How Good Writing Can Boost Your Website Authority

Authority, when used in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), indicates the credibility of a website. In the simplest terms, a site with information relevant to the things people are searching for is considered to have authority.

Of course, things are never that simple in the real world. And so it is with SEO authority which is actually a fairly complex topic involving various types of links with varying levels of value. (I have included links at the bottom of this post that cover this subject in much greater detail, including some on AI search which is causing concern regarding its impact on organic/traditional search. TL;DR: tradtional SEO continues to work just fine.)

My point today is to highlight the role of good writing in building website authority.

It All Starts with Content

Search Engine Journal cites authority, relevance, and user experience as the three pillars of successful search engine optimization (SEO). But successful SEO actually starts higher, with content. After all, website content is essential to showcasing authority, proving relevance, and creating a good user experience.

And not just any old content either. Website copy has to be of high quality.

So, yes, you need to know how to get inbound links to your site and create a link structure in your own site, but you can’t really do any of that without a solid foundation of well-written pages and posts.

So, What Is “Good Writing”?

In a nutshell, good writing means: clean and concise, accurate and substantiated, and structured to be easily read and understood. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Clean and Concise

Clean copy means text that is free of errors. You want site visitors to think of you as an expert. Spelling mistakes, errors in grammar, and run-on or convoluted sentences all detract from your reputation.

Concise means keeping things as short as the topic allows. In other words, be efficient but don’t shortchange a subject to meet some arbitrary word limit. At the same time, you do want to ensure your post is long enough to give search engines something to crawl. It is a delicate balance.

If you need a general guideline, I’ve seen 500 words cited as a nice, round number to aim for but if you need more space to complete your content, take it. Or, if you are doing a really deep dive, consider a cornerstone structure with one very long post forming a base that connects to other related posts. See my notes on structure, below, for more information.

Accurate and Substantiated

When building authority, you are also building trust and that starts with content that is factual.

If you are just sharing your own opinion on things that is fine, but if you are writing to inform, you need to connect to sources that show the validity of what you are saying.

Not only are you verifying, but as I’ve noted in a previous post, you are also showing your attention to detail and commitment to providing reliable information. As a bonus, links to outside sources are helpful for SEO.

And no spam please. The content has to have value and be relevant to the subject at hand. Keywords are fine to help with search engine crawling, but the overall message has to follow through on the promise of the search engine query–no irrelevant filler or “bait and switch.”

Structure

Your content has to be easy to read and understand so users can get the point and be motivated to stay longer on your site.

I talk more about this in my post on scannable content, but use subheadings and images to break up text and help users find their way to relevant information. A logical structure also helps search engines assess the relevance of your site to the various topics you cover.

Another point about structure: be sure to link to other pages within your own site. Links within your site show that you are addressing a particular topic with depth, which further proves your expertise to both site visitors and search engines.

But Wait, There’s More

Your website authority–achieved with error-free, relevant, user-friendly copy–is the baseline for SEO but SEO itself is only one piece of the online marketing puzzle. Search engine rankings are competitive and not guaranteed.

To amplify your authority and extend your reach, you need another acronym–WPO, or web presence optimization. Like SEO, WPO starts with content. Read Web Presence Optimization for Small Businesses to learn more.