How to Create SEO Content That Ranks in 2025

I’m going to show you a proven 7-pillar SEO content creation process that grew this page’s organic search traffic by 1,300%.

You’re going to learn:

Ready?

Let’s dive in.

7 Pillars of Perfect SEO Content

Content built for search engine optimization targets one specific keyword phrase.

That includes category pages, product pages, local service pages (for local SEO), landing pages, and blog posts.

In essence:

Any web page that’s engineered to drive organic traffic from is SEO content.

Now it’s time for the fun stuff:

Pillar #1: Keyword Selection

I’ll start with the most important part:

Search volume is the LAST reason why you should select a keyword.

Look at the search query “side eye meme.”

Now look at “best personal injury lawyer in albuquerque.”

Pop quiz:

Which of these is more valuable?

If you guessed the injury lawyer keyword, then you’re right.

Here’s your virtual high five 🖐️

The point is:

Search volume doesn’t equate to value.

Relevance and intent are better for determining value.

Which brings me to the six pillars of keyword selection:

1. Relevance

Think about the five stages of customer awareness.

Ask yourself:

What’s the likelihood that my target audience buys my stuff if they search for this keyword phrase?

Focus on keywords that are closest to a conversion.

2. Intent

You can use the structure of a keyword phrase to get a ballpark idea of where a searcher is in the sales cycle.

You can put 99% of keywords into two buckets:

Intent	Seeds
Informational	how, what, is, why, when, who, are, can, does, do, should, will, could, which, where, did, may, might, would, whose, am
Commercial	[brand] vs [brand], [brand] review, buy, discount code, service, consultant, near me, best, top, pricing, cost, alternative, comparison, trial, demo, coupon, promo code, package, plan, features, benefits, testimonials, success stories, free quote, estimate

3. Value

You can determine the value of keywords with relevance and intent.

But you can also use Google CPC data to see how much advertisers are willing to pay.

In most cases, the higher the CPC, the more valuable the keyword is.

4. Competition

There are three critical variables of SEO competition:

Content Quality

How good are the competitors who are ranking?

If it’s clear they’ve invested significant effort, time, and money into their assets, you should expect to do the same.

Topic Authority

How well do the competitors cover this topic?

If it’s all they talk about on their website, then you need to have the same level of subject matter expertise and focus.

Backlinks

How strong are your competitors from a backlink profile perspective?

You need to match their backlink quality and quantity to achieve similar outcomes.

5. Demand

Search volume is one measure of demand and the most commonly used for SEO.

80% of your keyword targets should have quantifiable search demand.

The other 20% are for topics that don’t have search volume.

Some quick ways to find zero volume keywords are:

User Generated Content

Go to forums, Reddit, or even social media platforms like TikTok to find untapped ideas:

Google Search Console

Most SEO tools miss many keyword opportunities that are freely available inside of Google Search Console.

Take this keyword for example:

It shows clear demand in GSC, but zero demand in Ahrefs:

Yes, it’s still risky to target, but it can also be an untapped opportunity.

6. Clicks

Did you know that 60% of searches on Google end without a click?

Here’s what reality looks like in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) right now:

And that’s why click-through-rate (CTR) potential must be a part of your keyword selection.

Watch this video to see the new reality of SEO:

So here’s your action step for Pillar #1:

Make a copy of this free keyword selection template.

Add some of your prospective keywords into the sheet.

Then look at the scoring criteria tab to score your opportunities.

Whichever scores the highest is a good keyword to pursue.

Pillar #2: Uniqueness

Google’s algorithms are craving uniqueness because they’re overwhelmed with regurgitated AI content.

If you get anything from this guide, please understand this:

Uniqueness is your strategic advantage for SEO in 2025 (and beyond).

This is the hardest part of the content creation process.

But here’s the good news:

Your competitors are conditioning themselves right now to stop using their brains.

Their first instinct is to open ChatGPT when they need ideas.

What they don’t realize is LLMs can’t create anything NEW.

They can only give you information based on existing training data.

That’s why I want to introduce you to The Purple Cow SEO content strategy.

I stole this concept from Seth Godin, but it’ll help you get 10x better SEO results.

