Content marketing is booming - especially this year, with more people working from home - so it’s not uncommon for thousands of brands to compete for the same search terms. Even if you’re on page one, you can expect competing brands to target your content and attempt to dethrone you. Because of this and the anonymity of Google ranking algorithms, I can’t give you the “secret sauce” that will have you ranking on page one of every desired term. I can’t give you advice that will fortify you from being targeted by competing brands. However, I can give you five helpful tips for producing content that has a better chance at ranking for the right terms and attracting organic traffic. Write for human readers One of the most fundamental content marketing tips I can provide is to write high-quality content for human readers. This may seem obvious, but it can fall by the wayside when SEOs attempt to “over-engineer” their content and end up writing strictly for what they believe will satisfy search engines. Google is the most sophisticated search engine in the world and uses complex machine learning algorithms (called RankBrain) to understand how users interact with content; it doesn’t need much help! Be sure to check off all the on-page SEO fundamentals like header tags, interlinking, keyword research, and more. But above all, give your audience the information they seek and do so in the most high-quality way possible. According to Google: “This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site.” The Inbound Marketing Playbook / 38