Most articles on the net which are created for traffic building using keywords have very generalized content. You’ll see these types of articles written on article marketing sites. They’ll be about 300 to 400 words, and cover a very small piece of a micro niche topic. The point of the content is to get ranked for a particular keyword or keyword phrase on the search engines.
By contrast, the point of authority content is to impart information to the reader seemingly without regard for keywords. These are well-researched and well-written articles that go beyond generalities, though they often still focus on only one small aspect of a topic. They are usually longer – over 500 words.
Authority Content Seeks to Earn Incoming Links
Whereas general content placement on article marketing sites isn’t exactly buying links, it is considered almost as bad by search engines if the content site is not focused only on your niche. Authority content sites tend to just focus on putting more useful and relevant content on its own site, and curate other informative content to link to. This piles up credibility as other people link to it as a resource without being asked.
Authority Content Covers a Variety of Keywords
On any one authority website, the content will rank for many different keywords – often times without even trying to rank for that keyword. Since an authority site covers all aspects of a niche and not just a micro aspect, it is possible for each subpage and subsection of an authority site to rank high on search engines.
Authority Content Links to Itself
To create an authority site you’ll need to link to your own content. As you create more content for your authority site, you’ll link to old content that is relevant but that is ranking for a different keyword or keyword phrase. You don’t want to focus every page on the same keywords; you’ll need hundreds of keywords for a true authority site. Therefore, you’ll create a lot of authority content to go into that authority site.
Authority Content Is Not Dependent on Algorithms
When search engines change their search algorithms, many content site owners cringe with fear. But, those who have authority websites with authority content aren’t worried. They know that they have high quality content that is relevant to their search terms and niche market. After all, the reason why Google changes tactics often is because as internet marketers figure out the key to tricking the system, Google have to figure out how to return relevant, high-quality search results to their users. It’s their job.
Authority Content Is Relevant First, Yet Uses Basic SEO Content Rules
When writing authority content, focus on the topic and creating a well-written article or blog post. Then go back and add in the current SEO rules such as including the keyword phrase in your article headings, meta description, page title, and page URL. In addition, use the general rules about headers, headings and anchor text being keywords too.
Authority content seeks to solve a basic problem for the target audience – whether that is to answer a question, tell the reader how to do something, or to engage the reader in more interaction. The articles and posts written for an authority website need a reason for being there in order to qualify as authority content. They aren’t just written to stuff the site with keywords. They are written to provide a real service to the readers and to provide real answers to the target audience.