Google, a person in an office who reads and organises the internet. So if your content is structured purely for humans, Google might not be able to get the gist of what you’re saying. If that happens, it’ll quietly shuffle your carefully crafted masterpiece down into the howling, barren abyss that is page two. Apparently there’s a page three as well!
Scenario 2 – Structuring content for search engines
So what happens if you do the opposite? In this scenario, you decide to structure your content for search engines. That way, bots will understand what you’re getting at, and will be able to present your pages to the right people, at the right time. You’re doing all the right things to ‘speak to machines’, and Google is loving it. Your content is, from a purely technical perspective, perfectly structured.
But there’s a catch.
Search engines – as revealed so shockingly above – are not people. But people are, ideally, going to be reading your content. If your structure is too focused on what Google wants, you might end up with content that makes users hit the ‘back’ button faster than you can say ‘bounce rate’. It might rank… but will it engage? There’s not much point in your site being on page one of the results if everyone who clicks on it says, “Foo! My all-too-human brain doesn’t grasp a single word of this. I’m off to a competitor site!”.
So what do you do? Structure for both!
The truth is that you don’t have to pick sides. You can structure your content to please both your human readers and the robots scanning your pages, and it’s not that tricky. Here are our top tips for pulling it off…
1. Don’t half-arse your headings
Want to get a gold star from humans and search engines? Master your headings. People love headings because they’re easy to skim, and guess what? Google loves them, too! Google pays attention to your headings (from H1 to H3, and beyond) to figure out what your content is about.
When to use H1 and H2 headings
Start with your H1. That’s your page or article title, and it should include your target keyword. This is like a flashing neon sign to both users and search engines saying, ‘Hey, this is what this page is all about!’. You should only use one H1 heading, so make sure it matches user intent. People want to know they’re in the right place when they click, and so does Google.
Your H2 headings are there to separate distinct sections of your article and need to be labelled accordingly (though we don’t want to see any of them say “Conclusion”). Introducing an entirely new concept? Stick an H2 in there to guide the way. You’ll usually have multiple H2 headings spread throughout your page.
When to use H3 headings and beyond
Imagine you’re writing an article about… hmm… something really big and complicated – planet Earth!
Your H1 is ‘Planet Earth’, so everyone knows what they’re here to read. You’ve written an introduction, which you definitely haven’t labelled as ‘Introduction’, then you move on to talking about how the Earth came to be, so you use an H2 and write ‘Geological History of the Earth’. People who want to know about rocks and volcanoes and Precambrian gneisses and things will be thrilled that you pointed that out for them.
Then you want to talk about how the planet is laid out, so you use another H2 and call it ‘Earth’s Geography’. That’s quite a big subject though, so you want to split it into ‘Oceans’ and ‘Continents’ – those will be H3s. One of your paragraphs within ‘Continents’ will be labelled ‘Europe’: that’s an H4.
UK will be an H5, England an H6, The South West an H7, all the way down to your paragraph about how delicious Hockings Ice Cream is, which might end up being an H10 labelled ‘World’s best ice cream’. Here’s how that would look when you first started planning your article.
… And so on. Notice that it doesn’t just run from H1 to H10 without stopping. Oceans and Continents are both H3, which are divided up by H4s.
Most of the articles we write at WordHound don’t try to tackle something as enormous as planet Earth in one sitting, and yours probably won’t either. It’s more likely that your headings won’t go deeper than H4, but if your topic needs more, it’s fine to use them.
As for the headings themselves, make them concise and relevant. Think of them as the road signs guiding both your readers and search engines through your content. Humans want clarity, and search engines want as much data as they can get to try and make sense of it all. So give it to them!
2. The right place for keywords
We all know that keywords are critical for SEO. But before you start stuffing them into every single sentence, let’s talk strategy. You want keywords to feel natural, and a bit like that charming guest at a party who subtly works in a manageable amount of stuff about their quite-interesting job. Not the one who bangs on about their ghastly toenail ailments for ninety minutes and then tries to sell you some Daktarin powder as you’re getting your coat on.
The rule of thumb? Use your primary keyword and secondary keywords within your H1, then use the primary keyword again in the first 150 words of your content.
You want both humans and search engine crawlers to quickly understand the meaning and purpose of your content. When you integrate keywords early on, Google knows what you’re all about, and your readers will feel like they’ve found exactly what they’re looking for. It really is a win-win!
3. Structured data & metadata
Now, if we’re getting fancy – and we are – we really need to talk about structured data. It’s a way of giving search engines a ‘cheat sheet’ so they can quickly understand your content without having to scan it all. You’re essentially translating your content into a language spoken by search engines. Google gives the example of a recipe page, where a standard recipe format will include ingredients, oven temperature, cooking time, etc.
Oh, and don’t forget metadata! Good metadata is like the packaging on a product: it helps search engines and users get the gist of your content at a glance. Need help writing it? Check out our guide to writing metadata using classic copywriting techniques and AI.
So how does all this satisfy human readers? Well, when search engines are able to better understand your content through structured data and metadata, they reward you with richer results and snippets in the SERPs. These give readers a cheeky peek into what you can offer them on-site.
4. Semantic content: pillars & clusters
Imagine your content as a giant tree. The trunk is your pillar content, covering broad topics that people are searching for. The branches are your clusters, providing more detailed information that dives deeper into niche areas. The ‘pillar-cluster’ format is one of the best ways to structure content.
Why? Because it works for humans and search engines. Pillar content gives a broad overview which is perfect for skimming, while clusters appeal to those wanting to dig deeper. And search engines love it because it shows a semantic relationship between topics, helping you rank better for related searches.
Of course, you’ll need a good content plan to ensure you have enough clusters to branch off your pillar. Not sure what topics to start with? Base them on real customer questions and pain points. Turn customer questions into content ideas to make sure you’re appealing to real user needs.
Time to make everyone happy
Well… you probably can’t make everyone happy, but you can make these two specific groups – search engines and human readers – look a bit more fondly upon your website content. And really, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?
In the end, structuring content for users and search engines at the same time is like hosting a dinner party for both your tech-obsessed cousin and your artsy best friend. You’ve got to make sure the conversation includes something for both (e.g. David Hockney and his iPad). Once you find a way to do that, you’re well on your way to success.
