Comprehensive Content, the new SEO Copywriting

What is comprehensive content?

Comprehensive content is web content which is complete, and thoroughly covers all or nearly all elements or aspects of a subject matter.

Comprehensive content is good for SEO in many ways

Comprehensive Content is the new “SEO Copywriting”. There was a time when writing for search engines consisted of keyword stuffing. This was never a good idea, but, it did work. Thankfully, these days are long gone. Answering questions and making content for users is what works now. Search engines want to please their users. Just create content for people and forget there is a Google when creating great content.
Comprehensive content attracts links and is shareable and/or easily referenced. I have been developing comprehensive content for attorneys, medical professionals, sporting goods stores, technology companies and several other niches worldwide. But before that, I made comprehensive content for my own online properties. These pieces of comprehensive content were referenced (linked to) by many other websites. Links make a site perform better. This the most important way comprehensive content impacts SEO naturally.
Comprehensive content performs better in search. Comprehensive content often outperforms “blah” or “meh” content. Comprehensive should perform better. But the algorithms of 2016 are still influenced by things such as backlinks and domain topic authority. Still, before doing any other form of SEO, it is best to start with unique, comprehensive content. I have written content about untapped topics, placed them on brand new domains, and ranked on page 1, hit 1 of Google for a variety of terms within 29 minutes of purchasing the domain name before. Experienced content creators can craft content with a unique twist that both people and search engines love.

How long do my articles need to be?

I have always said, don’t count words, cover topics.

There are no size limitations to comprehensive content. If you are writing an article describing how to pronounce the word pizza, or a list of the safest cars manufactured in 2016, I would expect that your article may be rather short.

If you are explaining how spacecraft propulsion works, or how Donald Trump won the 2016 election, you may have a significantly larger piece of content.

Examples of comprehensive content

Be sure to see my page about examples of great website content – it lists several entrepreneurs who have been successful online via great, unique content.

I do have some additional examples of big, huge, epic content though.

5.56 vs .223: This is the most epic, comprehensive content I have found online in years. If you’re not an ammo expert, that is ok, let me explain. For decades, these two types of very similar ammo have created lots of confusion. A company called Lucky Gunner described the misconceptions and proved their points with scientific measurements, graphs, videos, etc- it is 35 pages of research with zero fluff, crafted specifically for the web. This is comprehensive web content

How can you create comprehensive content?

Using the example above, Lucky Gunner had access to a lot of resources other people simply do not have. In many cases, comprehensive content can only be created by a select number of people.

An example of this may be “How the Hershey’s Bar is created”. Of course, Budweiser can’t produce this content.

For whatever reason, I am a fountain of ideas when it comes to content which has yet to be created. If you need help, email me.

How long does it take to create comprehensive content?

As seen above, comprehensive content may be a paragraph, or it may be a huge document that takes a team of people months to create, or anything in between. Again, this depends on the content itself, and the topic covered.

How else does it help?

SEO example #1. The Lucky Gunner page referenced above has likely been linked to thousands of times, making their website very powerful. As a result, they rank for a very wide variety of key phrases such as “9MM Ammo”, and ranking for keywords like that means tens of thousands of hits per month. The firearms niche is very competitive as Google AdWords and others ban advertising legal ammunition sales.
SEO Example #2. I have first hand experience with this. A highly linked to page was the entire reason my previous company did so well, which I sold in 2012. The links poured in around 2005; it allowed the site to perform very well, making the company successful, and allowed me to support my family with the income.
User Experience. Ranking highly gets people to your website and despite what anyone else tells you, this is enough for many businesses. However, for brands, companies looking for social shares, people looking to compete in search, or anyone who wants to build out the ultimate website experience / community / etc., excellent pieces of web content can be the cornerstone or foundation of a site.
Long tail search. Comprehensive content naturally covers things like: a variety of topics, attributes of an item, colors of an item, aspects of a service, scenarios and possibilities, etc. Search engines understand this and rank pages higher because of it. Also, when creating a large piece of content, you are going to naturally use synonyms and adjectives.

Not everyone needs it

I’m lying. If you sell a product or service online, your main pages should be comprehensive. Some people will cringe here, but if you are lazy, or a small business owner with not enough hours in the day, you can pages “comprehensive enough”, as in just a little more comprehensive than a competitor. In some cases, sites can benefit from a wide variety of unique content instead, or in addition to 1 or 2 pieces of comprehensive content.

But, whoever makes it first, wins.

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Len

President at Telapost

I create content and do SEO for law firms, small businesses and companies worldwide. I have been generating traffic online since 1992. I have owned multiple successful companies. I'm an organic eater, nature lover and German Shepherd owner. Feel free to contact me here.