Here’s how it works:

Step #1: Study Your Competitors

Look at a competitor that is A) ranking very well and B) has covered the topic at a deep level.

Save their page as PDF, open ChatGPT, attach the PDF, and use the prompt below:

It’ll then spit out a beautiful SWOT analysis:

From there, you can:

Step #2: Brainstorm Angles

Use this simple prompt:

And once again, it’ll produce some solid angles:

Use this simple process to get the idea machine rolling.

You can also differentiate your existing or new content with proven methods like:

Attracting User Generated Content

I used this angle for our “is Google biased” case study.

I knew this would be a polarizing topic and would attract UGC.

All of this UGC makes this page very unique relative to the competitors.

Fresh Data

Google’s AI overviews love fresh and new data.

Become the source by creating your own data-driven studies like our “best CMS for SEO” study.

Instead of opinion, we conducted our own independent study.

You don’t need to do massive studies.

Even a small study that produces some anecdotal evidence can still create the uniqueness advantage.

Experience-Driven Content

Share your subjective opinion on topics because AI can’t do that.

That’s exactly what I did with “best SEO books.”

I purchased 26 SEO books, read every single one, and shared my subjective opinion.

Step #3: Make Everything Unique

It’s not required and you can rank without doing this.

But if you want to dominate, make your copy, visuals, and page design unique relative to the competitors.

Yes, that’s right…

Invest into every piece of content.

You won’t regret it.

Pillar #3: Relevance

Uniqueness is the lead domino, but Google’s algorithms crave relevance.

There are three moves you must make for Google to fall in love with your pages:

Match Search Intent Perfectly

Do this wrong and your rankings are dead in the water.

The good news is that you don’t have to guess.

Just look at Google for your target keyword and see what’s ranking.

Mostly informational angles? Go informational. Mostly commercial pages? Try going commercial.

It’s not a life or death decision. You can always try a new angle.

Use NLP

Google and other tech giants use NLP to understand human content.

And you can use this to your advantage to feed the machines the relevant topics (sometimes called entities).

Here’s how:

Step #1: Use a Content Optimization Tool

I used Rankability to write this content you’re reading.

It crawls your competitor’s content, extracts topics, and prioritizes the topics based on what’s covered the most.

You can even click on a topic:

And see how the competitor is covering it in their content:

In general:

You should try to cover as many related keywords in your content as possible.

But first:

Step #2: Create an Outline

You can do this manually or with AI.

Enter your keyword into the Content Optimizer and select your preference:

You can generate just the content brief and outline or a full first draft with the AI content writer:

If you’re using AI to create the first draft, then use the entire prompt window to get the best output:

It takes 4-5 minutes to create a draft that A) perfectly matches the intent of the keyword and B) is already optimized for relevance.

Related: Does Google Penalize AI Content? New SEO Case Study

Here are some guidelines for when to use AI:

Keyword Competition	Writing Method
High	100% Human
Medium	AI Base + Heavy Human Touch
Low	Pure AI + Human Edits
Extremely Low	Pure AI

Step #3: Cover the Topics

Notice I didn’t say inject the keywords into your content.

It’s already proven that keyword density is not a Google ranking factor.

View the “keywords” as topics.

Sometimes you can cover the topic with a sentence. Other times you need to dedicate an entire section.

Now you’re probably wondering:

What about word count?

The quantity of words on your page isn’t a ranking factor.

However, you can’t rank without words.

And words are required to create copy that effectively covers your keyword.

Rankability gives an “Optimal” word count range that eliminates outliers.

But the recommendation is not a law. We break it all the time.

Lean more towards the low end of the range to make sure your content is practicing brevity.

Step #4: Keyword Placement

What I’ve just showed you falls under advanced content optimization, but don’t neglect on-page SEO best practices.

To rank well, you need have your primary keyword in your:

URL:

Page Title Tag:

Meta Description:

You can ignore meta tags like keywords, but you should write a unique meta description that includes the focus keyword.

H1:

First Sentence:

And ideally, a variant in your H2:

So here’s where you should be at this point:

You’ve identified a valuable keyword, you found a unique angle, and you’ve created highly relevant copy.

Now it’s time for:

Pillar #4: Quality

Everything you’ve already done so far will help you produce a strong page that stands out.

