How to Beat the Competition with Value-Adding Content on Google

When it comes to marketing, making it easy for people to find you is one of the most important aspects of your path to success. 

Whether you’re using hashtags on social media posts or focusing on SEO to help your audience find you on Google, getting yourself out there should be the first step in your marketing strategy.

On Episode 2 of the Skill Point Podcast we sat down with David Ellis, an SEO expert and founder of Teranga. We asked him all our burning questions about how Search Engine Optimisation can help you level up your marketing game, and the changes that Google’s algorithms are making to the type of content that will get you to page one. 

What’s ranking well on Google right now?

Google is increasingly prioritising genuinely good content. While keywords are important, the algorithms are also looking at readability, dwell time and click-through rates. When you’re creating content you should consider the question:

Google wants to give its users the best and most relevant content as quickly as possible. If someone finds exactly what they’re looking for on page one, Google has achieved their goal. So what does that mean for you? We’ll get to that, but first, let’s look at what Google thinks is valuable. 

How does Google perceive value?

Value is increasingly being defined by the number of people linking back to an article, how long people spend reading it and how often people go back to it.

To create content in a way that Google will perceive as valuable, you need to ensure that people have positive interactions with your content and that Google’s algorithm can understand what it is and how to use it. That means using the right tags and alt text, as well as creating clear and readable content. Everybody who comes across your content should be able to see what problem you’re solving and what you’re offering, including Google. 

How can small recruitment agencies rank well? 

The key to ranking highly on Google is to pick your battles. More accurately, pick the right keywords to use in your content. 

If you’re still wondering ‘what are keywords?!’, the answer is this:

Keywords like ‘jobs’ are going to pull up a lot of results, so getting to the first page for a phrase like that will be difficult. More specific terms, which are called long-tail keywords, such as ‘senior financial technology roles in Kent’ will have far less competition, so that’s where you can hone in on your niche and start to rank well for exactly what you do. 

In other words, the more specific you are with your keywords, the more likely you are to rank well. 

Having said that, you have to be careful not to make your keywords too niche. Make sure that you’re using phrases that people will actually search for, because there’s no point making it to page one of a search that nobody’s interested in. The key is to find a sweet spot where there’s enough search volume and not a lot of competition. 

To build an authority in your niche, you need to create that all important value-adding content. Your website, blogs and social presence need to provide concise, clear information to the customer, with engaging images that load quickly. Make sure what you’re creating is well-written or produced, research-backed and clearly presented. Remember, it’s all about the consumer!

So how do you make value-adding content?

Our favourite method of creating genuinely value-adding content is – you guessed it – PODCASTS! Sitting down with industry experts and getting their perspectives, insights and opinions is guaranteed to give you mountains of great content. 

Once you’ve recorded a half-hour episode, you can get social media clips, graphics and blogs out of it, perfect for sharing to your network and on your website. These blogs are going to be rich in keywords because you’re discussing the things that matter in your industry, whether you’re talking about all things talent or diving into the topics that are specific to your niche. 

People value having content in forms that are easy to consume, and having a podcast that they can passively consume is a great way to do that. Once you’ve stretched it into bite-sized content that they can engage with on platforms like Linkedin, you’re really meeting your audience where they are.