Rellify's Blog

By Daniel Duke - Exploring the intricacies of keyword density is part of unraveling the puzzle of the ever-evolving realm of SEO, where the conventional understanding of pleasing Google is no longer accurate. In fact, we shouldn’t even think about “Pleasing Google” when writing articles for our audience.

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In this guide, we'll provide an in-depth look at the concept of keyword density. We will challenge the common approach and reinterpret the concept. You'll learn that keyword density remains important for optimizing your website. However, the reason probably is very different that what you might think. Read on to learn about:

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• The original concept of keyword density.
• Reinterpreting the concept to emphasize readability.
• What is a good keyword density?
• Focus on quality content.
• How to avoid keyword stuffing.

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Understanding the Original Concept of Keyword Density

Keyword density is a term used in search engine optimization (SEO) to describe the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a webpage compared to the total number of words on the page. It was used as an indicator of how relevant a keyword is to the content of a webpage.Many content creation platforms support this approach. They will tell you how many times you have to repeat which keyword in your text. This can lead to a disproportionately high repetition of a keyword. There are mainly two reasons why a platform defines one term as super important to the topic. Sometimes, it is due to high search volume for that keyword. The other reason is that the vendor wants to match or exceed the number of times a keyword is used on average in the top performing articles of that topic. But is this the way to go? Is this the holy grail to success in the world of content creation?

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Reinterpreting the Concept of Keyword Density

Not really. As search engines have evolved and become more sophisticated, keyword density is no longer the sole determinant of a webpage's relevance. (Why should it be?) It is still important that you include topic-defining keywords in your text. At the same time, search engines focus on the overall content quality, relevance and readability of a webpage.

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Readability: one of the really important Google ranking factors

Readability refers to how easily a reader can understand and comprehend the content of a webpage. It takes into account factors such as sentence structure, paragraph length, use of headings and subheadings, and the overall flow of the text. Google, as well as other search engines, prioritize websites that provide high-quality, well-written content that is easy for users to read and understand.

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High keyword frequency can lead to bad readability. Bad for the reader. Punished by Google. Bad for you.

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This shift in focus means that simply stuffing a web page with keywords to increase keyword density is no longer an effective strategy. In fact, keyword stuffing can now be penalized by search engines, as it is seen as a manipulative tactic to artificially boost rankings.

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Google's algorithm is designed to identify keyword overuse and penalize websites that engage in keyword stuffing. The algorithm analyzes the content of webpages and looks for unnatural keyword usage patterns. It is important to adhere to Google's guidelines and focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to users.

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Keyword density should not mean using a context-critical keyword as often as possible in a text so that search engines understand what it is about. Instead, it should ensure that no keyword is used too frequently in the text. (That's — by the way — what we offer in our Rellify application.)

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Simply said, it is about the maximum, not the minimum.

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What is a Good Keyword Density?

A good keyword density is the optimal frequency at which a keyword should appear in a piece of content to improve its search engine optimization (SEO) without overusing it. While there is no specific ideal keyword density, aiming for a range of 1-3% is generally recommended.

Can you calculate the keyword density for your text by yourself?

Of course, you can! Divide the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage by the total word count of your text. Then multiplying the result by 100. For example, if a keyword appears 10 times in a 500-word article, the keyword density would be 2%. They density for this article is about 1.6%.

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Less is More: Focus on Content Quality Instead of Keyword Counting

Content creators should aim for valuable, informative, and engaging content that is tailored to their target audience. This involves using keywords naturally and organically within the text, rather than forcing them in every sentence. By focusing on creating high-quality content that provides value to readers, your website is more likely to rank higher in search engine results. Furthermore, search engines now employ advanced algorithms that can understand the context and intent behind a user's search query. This means that even if a webpage does not have a high keyword density, it can still rank well. Requirement: It provides relevant and useful information that matches the user's search intent.

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3 ways to avoid keyword stuffing in your text

1. Prioritize creating valuable and engaging content that is relevant to your readers. Focus on providing useful information rather than obsessing over keyword density.
2. Instead of repeating the same keyword multiple times, focus on using synonyms and related terms as keyword variations. Care for the natural language and use it clearly and conversationally.
3. Ensure that your headlines and subheadlines accurately reflect the content of your text. Avoid stuffing keywords into headings just for the sake of optimization.

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Keywords? Whatever! It's All About Crafting Content for Real People

Remember, the goal should always be to create valuable content that satisfies your readers' needs. It is crucial to prioritize the overall quality and readability of the content. Search engines focus more and more on user experience and value. Remember the Google Helpful Content Update. That's why creating informative and engaging content should be your primary goal.

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Don't write for Google, write for your readers, potential clients, followers. That's all Google wants. Deliver matching answers to users searches. If you catch your readers' interest, if they trust you and come back to your content again and again: Congratulations. You nailed it.

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To learn more about how Rellify combines human expertise and AI to accelerate and improve the quality of your content creation, contact us today. Start now for 30 Days. No Risk. No Charge.

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By Daniel Duke - Here at Rellify, we're pretty passionate about using content briefs. They're an integral part of any content marketer's process for delivering expert, relevant content to customers. But how exactly does a brief play into the overall content production process, and why does it matter so much? We'll go over that here, covering:

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• What is a content brief?
• How to write a content brief
• What are the benefits of a content brief?

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What is a content brief?

A content brief is a document that describes what a client or editor wishes to see in an article, blog post or other piece of content. A brief contains the information a writer needs to efficiently complete the article envisioned by the person assigning it. An effective brief will include information about the client, target reader and essential elements of the article, and possibly an outline for article as well as useful sources. Even when the same person handles the planning, writing and editing, we recommend writing a thorough brief. Some might see this as a waste of time, but it's more efficient overall to start out with a brief rather than write an article without one and then make revision after revision.

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A good brief helps a writer:

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• Stay on track. This is especially important when a business is creating many pieces of content as part of a campaign. In such cases, you don’t want multiple articles covering the same subject matter and competing against one another. You want each one to have maximum impact.
• Save time that might be wasted researching and writing unwanted material. This also saves time for editors and helps get material published sooner.

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Writing a brief also forces the person assigning the article to develop a clear focus for it. Fuzzy, vague assignments can lead to fluffy, weak articles that won't rank highly in organic search results.

How to write a content brief with Rellify

Let's review how a brief is constructed to provide the maximum impact. For this walkthrough, we'll use the Rellify application's briefs process, but these concepts apply to any brief.

Focus keyword

This is the topic or “focus” of your article — the word or phrase you’re trying to rank for on search engines. All of your other keywords should relate to this term. The focus keyword guides the content's relevance, aligning it with user search queries. There are many tools for finding focus keywords and then keywords for specific articles. Rellify can use a Relliverse™— an AI-generated database specific to a client's business sector — to do keyword research. From there, it can detect the exact topics, keywords, and phrases that fit your brand and target audience's search intent. It creates a customized neural network of keywords that, when used properly, can strategically position your content to get picked up by search engines. This is one of Rellify's most advanced and groundbreaking features. However, you can still create an effective content brief in Rellify without it.

