How to Create an SEO Power Page that Will Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

As business owners and marketers continuously strive to improve their websites’ positions in search engine results, a common strategy is to publish frequent blog posts, which tend to be between 300 and 1,000 words and typically only contain surface-level information on a topic. While there’s no denying that having frequent posts and a large quantity of content on your site is helpful for search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, the quality of the content is important as well. Unfortunately, many brands spend a great deal of time and effort producing pages and pages of content without sufficient regard to quality, how the content will serve their target audience, or how it advances their overall marketing strategy. This can lead to frustration when brands realize that despite their efforts, the content they produce is not yielding the desired results in terms of SEO.

While there are numerous factors impacting a website’s SEO rankings—and no single strategy can guarantee results—as a general rule, web content needs to engage readers with information that is relevant to them, deliver greater value than they will find at competitors’ sites, and contain the right keywords in order to boost the site’s ranking in search engine results. Many brands have successfully fulfilled these objectives with an often-overlooked tool called “SEO power pages.”

What are SEO power pages?

SEO power pages are high-value, long-form pieces of content—typically between 2,000 and 5,000 words, though some are much longer—that strategically use relevant keywords and strive to be more informative and more in-depth than similar articles on the topic. One of the main goals is to generate high-quality backlinks to the power page, and ultimately, boost your website’s ranking into the first page of Google search results.

Creating a successful power page requires extensive research into both the topic discussed and the most valuable keywords to include, a thorough understanding of your target audience and their needs and interests, and a focus on quality in terms of both the writing and the visual design. Power pages are often written in the form of “how to” guides or extended lists, such as “101 tips on…” or “50 experts share their advice on…(the given topic).” Once you’ve developed a power page, properly promoting it and using it to create additional pieces of content are some of the keys to driving results.

While the creation process can be time- and labor-intensive, one single high-quality SEO power page can serve as a foundation for your ongoing content strategy that can help your website acquire and maintain a top ranking in search engine results. The following guide breaks down the steps involved in creating an effective power page.

Researching and Planning to Create an SEO Power Page

Define your target audience

The first step in creating an SEO power page is to define your target audience of readers. Unlike with many of the other pieces of content you create, the ideal audience for a power page is not necessarily your target customers. Since one of the primary goals of power pages is to generate quality backlinks, you will want to focus on the people who would be most likely to link to and share the page. This may include influencers, bloggers, or thought leaders in your industry. In addition, keep in mind that because power pages feature in-depth, thoroughly researched information, they tend to be geared toward readers with intermediate or expert-level knowledge who are seeking the latest information, actionable guidance, or little-known facts about the particular topic. As you define your target audience, the more specific you can be in terms of qualities like demographic information, job titles and industries, and needs and interests, the easier it will be to create a successful page.

Choose a topic relevant to your target audience

Once you’ve identified who your ideal readers will be, the next step is to choose a topic that will engage them and provide more value than similar articles they’re likely to find. While the topic should be related to the products or services that your brand offers, your main priority should not be to sell, but rather to provide interesting, informative, helpful content that your target audience will want to share with their networks. Choosing the right topic is a key part of the foundation of creating a successful SEO power page, so take your time with this step!

If you’re having trouble identifying a topic for your power page, a great place to start is to use Google Analytics or another analytics tool to identify the most popular pages on your website. Pay attention not only to which pages get the most visitors, but how long visitors are spending on a page, as these metrics can indicate which topics are of most interest to your users. Is one of these top pages about a topic that could be expanded into an article of at least 2,000 words? Or, could a few of your top pages be combined into one long guide? If your website is new and you don’t have any particularly popular pages yet, write some articles on the main topics that you think would be of interest to your readers, and then use your analytics tool to determine which ones are getting the most traction.

Assess the competition

As you fine-tune your topic and start thinking about everything your power page will cover, you will want to have an idea of the existing content that your competitors have already published. Find and read through the highest-quality, top-ranking articles relevant to your topic, making note of the most valuable information they include, as well as any content gaps you can identify. Once you have a comprehensive idea of the existing articles on your chosen topic, the goal is to outperform them—focus on creating a power page that will provide even more value for your audience and serve as a “go-to” resource for anyone researching the topic.

Perform keyword research

As with any other piece of content, knowing which keywords to incorporate into your power page is an essential step in boosting its SEO value. As you choose the best keywords using a keyword research tool (a few top choices for this include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Moz Keyword Explorer), don’t just focus on those that have a high search volume—also pay attention to how competitive it is to rank for a particular keyword. The goal is to find keywords that get some monthly searches, but for which competition is low enough that you have a reasonable chance of ranking for them. Once you’ve made a list of these keywords, it’s time to start writing your content.

As you begin drafting your power page, look for places where your keywords can be incorporated in a way that sounds natural. It’s essential that you avoid “keyword stuffing,” or the process of packing your content with as many keywords and phrases as possible without regard to how they impact the piece’s flow and readability. Although not as commonly used as it once was, keyword stuffing can create a negative experience for readers, diminish the page’s overall quality, and even cause your website to be penalized by search engines. Instead, here are a few tips to follow in order to ensure that your use of keywords enhances your power page’s SEO value:

  • Use your target keywords throughout the content, but ensure that the keyword density—or the percentage of times that a particular word or phrase is used—stays under two percent for each.
  • Use related keywords and long-tail variations. A keyword doesn’t have to be identical every time you use it. You can also use synonyms and related phrases, which can help create context for search engine crawlers as they determine how to rank the page. In addition, incorporate long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific keyword phrases that tend to be used more commonly by people using voice search or by those with more in-depth knowledge of a topic. While long-tail keywords get less search traffic, they generally have higher conversion rates and less competition when trying to rank for them.
  • Use your top keywords in the right places, including the first paragraph of your power page and subheadings. Additionally, when posting the page on your site, use the keywords in the title tag, meta description, and image alt tags.

