Key takeaways
- The first 100 words decide whether the visitor stays and whether you win the snippet — answer the query immediately.
- Headings are an outline for the reader and a map for the crawler; write them as statements, not labels.
- Format for the SERP feature you want: definition paragraph, ordered list or table.
- Proof beats adjectives — screenshots, data, quotes and named examples.
- Place the primary CTA after the section where the reader's problem is solved, not at the bottom.
The first 100 words do most of the work
A visitor arriving from a search result is deciding one thing: is this the page that answers my question? You have roughly eight seconds and one screen to prove it.
So answer immediately. If the query is “what is a content audit”, the first sentence should define a content audit — not describe how content marketing has changed since 2015.
The opening pattern we use:
- Direct answer in 40–60 words, phrased so it can stand alone as a featured snippet.
- Why it matters, in one sentence with a concrete stake.
- What this page will give you — the promise, stated plainly.
Only then can you earn a paragraph of context. Everything you write before the answer is a bet that the reader is more patient than the back button.
We moved the answer above the context on 31 client posts. Median time on page rose 34%, and eleven of them picked up featured snippets within two months.
Headings are an outline, not decoration
Most readers scan the headings before committing. A crawler does something functionally similar. So your H2s should read as a coherent summary of the argument when read on their own.
Two habits improve headings immediately:
- Write statements, not labels. “Cluster by SERP overlap, not by string similarity” tells the reader something. “Clustering” does not.
- Keep the hierarchy honest. One H1. H2s for major sections. H3s only for genuine subsections. Never skip levels for visual effect — that is what CSS is for.
A useful test: paste your headings into a document by themselves. If a colleague can follow the argument from the outline alone, the structure works.
Format for the SERP feature you want
Different features reward different formatting, and the formatting has to appear in the HTML, not just in the design.
| Feature | Format that wins it | Placement |
|---|---|---|
| Paragraph snippet | 40–60 word direct answer, no hedging | Directly under a question-style H2 |
| List snippet | Ordered or unordered list with short, parallel items | Under an H2 containing “steps”, “ways” or “types” |
| Table snippet | Genuine HTML table with a clear header row | Where you compare options or specifications |
| People Also Ask | Question as H2 or H3, answer in the first two sentences | FAQ section or inline |
Do not bury a table inside an image. Do not build a list with line breaks and bullet characters. The mark-up is the signal.
Proof is what separates you from the other nine results
Everyone ranking for your keyword has read the same advice you have. The pages that win add something the others cannot: original evidence.
In order of persuasive power:
- Your own data — anonymised client results, internal benchmarks, a survey you ran.
- Screenshots of the actual thing — the dashboard, the SERP, the spreadsheet.
- Named examples, with the specifics that make them credible.
- Expert quotes from someone who has done the work.
- Primary-source statistics, linked to the original study rather than to a blog citing a blog.
Two pieces of original proof per article is a reasonable standard. If you cannot produce any, ask whether the article is worth publishing at all.
Internal links belong in the body, not just the footer
Internal links do two jobs: route authority and route readers. A “related posts” widget does neither particularly well because it sits outside the argument.
Place links where a curious reader would naturally want more: when you reference a concept covered in depth elsewhere, when you mention a service you offer, when a sub-topic deserves its own page. Use anchor text that describes the destination — the target page's main keyword, phrased naturally.
For a 1,500-word post, three to eight contextual links is a healthy range, and at least one should point at a page that makes money. See our guide to topic clusters for how these links compound across a set of articles.
Where to put the call to action
The bottom of the page is where the least engaged readers are. Yet that is where most CTAs live.
Our placement rules:
- A soft CTA early — a link to a relevant service or tool, in context, no shouting.
- The primary CTA mid-article, immediately after the section that solves the reader's core problem. They have just experienced your competence; this is the moment.
- A closing CTA that offers the logical next step rather than a generic “contact us”.
Match the ask to the funnel stage. An informational post should offer another resource or a newsletter. A comparison post can ask for a demo. Asking for a purchase on an awareness-stage article is how you get a 0.1% conversion rate and conclude that content does not work.
The pre-publish checklist
Every piece we ship passes this list. It takes fifteen minutes and catches most of what costs rankings later.
- Title tag under 60 characters, primary keyword near the front, a reason to click
- Meta description 140–155 characters, written as ad copy, not as a summary
- URL short, lowercase, hyphenated, keyword present, no dates or stop words
- One H1; heading hierarchy intact and readable as an outline
- Answer to the primary query inside the first 100 words
- Three to eight contextual internal links, at least one commercial
- Two or three external links to primary sources
- Images compressed, dimensions set, descriptive alt text, lazy loading below the fold
- FAQ section where People Also Ask justifies it, with FAQ schema
- Author byline with a real person and credentials
- Publish date and last-updated date visible
- Read the whole thing aloud once — the sentence you stumble over is the one to cut
That last item is the one people skip and the one that most reliably improves the piece.
Frequently asked questions
As long as the topic requires, benchmarked against the pages currently ranking. If the top five average 1,400 words, a 3,000-word post is usually padding. Length is an output of coverage, never a target.
Title tag, H1, first 100 words, one or two H2s where it reads naturally, the URL, and the image alt text where relevant. After that, write for the human. Modern ranking systems handle synonyms and related entities perfectly well.
Three to eight contextual links for a typical 1,500-word post: some to related articles, at least one to a commercial page. Use descriptive anchor text and place links where they genuinely help.
No — only where People Also Ask reveals real sub-questions your body copy does not already answer. A redundant FAQ block adds length without value, and mark-up cannot rescue content nobody needs.
Both, but the meaningful one goes mid-article, immediately after the section that solves the reader's problem. That is the moment of maximum trust, and it consistently converts better than a footer button.
Minnie Adeyemi
Co-founder & SEO Copywriter
Minnie came from ecommerce merchandising and writes the money pages: category copy, landing pages and anything where the conversion rate is the score.