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In Rellify, once you've done research in the "Explore" tab and entered your chosen focus keyword into the "Brief" section under "specs," it guides the rest of your brief-building and content creation process.

Keyword research

Once you've found the right focus keyword, you're ready to find primary and secondary keywords to incorporate into the brief.

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Keyword research happens in the "Explore" tab, but once you've selected the keywords you'd like to include, they'll show up in the "Brief" tab under the "Outline" section. The writer doesn't have to use all the keyword suggestions, but rather the ones that most closely match the intent of the article. In the "Outline" section, you can indicate any keywords that you'd like the writer to know are "must-use" and "good to use." Be clear in the guidelines of your brief about how many keywords you expect to be included.

Content length/Word count

By providing a target word count , you allow the writer to better manage their time and resources. Although word count is not considered to be a ranking factor for Google, if you want an article to help establish thought leadership and E-E-A-T, a comprehensive (and thus longer) article might be called for. Your ultimate goal should be to match the text length to the user's intent and the nature of the topic, fully addressing it. At Rellify, we use artificial intelligence to analyze the top-ranking articles on your subject and recommend a word count in the brief tab under the "specs" section. With that recommendation in mind, you can still input whatever word count specifications you'd like within the text box.

Article type

Is this content meant to be a blog post? An in-depth guide? Is it a white paper that promotes or highlights your company’s product or solution? The brief should let your writer know exactly what you are looking for. It dictates the structure, style, and approach of the content, ensuring it aligns with the specific goals such as informing, getting leads, or entertaining the audience. In Rellify's "specs" section, you'll find a drop-down menu for "Article Type" where you can select accordingly.

Audience

This is a simple designation of who the reader is in relation to you, the content source. It's not anything extensive, but it helps pointedly guide the writer. It may fall into one of three broad categories:

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• B2B (Business to Business)
• B2C (Business to Consumer)
• C2C (Consumer to Consumer)

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However, you can write a more detailed description of your intended audience, including information such as search intent, demographics, and locality.

Audience expertise

A brief should set clear expectations for who your target reader is. While the writer may be an expert, that doesn't mean the reader will be. Tailoring the content to the level of audience knowledge improves its engagement and effectiveness. In Rellify's Brief, under "specs," you'll find a section titled "audience expertise," where you can select "general," "informed," or "expert."

Tone

Every brand has a unique style or tone that informs its content creation. In-house writers should have this down pat, but a reminder doesn't hurt. For freelance writers, direction on tone will be a big help — and probably save the editor a great deal of time and effort. It also helps to give a link or two to examples of writing that match the client's tone. In Rellify, you can describe the tone in detail in the Brief.

Top rankings

Checking out the competition gives insights into the content strategies and styles that are currently successful and visible in search engine results. This helps editors and writers understand the competitive landscape, audience preferences, and potential gaps in existing content. Naturally, you would Google your focus keyword to see what results it gets. When you identify your focus keyword, Rellify automatically crawls search engines to find the top three web pages that are ranking for it. In the Brief "specs" section, you'll find the links plus an AI-generated summary of the content.

Reading resources

You might trust writers to do their own research. However, if you come across good sources while writing a brief, it makes sense to pass along that information. It can help a writer avoid getting overwhelmed by the sheer volume of search results on your target keyword. You might save everyone a lot of guesswork by giving quality, directed background resources and detailed content information.

Outline

The background information has been set, now you can guide the structure of the article. You can write an outline based on what you see in competing articles, what ground you want to cover, and how you want to distinguish your article from the rest. The right structure, using subheads and bullet points to organize the material, makes it easier for readers and bots to gather information.

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Here's where Rellify's generative AI capabilities really begin to work for the brief-maker. Under the "Brief" tab, click on the "Outline" button. You will then see, on the left side, the focus keyword, primary and secondary keywords, and questions to answer. On the right, you have a blank field labeled "outline." To make full use of AI, you can create an outline with one click of the "Generate outline" button.

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You also can manually create a content outline section by section, starting with the title, the "H1." You can drag and drop keywords you would like to see in that introductory section. You also can write notes for what should be covered there. Then you proceed in the same way with subheadings — the "H2s" and "H3s." In any section, you can get AI assistance with writing titles and subtitles and with generating text that can guide the writer.

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The bottom line: you get to choose just how much you'd like to involve Rellify's article intelligence in the content brief process. It's totally customizable and can be altered according to the brief-maker's thinking and goals.

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Guidelines

You may have a few more instructions for a writer that didn't fit into the other sections. That's why, under the Brief tab, you'll find a third section titled "Guidelines." This is intentionally left blank so you can add background information or specific instructions. Or you can just write them a little note of encouragement or recognition for previous good work.

Suggested internal and external links

Linking is a huge part of SEO best practices. It’s essential to choose quality links to sources and include helpful “further reading” internal links. This information can be particularly helpful to a writer who doesn't know much about the content on your site. Also, be sure to say how many internal or external links you expect them to include. If you have expectations of where links should go in the content, include that info too.

Suggested metadata

This is “data about other data.” Suggest a meta title and a meta description. Even if you want the writer to take care of that, your suggestions provide more guidance on your vision for the article. Rellify's "article summary" feature uses generative AI to summarize any text you choose, which could be used for a meta description. You also can click an "AI support" button to general headlines."

Any media content you need

A big block of text, no matter how well written, is not inviting to the eyes. Photos, infographic and videos create an immersive and rich user experience. Compelling visuals also are a great way to generate quality backlinks and help with your domain authority. Because visuals are so important, the brief should make it clear whether the writer is expected to provide them. If they are, then detailed information is required.

Deadlines

This information helps with timely planning, creation, and publication of the content. It also helps in managing workflow and resources effectively. Depending on your content creation process, you might want to include deadlines for the following steps:

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• Keyword research
• Outline
• First draft
• Notes (if any)
• Revisions
• Approval
• Publication

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What are the benefits of a content brief?

