- What is Skyscraper Content?
- Why You Need Skyscraper Content?
- 3 Tips For Coming Up With The Content Topic
- Coming Up With The Content Structure
- 5 Ways You Can Make Your Content Better Than Others
- Additional Resources Around Skyscraper Content
What is Skyscraper Content?
Skyscraper content is a piece of content that is much better in quality than that of your competitors – because of the depth of the content and the value it adds to your website visitors over what is already out there.
Why You Need Skyscraper Content?
Average content does not rank well on Google anymore. Because everyone and anyone can create average content around your niche topic.
Which is why, to rank on Google today, you need outstanding skyscraper content that searchers love to read. This way, Google will reward you with better rankings than your competitors.
- Skyscraper content will be your “secret” strategy to outrank your competition.
3 Tips For Coming Up With The Content Topic
The first thing you need to do once you decide to write a piece of skyscraper content to rank for a particular keyword is to come up with an article topic. Follow these 3 tips to come up with an article topic for your skyscraper content:
Tip 1: Pick topics that are relevant to your keyword
- This tip is rather obvious but I have seen content pieces missing the mark here
- For example, if you want to rank for the keyword “Resume Writing Tips”, make sure your topic and article content is about resume writing tips too.
- There should be alignment between your keyword, article topic and article content.
- Only then will searchers click on your article topic and find answers to what they are looking for.
Tip 2: Make your topic more interesting or exciting than your competitor
- Before doing this, you need to look through the article topics of your competitors that are ranking on Google for the same keyword
- How can your article topic be more enticing than theirs?
- When I search for Resume Writing Services In Singapore, I find the article topic “11 best resume writing services in Singapore”
- How can I make my title better than than my competitor? Perhaps I can reframe it to “11 Best Resume Writing Services To Land A Job Interview Fast” or I can tweak the topic to ” 15 Best Resume Writing Services From Just $50″
- This requires you to put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and make your topic more interesting and engaging for the searcher to click on.
- You can also speak to your customer or potential customers, find out their pain points and even ask your customers for feedback or suggestions. This way, you can narrow down on better article topics which will entice your potential customers to click and read more than that of your competition.
Tip 3: Use ChatGPT or AnswerThePublic to get topic ideas for your blog article
- I personally stop at trick 2 and put my own thinking cap on to come up with article topics.
- I do not use ChatGPT or AnswerThePublic for coming up with article topics.
- However, you can use them if you need more article topic ideas.
- Have a chat with ChatGPT.
- Ask chat GPT to put itself in the shoes of people who are looking for a resume writing service.
- What content would interest them?
- Further prompt ChatGPT – How can I excite these people to click on my topic over my competitors?
- Alternatively, you can put in your keyword on AnswerThePublic to get ideas (Limited to 3 free searches a day)
Coming Up With The Content Structure
After coming up with the article topic of your skyscraper content, you need a robust article structure. A well thought out article structure for each skyscraper content you want to write and rank on Google is crucial to win in the SEO game.
Here is an article structure I recently created for an article I am writing on SEO agencies in Singapore.
You can read the full blog article titled “11 SEO Agencies in Singapore & Prices They Charge” here. This blog post is an example of a piece of Skyscraper content itself!
I am sharing this article structure and article for you to take inspiration from it and not follow it exactly. Because your article structure will depend on your article topic.
But how robust does your content or article structure need to be?
It solely depends on how good the content of your competitors is for that same keyword you want to rank for!
In other words, your content has to be better than your competition. But how can you do that?
5 Ways You Can Make Your Content Better Than Others
Here are 5 simple ways to make your content better than that of your competitors. While they may be time consuming, these steps are essential to help you stand out.
1. Provide information your readers want that your competitors aren’t providing
- Lets say you are writing an article on the 10 Best Resume Writing Service Providers In Singapore.
- Readers looking for resume writing services probably have a budget in mind.
- Provide them with additional information such as the price range of each resume writing service provider.
- It takes you time and effort to do the research, but this piece of information adds value to your reader and saves your readers’ time.
- What information could your readers want for a particular keyword that your competitors are not providing yet?
- Note down these pieces of information inside your article structure google spreadsheet or document.
2. Make your content more readable
- Create your article structure in a way that your content will be easy to scroll.