Developing an SEO Power Page

Provide high-value content

In order to outperform the competition and ultimately, improve your website’s ranking in search results, SEO power pages need to provide more up to date, thoroughly researched, well-written, and/or in-depth information on a topic than other sources offer. Therefore, as you write the power page, the focus should always be on creating value for your readers and offering a trusted source of information that they will want to reference and share with others. Keep in mind that “E-A-T”—which stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness—is one of Google’s most important SEO ranking factors. While there are many ways to improve your website’s E-A-T, you can ensure that you’re advancing it by taking steps such as the following when crafting your SEO power page:

  • Choose a topic on which your business has adequate expertise, and one that is likely to be of interest to your readers based on the research you’ve conducted.
  • Ensure that keywords are incorporated in a way that sounds natural rather than forced.
  • If possible, have a credentialed expert write or review the content, and list them as the author along with their applicable credentials.
  • Reference authoritative sources, such as government websites, scientific studies, and academic journals.
  • Carefully edit the content to ensure that it creates an enjoyable reading experience. After investing a substantial amount of time and energy into developing a power page, you don’t want to let grammatical mistakes or sloppy writing diminish your brand’s credibility!

Once your power page is published and begins attracting backlinks from high-authority sites, the process will, in turn, fuel your own website’s E-A-T, thereby further contributing to a higher ranking in search engine results.

Aim to write several pages of content

As mentioned above, SEO power pages should be at least 2,000 to 5,000 words long. In addition to allowing you to explore a topic in greater detail than competing sources, studies have shown that long-form content receives more shares on social media than shorter pieces. According to one study by OkDork and BuzzSumo that analyzed the social share counts of over 100 million articles, those with between 3,000 and 10,000 words received the most shares. Since most content found online is short-form, investing in the creation of less frequently published—but longer, well-researched, in-depth pieces—can help your business stand out from the competition.

Ensure that your SEO power page is easy to navigate

Valuable content is not the only factor that will make your power page an enjoyable—and therefore, a shareable—reading experience. Because power pages are so long, it’s important that they are organized and subdivided in a way that helps keep the reader engaged and makes the content easier to digest. Consider doing this by incorporating the following elements:

  • Subheadings (which also serve as a great place to work in keywords!).
  • Short paragraphs, which create plenty of white space and, therefore, make the length of your power page appear less daunting.
  • Bolded and italicized words when appropriate for emphasis.
  • Bullet points and numbered lists.
  • For particularly lengthy power pages, you may want to organize the content into chapters and have a table of contents to make it easy for readers to find the information they’re looking for.

Make your power page visually appealing

In addition to making your power page easy to navigate, ensuring that it is visually appealing will help catch and maintain readers’ attention. Consider working with someone who can design professional-looking custom graphics, charts, videos, infographics, GIFs, and other visual assets to showcase your content and bring your power page to life.

Promoting your power page

No matter how beautifully crafted and value-packed your power page is, it will not yield the desired results in terms of SEO rankings if it does not gain traction among other websites. As mentioned, one of the main goals of creating an SEO power page is to acquire high-quality backlinks to your site. After all, backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites consistently rank as one of the top factors influencing Google’s search engine results. To successfully acquire these links, you should plan to spend about the same amount of time promoting your page as you do creating it.

Here are a few ways to promote your power page in order to attract backlinks, boost the number of shares on social media, and drive traffic to your website:

  • Post the page on all your social media accounts
  • Send it out to your email list
  • Send it to influencers, bloggers, and thought leaders in your industry. If your page is well-researched, well-written, and full of valuable, lesser-known information, leaders in your space will feel more comfortable posting it on their own websites and sharing it with their followers.
  • Promote it on forums as appropriate
  • Create Google Ad and social media ad campaigns that guide traffic to the page

Spin the power page into shorter pieces

While lengthy pieces like SEO power pages can help you rise above the noise of all the short-form content found on the internet, having a power page in your content toolbox offers a great starting point for creating blogs and other shorter pieces. For example, craft a series of blogs (aim for at least 500 to 1,000 words each) based on subtopics within the power page, using the same techniques discussed above as you undertake the research, writing, and promotion processes. Once these blogs are published, include links to them within the power page—and vice versa. Interlinking the content will boost the SEO value for both and encourage visitors to stay on your site longer.

Refine your power page as needed

To maximize the success of your power page, creating it should not be a one-time process. As you promote the page, pay attention to any feedback you receive from your audience, and use your analytics tools to monitor engagement. Use these insights to learn more about your audience and their needs and interests, refine your power page as you see fit, and gather ideas for future pieces of content.

Conclusion

Regardless of your chosen SEO strategies, improving your website’s ranking in search engine results will take time and require patience. However, adding SEO power pages to your strategy and following the guidelines outlined above will likely yield better, quicker results than relying on lower-value, short-form content. And the benefits of well-crafted power pages extend beyond higher search rankings—they can help shape your future content strategy, improve your brand’s reputation as an expert in your industry, and build your relationship with relevant influencers and thought leaders.

If your business is interested in developing a power page or needs assistance with your overall SEO strategy, the team at SP Marketing Experts is here to help! In addition to staying on top of the latest trends in the ever-evolving field of SEO, we also have extensive experience with content writing, graphic design, and other techniques needed to create a power page that will drive results for your business. Contact us today to schedule a consultation!

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