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• Spells out the intent of the article. Content writers will do their best work when they’re given a complete picture of the article’s goal. It’s like looking at the picture on the front of the puzzle box as you put the pieces together. It helps tremendously with producing SEO-focused content.
• Identifies the reader’s needs. When people go to a search engine, they likely have a problem they’re trying to solve. Searchers may be looking for a particular product or just beginning to do research on ways to solve a problem. When a brief identifies the “problems” that are motivating searchers, it helps the writer craft relevant content that offers a solution.
• Improves efficiency. Even in a one-person content shop, writing a brief gets the writer/editor from idea to published content faster and more efficiently. Organization is a good writer’s bread and butter. Develop a content brief template to save time on any given project; you'll only need to fill in certain information once because it's the same for every article on a project. Establishing a good process with your content team or freelancers helps everyone get on the same page. This also can be very grounding for a writer trying to cover an unfamiliar subject.
• Helps with achieving goals and KPIs. KPIs reflect how well your content is doing. You want solid results on the metrics that best represent your company goals. Creating content briefs as part of a marketing strategy makes it much easier to achieve and measure the content performance goals you set for your content.
• Gets more mileage out of your content. Well-written, well-organized content has a better chance of being "evergreen.” This content doesn’t depend on current events for its relevance. It has the depth and lasting value needed to rank well in organic search results for years. And we all know that search engine algorithms change. When they do, an article crafted from a solid brief will need only minor tweaks, not an overhaul. A well-written — and well-structured — piece can easily be repurposed for email campaigns and other uses.
• Generates fully optimized content. Good content briefs include plenty of rich SEO keywords, directions regarding SEO best practices, and information about the intended audience. This all adds up to top-ranking articles. A well-directed, well-informed writer can do the majority of the SEO optimizing for you, especially with a Content Intelligence application like Rellify that tells you exactly what needs to be done.

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Streamline content creation with content briefs

Are you ready to use content briefs to help your writers produce winning results? At Rellify, creating a pointed, clear, and detailed content brief is an essential part of our full-service content marketing strategy for producing outstanding results. Many clients have already noticed significant gains in organic traffic, conversions, and leads since using Rellify. Ready to give it a shot? Experience a free trial of Rellify's Article Intelligence Application and explore the content brief process for yourself. If you're not exactly sure which of Rellify's services you need, schedule a consultation with one of our experts so we can tailor solutions to your specific goals.

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By Daniel Duke - Evergreen content, much like the branches of an evergreen tree, never loses its color or "goes out of season." But a pine needs water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide to stay verdant. Similarly, your evergreen content needs revision, cultivation, and updating to stay informative and relevant.

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Outdated information is like the Christmas tree in your living room in mid-February (if this is you, we're not here to judge, but we stand by our comparison). Don't settle for that. In this article, we'll review:

• What evergreen content is (and what makes it work)
• How to create it
• How to update it and keep it relevant
• Examples of evergreen content
• The value of evergreen content

What is evergreen content and what makes it work?

Evergreen content is material you post on your website that is designed to offer value and rank high in search engine results for a long period of time. It offers in-depth information that’s relevant to a user’s search on core topics. Because that content can stay meaningful and useful for years, it gives consistent content marketing results.

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It can be used as part of a strategic approach in marketing that focuses on delivering timeless, relevant information instead of directly promoting a brand or business. It seeks to build brand awareness by stimulating readers’ interest in an organization's products and/or services. This approach involves the use of both evergreen topics and evergreen content. What's the difference between these two?

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Evergreen topics are subjects people have always talked and thought about:

• What to eat and what not to eat
• How to start a new business
• How to get a good night's sleep

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Evergreen content is an article, blog post, white paper or other piece that explores specific aspects of an evergreen topic

• Ten foods to maximize fat burning
• The best way to use credit cards to start a new business
• Five relaxation techniques to help you get back to sleep

Articles tend to be long-form because of the depth of coverage, and writers use SEO formatting to make the copy easy to scan and comprehend. This content also tends to be:

• More general and not aimed at top experts.
• Informational rather than transactional.
• Focused on the long view rather than trends, the latest developments or the season.
• Fact-based, not opinion-heavy.

It's true that content based on trends, the day’s news, and emotion can bring a quick spike in search results, but it soon falls into the infamous Google graveyard, rarely to be seen again.

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Satisfied readers share evergreen content and link to it, making the SERP results improve even more. You might say it puts down roots. Evergreen content as an SEO tactic develops slowly, but gives a clear path to high organic traffic over the long haul.

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How do you make evergreen content?

To write evergreen content, decide on a topic that fits your marketing strategy. Think about what your customers want or need to know.

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You might not realize it, but you have plenty of sources at hand for evergreen content ideas. Look at the questions you get from customers, whether in person or through email, customer service centers, and your website’s help desk. Ask your salespeople and customer service representatives what questions they get.

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A best practices guide to creating evergreen content:

1. Do your keyword research. Look for keywords and search terms that support your topic. Consider long-tail keywords and use keyword keyword tools to choose the terms that will offer you the best return. Rellify includes AI-driven keyword research as part of our expert service offerings.
2. Make your keywords count.  Optimize your post by selecting keywords that show good search volume and a positive trend. A tool like Google Trends can help.
3. Consider search intent, the reason that readers are searching. What information do they need to make decisions about your organization? You’ll want to check the search engine results pages (SERPs) for a variety of searches to see how to position your content. One helpful technique: check each word’s ranking in the Keywords Explorer.
4. Consider the impact of the meta description, the short piece of information that appears below the blue link in a search result. It should briefly describe the content that readers can find if they click that link. Don't forget other on-page SEO like keyword placement, tags and links. Even the most well-written blog post can’t give long-lasting results if it’s not optimized for Google bots.
5. Write a headline that works. Some words that search engines like include “Best,” “Data,” and “Reasons.”
6. Create high-quality content that offers specific information, not fluff and generalities. If you are part of a company that creates its own content, make sure your in-house experts lend their knowledge to each article. If you are writing for a client, interview one of its subject matter experts to give your article the voice of authority. Aim for content that’s timeless, informative, and better than anything else on the topic. It helps to stay away from overly technical language and jargon, even though you want in-depth, authoritative content. Here's a guide to creating long-form content if you need help getting started.
7. Be sure to keep your topic fresh. Avoid dating it in any way.  Phrases like “Last month,” “Yesterday,” or “In April” will shorten its lifespan.
8. Work from a marketing strategy. Create a schedule to share your content across a variety of platforms, so that you can reach different audiences and spark engagement. Make the content shareable with the click of a button.
9. Link your posts together. For example, in an article on “How to Choose a Tire” include links to other pieces you’ve written on “Tire Treads” and “Seasonal Tire Usage.”

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If the process of evergreen content creation is stressing you out, Rellify has a solution. We can create a custom Relliverse™ that uses AI to help you find topics and keywords that are uniquely relevant to your prospective customers. And if you don't want to make the content yourself, Rellify's content experts can handle it for you.