But let’s go to the next level with quality.

Spice Up Your SEO Copywriting

You’re not writing a dissertation.

Here are some methods to make your copywriting more engaging (and persuasive):

Write to One Person

Notice how it feels like I’m speaking directly to you.

You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve used “you” 83 times in this guide.

Don’t Try to Sound Smart

The smartest people are often the least persuasive.

It’s because they use jargon, big words, and don’t know how to be clear with their ideas.

My wife thinks it’s strange but this works:

Speak while you write.

I’m talking right now as I write this.

It’s more of a creepy whisper, but it helps me write how I speak.

That creates more of a connection with you.

Break Patterns

Rewind the tape to the previous section and see how I used a silly anecdote about my beautiful wife.

Trying to score wife points here, but there’s no way she’ll read this.

Either way:

I just did something else to drive engagement.

Tell your reader to do things: “reread this, click that link, open this, watch this, etc.”

Action = engagement (something that Google is tracking with Chrome).

Use Open Loops

Breaking Bad is the best modern example of this.

It’s open loop after open loop.

Do this with your content.

Preview what’s coming up next, but don’t reveal.

I’ll create a dedicated guide for SEO copywriting in the future.

So subscribe here.

Become a Rewriter

Great writing is the byproduct of incredible editing.

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.” – Ernest Hemingway

This guide is currently on its first draft.

It’ll go through at least two or three versions before it goes live.

Build for Skimmers

You might be the best copywriter on the planet, but you still must structure your content to maximize readability.

“Users don’t read, they scan.” – Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

Here are my favorite techniques for breaking things up:

Short paragraphs:

Headings:

Bullet points + numbered lists:

Custom visuals – NOT decorative images! Only add visual content if it adds to the content.

Embedded videos:

Tables:

And now for what I call the “hidden force” that determines your long-term SEO success.

Pillar #5: Happiness

You’ve probably noticed a trend in this guide that you don’t hear much of these days…

We’re building pages to satisfy humans.

AI has pushed many people to be tactic-oriented, obsessed with “scale” and “automation.”

But it’s all wasted effort if you can’t get humans to consume your content or take action.

That’s why human happiness needs to be your new obsession.

It starts with:

Technical SEO 101

Every digital marketing and SEO strategy must must nail these basics:

Crawling and Indexing

Can Google crawl your page?

Check with the Detailed Chrome Extension.

Indexation won’t be a problem if you’ve created truly unique content.

If you’ve done everything in this guide and your page is not indexed, then force indexing in Google Search Console:

Wait a few days.

If that doesn’t work, then make sure you have enough internal link coverage to the page.

Use Screaming Frog to see how many internal links any page has:

The final move if you still aren’t indexed is to drive backlinks to the page.

This works in 99% of scenarios.

Loading Speed

Humans are intolerant of slow and there’s overwhelming evidence that it hurts engagement and conversions.

Make it priority to improve your page loading speed.

Use Google PageSpeed Insights to benchmark your speed.

UI / UX

Avoid things that prevent people from getting what they want.

That includes aggressive ad placements and interstitial popups.

Yes, big brands get away with it.

But most businesses don’t have that luxury.

Focus on delighting your users and it’s hard to get bad results.

Pillar #6: Topic Authority

Creating one beautiful SEO asset is only the first step.

Now you need to support your mother asset.

Here’s an example using the five stages of customer awareness:

Start with topics in the “Most Aware” phase and then move up the funnel.

Pillar #7: Link Authority

In a perfect world, creating the best content would win in Google.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple because Google can’t objectively determine what is good.

Related: Do Backlinks Still Matter for SEO?

It can only use signals to make the determination.

One of the most powerful signals it uses are backlinks.

Watch this video to learn:

You Made It, Congrats

Memorize this word:

Effort.

It’s the key to creating SEO content that ranks in 2025 and beyond.

Fun fact:

“Effort” is mentioned 120 times in Google’s Quality Rate Guidelines.

One last note:

Everything you’ve learned today will help drive awareness in LLMs like ChatGPT as well.

Quality over quantity is the key.

Hope that helps and share this if you got value.

Thank you!

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