- Use Headers, Sub Headers and Bullet Points like I am doing in this email.
- Be Concise.
- Use simple English & Simplify big words.
- Use bullet points where you can.
- Use short sentences.
- Use more full stops.
- Write short paragraphs. (Include a paragraph limit in your article structure for paragraph length)
- Bold Key Points.
- Increase font size.
If you want to check if your content is readable, I love using the HemingWay App here.
I usually aim for grade 5 readability on the Hemingway App. If you want to be less harsh, Grade 6 or Grade 7 is still readable and good enough in my opinion.
3. Find pictures to go along with your skyscraper content
- The rule of thumb I usually use is 1 picture for every 100 to 150 words. (because I think pictures make my content more engaging)
- If you do not want to include as many images as me, you can include 1 picture every 150 to 300 words.
- Having relevant and/or captivating pictures makes your content more digestible for the reader.
- You can include these pictures to your article structure at this stage itself, or you can include it in your article once it is written out.
4. Find LSI Keywords to improve article structures
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords are related terms to your main keyword that search engines used in the past to understand the content on your webpage better. With advancement in technology, AI and machine learning, search engines can understand what an article is talking about without the use of LSI keywords. But LSI keywords still serve as useful, as they help you come up with more robust article structures.
- You can find LSI keywords using autocomplete suggestions on the Google Search Bar
- Type in variations of your generic keyword and look for autocomplete suggestions by Google
- For example, I typed SEO audit below and I am getting autocomplete suggestions such as “SEO Audit Checklist” and “SEO Audit Template”
- The examples below are LSI keywords related to the main keyword “SEO audit”
- You can find LSI keywords by checking related searches at the bottom of a Google Search Results Page.
- These are related searches for the search term SEO audit.
- You can also use SEO tools like AnswerThePublic.
- Simply limit your searches to the 3 daily free searches if you don’t want to pay.
5. Check with your customers
Speaking to your target customers (existing customers, potential clients, email leads) is an under rated strategy for creating outstanding article content.
Who better to review if your content or content structure is bad, average, normal, good or outstanding than your customers themselves? You can also ask your customers how your content or content structure can be improved to add more value or make it more engaging for them.
Incorporate their suggestions into your article and you will have an outstanding content piece in no time.
I hope you utilise these 5 ways to create outstanding article structures and amazing content for your readers!
Does size matter? When it comes to your SEO content length.
Lets find out!
Marketing Agency Recommendations for SEO Content Length
Great content says the Google Top 10 is dominated by articles of 2000 words or more.
Hook agency says the sweet spot for content length is between 1760 and 2400 words in 2023.
Hubspot says it depends on your type of content! With 1300 to 1700 words for “What is” blog posts, 1700 to 2100 for “How to” blog posts and 2300 to 2600 for skyscraper content and listicles.
So who is right when it comes to content length?
In my opinion, it is nobody.
Because the fundamentals of SEO lies in giving relevant content to your readers that they love. Whether your content is 1000 words or 3000 words, ask yourself these 3 questions
- Is your content relevant to the keyword that you want to rank for?
- Is your content of high quality and engaging? For this you should not be stuffing words and boring readers, for the sake of meeting a word count.
- Is your content better than your competition?
If 2 pieces of content seem relevant and high quality, Google has to make the subjective call of which is better. On your end, you can only optimise your article for your customer, while strategising to be better than your competition.
So the best content length for SEO is one that can make your content higher in quality, more engaging and more comprehensive than that of your competitor.
And like HubSpot said, it ultimately depends on the type of article you are writing.
If you are writing a skyscraper article competing to rank for a keyword with high search volume and competition, your content length has to be longer than if you were writing a content piece just to answer a simple question. One interesting fact is that most top ranking articles on Google have 1700 words or more.
Now it is time to decide on your content length for your skyscraper content, and start planning, structuring, writing and publishing it too!
Below are additional resources for you to create amazing Skyscraper content from top SEO blogs around the world:
Additional Resources Around Skyscraper Content
Semrush Blog
Neil Patel Blog
Ahrefs Blog
Linkbuilder Io
Want more ideas to create captivating and valuable SEO content? Check out chapter 3 of this on page SEO guide by backlinko here.