Update evergreen content regularly

The value of evergreen content is its potential to drive traffic to your site for years because of its continued relevance. To maximize that value, however, it is necessary to check it on a consistent schedule – say, every two months or so – and update it as needed. You also should check after any search engine algorithm updates. This simple SEO strategy requires diligence more than technical abilities. Many companies offer this kind of service if you don’t want to take it on.When you update, follow these easy steps:

• Check for outdated information and correct it.
• Add new content.
• Check links to be sure that they’re still hot.
• Create and a new form of media, maybe an audio clip or a video or a slideshow.
• Add some interactivity; readers love to engage with polls and quizzes.
• Consider this as another opportunity to repurpose your content. Use it in emails, on social media sites, in print and in ebooks.
• Always, always check your grammar and spelling before re-posting. Little mistakes chip away at the trust and authority that you're trying to build.

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Rellify can help you make sure your content remains relevant over a long period. Our clients have access to expert services that monitor and revise content over time to make sure anything that's published has the highest possible ROI value.

What are some examples of evergreen content?

Because certain formats help readers grasp information quickly and provide answers in ways that clearly match their searches, writers use them often to gain evergreen status.

• How-to guides, checklists, whitepapers, webinars, case studies, and tutorials.  Evergreen formats like these are built to reach someone who needs trustworthy information.
• Glossaries. A glossary of important-to-understand terms is a natural setup for quickly satisfying reader queries.
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). This also provides a simple way to offer a series of keyword-rich answers to search queries.
• Listicles. This is another format for providing quick, easy-to-find answers. It's often used for trendy and newsy topics, but is useful for evergreen topics as well.
• Top tips about a specific subject. Answers “What’s the best way to …” questions.
• Product reviews. Answers another kind of “What’s the best …” question.

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Good content marketing strategy involves forming your topics around the questions asked at different levels of the customer journey.

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If you are selling elegant bed sheets, you might want to post an FAQ about thread-count and what it means for the softness of the sheet. Another blog post could cover how sheets affect the quality of a person’s sleep.

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For potential customers who are closer to making a decision, you could create a "How-to guide" on measuring beds for the standard sizes for twin, full, queen, and king sets of sheets.

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If you are marketing scarves, a tutorial video on the many ways to tie one of your scarves would provide valuable, timeless information. A listicle describing the fabrics used in scarves – cotton, rayon, silk – would be of general interest.

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A garden center could help establish its authority and expertise by posting a list of, or “the ultimate guide” to, the plants that work in your climate across the seasons.

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Evergreen content can come in many shapes and forms. Of course, you are reading evergreen content right now — part of Rellify's marketing strategy to provide user-friendly, SEO-optimized content that informs and engages.

Why is evergreen content important?

Evergreen pieces save you time and energy. You write it once and update it occasionally, and it gives you a strong, lasting return on your investment (ROI). Usefulness and timelessness are the keys.

‍Evergreen marketing can:

• Show potential customers, competitors and others in your network that you’re a thought leader as you share your knowledge.
• Generate higher search engine ratings. It boosts traffic to your site in general, not only to the one article.
• Consistently generate leads.
• Help with building backlinks.
• Serve as a source for other content as you repurpose it in email marketing, social media and other platforms.

Is it time to go green?

Are you ready to start producing valuable content that changes the way you approach marketing? Maybe you have plenty of material, but you're ready for a content upgrade.

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‍Rellify specializes in helping businesses create and overhaul evergreen content that naturally ranks high in search engine rankings with expert content services. Book your personal demo and see for yourself how easy it is to develop and implement your own customized content strategy.

By Jayne Schultheis - Have you read some text recently and wondered whether it was written by a human or a machine? It's the new normal. And it reflects why AI content detection has become the hot new tool. Schools want to prevent students from cheating. Medical journals want to be sure that they publish articles from scientists, not algorithms. And marketers want to make sure that writers are providing something new and insightful, rather than AI-generic articles.

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In this article — written by a person with extensive online content marketing experience — we will cover:

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• How writers can use AI to improve their articles.
• How to humanize AI-written text.
• Does Google penalize AI content?
• Can AI content be detected?
• How accurate are AI content detectors?

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How Writers Can Use AI to Improve Their Articles

Let's start at the beginning of the content creation process: topic ideation. This is the foundation from which you'll craft your content, and artificial intelligence has revolutionized this process, too. In fact, it's one of the most effective ways a savvy content creator can use AI.

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Rellify is a pioneer of this transformation, harnessing AI to construct Relliverse™ that are specific to each client. Each Relliverse™ we create is a company-specific AI subject-matter expert that provides a rich bedrock for content ideation. This sophisticated use of AI finds winning topics for individual articles and expertly suggests the strongest keywords for each piece.

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Next, writers can use AI to craft a detailed brief and outline, offering a structured framework for an article. And as the writer creates the new article, Rellify's integrated AI-based tools step in to fine-tune the content for SEO optimization. AI can be used to suggest a headline for the article, answer a highlighted question, continue text, and provide an article summary. These functions are also useful for writing Meta Descriptions, posting on social media and generating email promotions.

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In this approach, you use AI to enhance human-created text, rather than simply generating AI-text and trying to humanize it. Human creativity is amplified by AI's analytical prowess. Also, writers and writing teams receive a major productivity boost. In the end, you have content written for people, not bots — engaging to readers and favored by search engines.

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Does Google Penalize AI content?

Google says that it can recognize AI-written text, but doesn't necessarily penalize it. Google uses Natural Language Processingalgorithms that identify patterns typical of machine-generated writing to try to detect AI-generated content.

In a "helpful content update" in September 2023, Google said it wants to promote high-quality, audience-centric content that demonstrates expertise and satisfies search intent. The change from "helpful content written by people" to "helpful content created for people" suggests that AI-generated content isn't inherently problematic.

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Instead, the update emphasizes the creation of people-first content. It also highlights the importance of E-E-A-T. Google's algorithms look for content that displays the following qualities, apparently without regard for how it was created:

1. Experience. Does the content creator have first-hand or life experience with the topic? For example, a review by someone who has used the product has more reliability.
2. Expertise. The content reflects deep knowledge and background on the subject.
3. Authoritativeness: This looks at the content creator's reputation and standing among peers and consumers. A go-to source in a given field will get a high rating here.
4. Trustworthiness. This is the most important of the four factors. Assessing the authenticity of the website, Google rewards pages that are accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.

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These factors are especially important if your content involves Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) issues, such as health or finance. If flaws in your content could lead to health problems or financial losses for readers, Google's E-E-A-T assessment is paramount. AI-written content — with its propensity for inaccuracy — needs to at least be closely edited by a human.

Can AI Content Be Detected?

AI content detection tools are designed to distinguish between content written by humans and content generated by AI. They are not foolproof, however.

