Strategies for Crafting Superior SEO Content (Following the QRIES Method)
Subtitle: Boost your content's credibility, engagement, and SEO performance using this practical approach.
In the digital age, creating high-quality SEO content is more than just filling pages with keywords. The QRIES framework — Quotes, Research, Images, Examples, and Statistics — offers a practical and effective method to improve content quality, credibility, and engagement.
Images and Visuals
Engaging images and other visuals can significantly enhance your content, making it more memorable, attention-grabbing, and offering mental breaks from long-form content. Placement matters too; images and graphics provide natural visual breaks for readers, helping them process information better.
Backing up Claims
Supporting your claims with statistics adds credibility to your message, signalling to users and search engines that your content is well-researched and reliable. Statistics can easily be transformed into visuals, reinforcing your points visually and attracting backlinks organically.
Expert Quotes
Using expert quotes in your content can signal to Google that the information is authoritative and trustworthy, creating a more engaging experience for the audience, and providing visual breaks in the content. Conducting interviews and finding existing material online are two primary ways to source expert quotes. Properly attributing sources is essential to maintain credibility.
Real-world Examples
Stories rooted in real-world examples demonstrate credibility because they show the concepts that are discussed are grounded in reality and have been applied in real scenarios. Incorporating real-world examples and storytelling can increase the time users spend on the page and make the information more memorable and engaging for the reader.
Fast Research
Fast research is a surface-level method used to quickly identify the pages with the most useful information when first getting to know a new topic. Finding examples and stories quickly lets you apply this strategy at scale, making your content richer and more engaging without significantly increasing your production time.
Google's E-E-A-T Guidelines
Google uses E-E-A-T guidelines to evaluate content quality, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Without in-depth research, it's difficult to provide accurate information and satisfy the Expertise and Trust portions of the E-E-A-T guidelines.
Tools for Visual Creation
Using platforms that connect content creators with subject matter experts can help scale getting SME insights, but it's important to use them with caution. Leveraging material already shared publicly, such as from industry magazines, social media, podcasts, and YouTube videos, is a more scalable and effective approach. Tools like Canva can help create custom visuals without the need for professional designers.
Good Placement of Images
Good places to include images and graphics include within large sections of text to break up the paragraphs, following a step in a process to show how it's done, and when discussing examples. Stock photos that are only loosely related to the topic might look nice but typically fail to improve the reader's understanding of the topic.
The QRIES Framework and SEO
The QRIES framework helps standardize content quality and translates Google's quality guidelines into a more applicable checklist. By following this framework, you can create high-quality SEO content that engages users, builds trust, and ranks higher in search results.
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