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They use machine learning algorithms to analyze written text and look for certain patterns that indicate AI-generated content. Generally, here’s what they look for:

• Writing style. AI writing tends to be overly formal and show a lack of creativity. Detection tools analyze the flow, structure, and written style of content to identify telltale patterns.
• Consistency and coherence. Machine-generated content sometimes fails to maintain context or coherence. It repeats points or fails to adequately develop ideas.
• Common phrases. AI models often use certain phrases more frequently than a human writer would, including certain types of conjunctions and transition phrases.
• Sentence and paragraph structure. AI text generators often optimize for readability, which can result in a similarity of paragraph and sentence structure.
• Semantics. AI-generated content may reflect a lack of deep semantic understanding or common sense reasoning.
• Statistical deviations. Detection tools can identify anomalies in punctuation, sentence length, and word repetition and distribution.

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The sophistication of detection tools varies, and they are constantly evolving. Of course, so are AI content generation tools. As AI systems continue to improve and learn from human feedback, distinguishing between AI-generated and human-written content will likely become more challenging.

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How Accurate Are AI Content Detectors?

The accuracy of AI content detection tools varies widely. It's influenced by several factors, including the complexity of the algorithm, the training data used, the nature of the content being analyzed, the context understanding, and the update frequency.

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There are several types of AI content detection tools:

• Statistical analysis tools analyze the distribution of words and phrases.
• Stylometric analysis tools assess the writing style, including syntax, grammar, and usage patterns.
• Machine learning-based detectors identify patterns that differentiate AI-generated content from human-written content.
• Hybrid tools combine techniques such as linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC), n-gram analysis, and machine learning.

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Which tool is better? Well, it depends on the specific use case and the sophistication of the AI-written content being assessed. In practical terms, AI content detection tools are useful for flagging material that might be AI-generated. It can then be reviewed by a real human.

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Your Secret Weapon for AI Content Detection

Despite the increasing sophistication of AI, the fundamentals of what constitutes valuable online content remain unchanged. The gold standard continues to be quality content that is relevant, clear, and crafted with the reader in mind. It is both personable and search engine friendly.

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Rellify is at the forefront of producing content that meets these criteria. Book your personal demo today.

By Nora Firestone - At the core of the most successful blogs, you'll find the draw to be pretty simple: meaningful content. It's what keeps people reading, sharing, subscribing and returning for more. As it raises awareness of authors and their content, it also helps validate for search engines which blogs provide useful content worth ranking.

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With the advent of artificial intelligence and its use in content marketing, the temptation has grown to use AI-generated content to keep blogs renewed with fresh posts. No need for content writers, just let AI do the work. However, this method produces mixed results.

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And that's where content intelligence comes into play. With that approach, we can use AI as successfully as a helpful content creation tool.

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In this article, we'll explain what we mean by content intelligence. We’ll also share blog ideas and tips for how it can help you create compelling content that’ll keep your audience growing and coming back for more.

What is content intelligence?

Content intelligence refers to the use of AI-powered data collection and analytics to help inform and shape content creation, planning, optimization and distribution strategies. At Rellify, we look at it as part of our core vision and purpose: AI support for human intelligence in end-to-end content development. This includes using advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to:

• Better understand your target audience, their preferences and the topics that resonate with them the most.
• Identify content creation and distribution gaps and opportunities.
• Apply data-driven insight and direction to develop quality content with increased speed, efficiency and confidence.
• Optimize your content and strategy for search engines and people and improve the reach, effectiveness and performance of your blog.
• Track and analyze the performance of your blog and articles. Make data-driven decisions to improve strategy, engagement, performance and results.
• Maximize your efforts overall, from ideation to impact.

How to use content intelligence to create great blog content

Now that we have defined content intelligence, let's look at ways you can apply it to your blog content creation. We'll include examples of how our proprietary Relliverse™ custom AI-as-a-service model help people develop high-quality content with more speed, relevance and impact.

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Whether you approach this manually or with the support of an all-in-one solution like Rellify is up to you. Either way, by leveraging content intelligence, you can enhance the quality, relevance and visibility of your articles for a more successful, valued and impactful blog.

Define your niche and get to know your audience

First, identify a specific industry or area of interest and expertise in which you can contribute value. Focusing on a niche allows you to target a specific audience, build a following and establish yourself as an authority.

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The right content intelligence tools will help you understand your audience's needs, search intent, engagement, and even the language and tone they prefer. And by further analyzing the AI-recommended high-ranking articles of others, you can tailor your blog style to resonate with your readers. These steps will help ensure that your content is not only meaningful but also relatable and engaging.

Ideation for blog post topics

No matter how well it's written, you don't have useful content if nobody is searching for it. AI can analyze the content that performs well in your niche and suggest relevant topics that are likely to attract and engage your audience. This helps you choose what to write about, saving you time and effort in brainstorming blog topic ideas.

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Rellify bases topic ideation on ongoing deep analysis of target audiences, their search intent, and market and competitor data. Think of this as your own personal blog idea generator. It’ll enable you to identify content gaps, both on your website and in your market, and quickly and easily select the topics most likely to generate traffic.

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Rellify’s Relliverse™ takes content intelligence to an even higher level, delivering deeper company- and competitor-specific analysis and insights. For example, filters help content creators drill down to where and how they can gain competitive advantage. They can see whether it's best to focus on topics that help them address:

• Expanding expertise.
• Building expertise.
• Delevoping a series (great for expanding and building expertise and improving SEO).
• Ability to rank.
• Competition.

Content planning, assigning and workflow

Apply the intel you gather to individual articles within a comprehensive content strategy. Plan and execute as follows:

• Set a publishing schedule. Remember to account for seasonal needs and events, holidays, and similar predictable factors.
• Prepare articles in advance by creating clear, intelligent briefs. A brief includes an outline for the article, keywords and other specifications. To help the writer stick to the main objectives, a content brief should be concise, purposeful and structured.
• Plan plenty of fresh content, which is key for maintaining the relevance, credibility and search engine optimization, or SEO, of a blog. It can take the form of new blog posts, updated articles, or timely news and trends. By regularly publishing fresh content, you can improve search engine rankings and better establish yourself as a subject-matter expert.
• If you're a content manager with teammates or contributors, involve them and keep track of the progression.

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It helps if you do all this right inside an end-to-end solution. For example, in Rellify’s browser-based Article Intelligence application, you can apply Rellify’s topic intel and smart-brief functions to easily generate precise briefs. Give writers the clarity and direction they need to create relevant, engaging content that resonates and performs. Plan, schedule, assign, write, edit, collaborate and oversee the entire workflow process within a single, centralized powerful hub. Ready to export to your website for publishing? One click: Done.

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Keep it real: AI-generated content vs. the human touch

In today’s content marketing world, content intelligence can involve using AI for automatic content generation to boost production. AI tools exist for that purpose, and Rellify includes that capability. However, we recommend using AI to help human writers rather than replace them.

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In essence, AI-produced content is synthetic vs. authentic in nature. And it's often repetitive and inaccurate. AI cannot, yet, stand alone as a reliable, trustworthy source of quality content writing. Instead, capitalize on the powers and potential of AI augmentation in writing. For instance, AI-generated content can flesh out a good blog post outline, presenting ideas and important points to cover. Quality blog content will result when humans have reviewed and edited the material to ensure accuracy, relevance, quality and a people-first presentation.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Search engine optimization

SEO plays a crucial role in content marketing strategy. It involves optimizing your content to rank higher in search engine results pages, or SERPs. All along the process, good content intelligence should provide actionable SEO direction for optimizing content for search engines and readers.

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These SEO practices will help you boost your content quality:

• Content intelligence will provide insights into the keywords and phrases commonly used by your target audience. During topic ideation, identify and select relevant keywords for which your audience is searching. Incorporate them strategically into your articles to attract a larger segment of your target audience.
• Use keywords, phrases and other intel you’ve gathered in your meta titles, meta descriptions, meta tags and subheads.
• Linking adds cross-promotional and SEO value to your content. Embed internal links to and from other articles or resources on your own website. Embed external links to relevant information on other high-quality, authoritative websites, but avoid linking to your competitors.
• Promote your blog content via social media, newsletters and other strategies to increase its reach and authority.
• Pay attention to SEO insights provided by your blog-writing platform or application. For example, Rellify’s R-Score keeps track of things like keyword usage, sentence length, tone and more as you write and edit. It provides real-time direction for quick, easy and measurable SEO improvement.

Monitor and analyze your content’s performance

Track the performance of your blog and published articles with an analytics tool or integration. Identify what works and what doesn't, and make informed decisions for improving your content strategy, ranking higher in searches and increasing organic traffic to your blog.

Revamp old content

Revamping old content is a great way to breathe new life into your blog, and content intelligence makes it easy to turn an underperforming, lackluster article into a quality blog post.

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First, identify posts that need updating or improvement. In Rellify, conduct some topic ideation and keyword research and select the right keywords to integrate into your article files. Then load them into Rellify's "Write" module, turn on keyword highlighter, and watch for the R-Score to improve as you:

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• Check the articles for accuracy and relevance and revise them as necessary. Delete or update any outdated statistics, examples, references or other info. Do the same for any links they contain.
• Improve readability by adding subheads, bullet points and visuals. Break up long sentences and paragraphs to make the content more scannable. The R-Score's "Suggestions" feature will guide you.
• Add fresh new insights or perspectives; incorporate new research, case studies or personal experiences.
• Boost the SEO by optimizing them with your new strategic keywords, headings, internal links, meta data and more. Follow R-Score recommendations for ongoing SEO support.

Engage with your audience

Show your appreciation for your audience by using content intelligence to give them great content. As time permits, respond to comments, emails and social media messages from your readers. Build a community around your blog by not only providing valuable content but also encouraging meaningful discussions and interactions.

Contact Rellify for your personal demo today.

By Dan Duke

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Content optimization is a strategic process for improving digital content to boost its visibility and relevance. It focuses on maximizing organic search traffic by improving a webpage’s search engine ranking. It does this by formatting and structuring content so that it can easily be found and ranked by bots. Just as importantly, it involves making content as satisfying and useful to readers as possible.

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There are many elements to content optimization and it must be considered as an ongoing process. Key components of content optimization include:

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• Thorough keyword research, where relevant search terms are identified.
• On-page SEO techniques like optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and headers.
• Composing quality content that answers readers' search intent clearly and authoritatively.

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The content optimization techniques that we are going to describe will help you create high-quality, user-friendly, engaging content that caters to your target audience.

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Failure to use content optimization means less traffic on your website. It means you waste time and money on articles because you didn’t go that last mile to help them fulfill their potential. Without optimization, your content falls into the vast ocean of words on the internet that are seldom, if ever, seen.

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What is the impact of content optimization?

According to research by digital marketing firm Conductor, consumers who read a brand’s educational content were 131% more likely to buy from that brand. A week after reading that content, the study indicated, people were still 48% more likely to buy. Those people also tended to maintain trust and brand affinity.

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But first, the content must be seen. Research indicates that the No. 1 result on a Google query earns about 28.5% percent of all clicks. Also, 88% of searchers click on organic results on the first page. The second page of search results gets less than 6% of website clicks (a marketer’s nightmare).

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The competition for those top spots is fierce, and content optimization is essential. However, SEO-driven tactics have had to change to keep pace with ranking factors and search visibility.

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Jürgen Kranz, CTO EMEA for Rellify, explains that millions of websites and content providers compete for the first page of a Google search. “In the past decades, the SEO industry tried to guess and re-engineer Google’s search algorithms that were handwritten by human developers. The SEO industry implemented all kinds of tricks and hacks to get website listings to #1.”

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Now, search engine optimization requires more than loading up on keywords. Newer algorithms put more emphasis on content quality and the context of articles on websites, Kranz says.

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How to approach content optimization like a pro

Google wants to make every user experience satisfying by providing exactly what a searcher wants as quickly as possible. Part of how it achieves that is an emphasis on what it calls E-E-A-T — experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Google wants to exhibit that, and it rewards websites that display it by putting them at the top of Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs.

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Here are several ways that content optimization

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will help you establish E-E-A-T:

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Keyword research

How can you show your expertise and experience if you don't write about the things that people care about?

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Your custom-made Rellify Relliverse™ can help you find ideas for content and focus them so you can create high-quality content that yields high search volume while avoiding competitors who have SERPs locked up. Our deep machine learning will help you find content gaps — the keywords and long-tail keywords that have good search volume but have not been addressed by competitors.

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Authority

Savvy use of links is one way to establish page authority. Search engines judge you, in part, by the company you keep, or the links on your page. Links from your content to reputable, well-traveled sites bolster your reputation. Avoid external linking to sites that give off a spam vibe and get little traffic. If your quality content has been mentioned by other sites but didn’t get backlinks, reach out to them and request it.

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Internal linking to quality web pages on your own site also helps bolster your reputation as an expert in your field or market. Readers and bots will see that you have plenty of relevant content to check out. This also will help you keep a low bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who enter your site and leave without continuing on to any other pages there.

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Trustworthiness

Consider the user intent behind searches that could draw traffic to your page — a potential customer or someone who shares the interest or passion that drives your site. Answer their questions accurately and thoroughly. If the users, or search engines, sense that you lack expertise and authority and are wasting their time or manipulating them, they will bounce quickly and never return. Part of earning trust is being vigilant about monitoring and updating your site to maintain content freshness. Even an article that's only 2 or 3 years old might make readers wonder about its accuracy and relevance.

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Don't neglect technical optimization

Website managers can tighten up their sites and establish formatting standards for the optimization process in relatively simple ways. Here are some examples of technical aspects and on-page elements to look out for.

• Title tags. These tell visitors and search engines what a web page is all about. They also can lead to positive SERP and social media placement. Make them count by using your focus keyword and getting it as early in the title tag as possible.
• Meta descriptions. This is one of the most common types of meta tags. They are one-sentence descriptions of the content and are a great way to sell your content and boost click-through rates (CTR). Make these rich in keywords, within reason.
• H1 tag. The H1, H2, and H3 tags are, respectively, the main head, subheads, and sub-subheads. They help readers and web crawlers navigate an article. Think of them as clear, engaging signposts. It helps to use keywords here, too.
• Page speed. Google, and readers, want a page to load instantly. Elements that load slowly and shift about can be frustrating and disorienting. It makes for a bad user experience and low user engagement.
• Crawling errors. Every link on your website should lead to a working page. These errors frustrate users and the bots trying to index your content.
• Image optimization. When you optimize images, you compress and resize them while using descriptive and keyword-rich alt text to enhance on-page SEO.
• Alt tags, or alt text. These often represent a lost opportunity. These HTML tags allow you to describe an image, making it easier for search engines and readers with vision trouble to know what the image conveys. It's a good practice to use your focus keyword in alt tags and captions.
• Mobile optimization. With so many people using their smartphones for voice searching, mobile optimization is a must. The key is to have a responsive web design (RWD), which means your pages will adjust to the size of the display window and still look great and perform well. Another way of approaching this is the use of AMP (Accelerated-Mobile-Pages). This technique gives a better user experience for mobile users by creating stripped-down versions of web pages for mobile devices.

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How content optimization services can help

There are many free SEO tools on the market, including Google Analytics. But there are so many elements that go into content optimization and the stakes are so high, you might want to hire someone to help.

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If you are comfortable with things like migrating your website to HTTPS protocol and using schema markup, you could use Rellify's platform to produce content and make the most of our AI and SEO tools. If not, Rellify can provide the expertise you need to build a content plan and line up top-notch writers to do the work for you.

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We can begin with a content audit and technical SEO audit to make sure your foundations are solid. Then, Rellify’s content performance application uses AI to identify strategic topics and leverages IA (Intelligence Augmentation) to produce and optimize relevant content that naturally ranks well in search engines.

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Rellify’s AI connective writing and content brief functions help you to structure articles according to your content optimization strategy. We combine the functions of many content optimization tools used by other services, simplifying the journey from brainstorming to boosting your conversion rate.

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Level up your content optimization with Rellify

You can’t automate content optimization. It requires vigilance. There can be risks to a business if things are not done properly. Unethical or clumsy SEO companies and practices (looking at you, keyword stuffing) can also result in a company being penalized by Google — dropping you down in the search rankings.

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Rellify can help you to constantly monitor the effectiveness of your content marketing, just as we constantly strive to improve our service. For example, we recently updated the platform to enable users to create LinkedIn posts directly from articles. This feature is a game-changer for professionals and businesses looking to expand their reach on the popular professional networking platform. With just a few clicks, you can now repurpose your existing articles and turn them into engaging LinkedIn posts.

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Another notable enhancement is the integration of AI-powered image generation. Visual content plays a crucial role in attracting and engaging website visitors. With the new AI image generation feature, you can effortlessly create captivating images for your blog posts, enhancing their overall appeal and SEO optimization.

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Ready to create new content, get more traffic, and secure more leads? Maybe you’re looking to optimize your existing content? The experts at Rellify are ready to develop a customized content strategy with end-to-end content development, management, publishing, and analysis. Want a free demo? Contact the experts today!

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Content Performance Hot Topics

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According to the judges, Rellify’s Content Intelligence Applications offer the highest level of innovation, the best value and the most flexibility for the future.

Aug. 29 - Rellify Inc., the Virginia-based SaaS content marketing company, has won the Best Technology Award in Marketing and Sales in an international competition.

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According to the judges, which included members of leading educational and research institutions, Rellify’s Content Intelligence Applications offer the highest level of innovation, the best value and the most flexibility for the future. The award was granted by Germany’s leading business magazine, WirtschaftsWoche (WiWo). Rellify is based in Virginia Beach and its German subsidiary, Rellify Germany GmbH, is based in Cologne.

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Rellify’s Content Intelligence Application can provide a client with its own  Relliverse™ — a custom-made AI subject matter expert that identifies the best content opportunities — and an Article Intelligence Application that enables them to create high-quality content that is found and read. The judges said Rellify provides powerful tools to help clients overcome current challenges, find solutions for tomorrow’s problems and make significant gains in competitiveness.

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Peter Kraus, CEO of Rellify, said the US and German companies that are using Rellify’s Content Intelligence Application to develop content for their online marketing would agree with the judges. “All content teams working with our Content Intelligence Application report significant time savings. They say the process is both simple and sophisticated: from topic identification and content ideation to the intuitive drag-and-drop creation of smart briefs to writing with either AI augmentation or full automation.”

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Rellify’s approach to AI is unique, efficient and results-oriented, he said, because it starts with machine learning of relevant data for content strategy and forms the ideal basis for large language model alignment. The precision with which the Relliverse™ identifies topics, subtopics and the questions to be answered about them provides a distinct competitive advantage, and Rellify users are reporting topline growth as a result.

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Kraus said that using Rellify’s content intelligence in the AI-guided production process of the Article Intelligence App systematically generates the best Google rankings and significantly more organic traffic.

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Jürgen Kranz, CTO of Rellify, is responsible for the development of the Enterprise AI-as-a-Service platform and the Rellify solutions. He said the award is confirmation of Rellify’s approach to developing proprietary, topic-specific generative language models for enterprise customers: “Many top brands and corporations have enormous reservations about exploiting the theoretically breathtaking potential of widely available generative AIs, such as GPT & Co., in their marketing. The now well-known risks, such as false ‘facts,’ unacceptable bias, and even copyright issues, are considerable. Therefore, we are very pleased that our approach of offering generative AI experts specifically for a company’s core topics is seen as a valuable, promising innovation not only by our customers but also by the jury.”

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The Relliverse™ is a proprietary enterprise AI that, starting from the websites of the client company and its most important competitors, scours the World Wide Web on the specific topics that move the company and its competitors. The content found is analyzed, categorized (clustered) and evaluated using Rellify’s patent-pending machine learning and AI technology. Marketing organizations use the Relliverse™, delivered as a browser app, to:

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• Develop successful content strategies.

• Populate the right topics
• Use the relevant keywords, answer the most pressing questions.
• Create the highest-quality content.

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With a Relliverse™, companies understand their content and that of their competitors like never before, while knowing their content market share and visibility. They always know what to write about and how to write it, without having to constantly perform tedious, time-consuming and — compared to AI — incomplete analyses.

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The Article Intelligence Application is an AI-led, end-to-end platform for content teams that adds significant value (even without a Relliverse™). It supports each step in content production:

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• Planning and creating detailed briefings via drag and drop.
• Writing with AI augmentation or full automation.
• Polishing with AI-assisted SEO optimization tools.
• Publishing at the click of a mouse.
• Monitoring article performance using the integrated Google Search Console.

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Users report time savings of 50 to 95 percent per process step. Interested parties can test the Article Intelligence Application free of charge for 30 days here.

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The award was announced Aug. 29, in Munich, Germany. The jury included representatives from Fraunhofer ISI and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT.

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Within the dynamic landscape of content creation, the long-standing debate over long-form vs. short-form content continues to influence strategies across platforms. Wading through the infinite stream of snappy tweets, quippy blog posts and attention-grabbing micro-videos, it's easy to get swept up in the appeal of short-form content. But while the bite-sized morsels are undeniably attractive and trendy — and sometimes totally scrumptious — it's essential not to overlook the power of short-form's worthy counterpart: long-form content.

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In fact, often long-form content proves to be a superior choice. Long-form articles, guides, scripts, books and other assets present opportunities to dive deep into topics, foster meaningful engagement, and showcase an organization's industry leadership and expertise. With it, you offer your audience a more substantial, enriching experience with lasting impact.

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Here we'll explore how creating content within these two formats differs, including when and how long-form content can give you the competitive advantage in your market.

What is long-form content?

Written, long-form content typically exceeds an average word count of 1,000 to 1,200 but is shorter than 10,000 words. In any medium, long-form content can provide detailed, well-researched, in-depth analysis and insights on topics when the author or presenter aims to give the audience something more. Examples include:

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• Detailed and lengthy blog posts.
• Evergreen informational pages.
• Gated premium content.
• Pillar pages.
• Guides and tutorials.
• Whitepapers.
• E-books.
• Webinars and virtual events.

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Long-form content is the gold standard when it comes to visibility on search engines and higher conversion rates.

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What is short-form content?

Short-form content is brief and concise in nature. It's typically written in fewer than 1,000 words. The goal of short-form content is to convey information quickly and effectively to capture the attention of the audience and encourage engagement. It can be more mobile-friendly and is particularly effective when used strategically on social media platforms. Short promotional blurbs are one great example. Others include:

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• Short blog posts.
• Short videos.
• Standard-length news articles.
• Infographics.
• Social content.
• Sales and marketing emails.

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Short-form content certainly has its place in marketing, especially when it comes to storytelling, promotion, and brand awareness. Some markets or specific sects also may be a better fit for short-form content; think gaming, entertainment and news.

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Long-form vs. short-form: Does the length of your content matter?

SEO experts and content marketers have been debating this question since the beginning of time. Okay, well, since the beginning of online marketing.

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While the simple answer is yes, it warrants a closer look into the broader context. Focusing solely on short-form vs. long misses the point. Your decisions about content length should always align with your individual marketing objectives. Ultimately it should all drive you closer to your goals.

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‍Content length should match the audience's desired intent and engagement preferences. Use a content length and type that will win your audience. Long-form content generally performs well in SEO, but providing the right and “best" answer on a topic will be a better choice than merely focusing on length.

Why you should focus on long-form content

When it comes to longevity and versatility, long-form content is an excellent asset. It's fuller, richer and more generous than "thinner" versions could possibly be. And it's wise to understand the long-term benefits and value of rich vs. thin content as you develop your content marketing strategies.

SEO ranking

Long-form content typically ranks better on search engines, assuming that the search query demands detailed results. You can use search intent to your advantage, understanding who is searching and what their exact intentions were. This type of content also typically ranks for a higher number of keywords due to covering more depth and breadth of a topic.

More backlinks

Long-form content typically earns more backlinks than shorter pieces of content. Building quality backlinks to your web pages can boost your site’s domain authority, SERP rankings and traffic and, in turn, generate more leads. Be selective about your backlinks, though. Poor-quality external links or irrelevant backlinks generally won’t help and may even hurt search rankings. Strategic use of high-quality links from credible websites will help develop trust. You’ll see increased traffic from both search engine bots and humans.

Thought leadership

In the current digital era, where the competition is fierce, long-form content can make a significant difference in your content marketing strategy. Long-form content can help position you as a thought leader in your space and a strong voice in your industry. Your target audience will naturally see you as a market leader if you regularly produce written content that educates, informs, and helps them make good decisions.

Conversion rate

The conversion rate of long-form content is typically higher than that of short-form, largely due to the attention given by a reader and the intent of their visit. When you provide comprehensive and insightful information, your readers perceive you as an authoritative source of knowledge. This can lead to increased engagement, social shares and ultimate conversions.

It's dynamic

Once you have a piece of long-form content, it can be repurposed into various formats, giving you more bang for your buck. For example, an e-book can be broken down into several blog posts, infographics, podcasts or even videos. A 1,200-word article can be summarized and repurposed into infographic posts across social media. This process not only saves time and resources in content creation but also ensures consistency in your messaging across multiple channels.

The enduring value of long-form content

In the tug-of-war between long-form vs. short-form content, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Different companies have different business goals, and any given goal can involve multiple approaches. At the end of the day, a balance of both forms can effectively flesh out a winning marketing strategy. Developed and used right, they're complementary sides of the same coin. So we urge you to never underestimate the compelling advantages of long-form pieces. Investing in long-form content development is wise for those aiming to have a more significant, lasting imprint with the ever-changing content landscape.

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That said, we know the landscape isn't always easy to navigate. The evolutions we're experiencing in the content marketing world are historically unprecedented. And the more time passes, the newer and truer that statement rings.

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We know it because we're in it with you. That's also why the content marketing experts at rellify™ develop and use the most comprehensive AI-supported content-development solution available. We call it "Content Intelligence." And from start to finish, from industry-specific topic ideation to content strategy, writing, editing, optimization, management, publishing, analytics and so much more, it makes our jobs exponentially faster, easier, more efficient and more effective.

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It's also how we help organizations and creative teams of all types and sizes produce their own high-quality, results-oriented content. Chances are, you know their brands. Do they know yours yet?Let us know if we can help. With professional services to fill the gaps, a free 30-day trial of the rellify™ Article Intelligence Application, or a custom combination, we're built to suit your content development needs, goals and budget.

Virginia Beach, Va, 07/07/23 – Rellify, provider of robust and innovative “Content Intelligence” technologies and applications for content marketing teams, has been selected by WirtschaftsWoche, Germany’s leading business magazine, as one of three finalists for their Best of Technology Award 2023 in the Marketing & Sales category.

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This new category honors innovators whose digital solutions help users align their companies with the market by identifying market changes and recognizing shifts in needs in order to more quickly gain and apply competitive advantages.

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Rellify applies its proprietary, patent-pending machine learning technologies to its powerful Article Intelligence Application and the creation of its proprietary Enterprise AI Models-as-a-Service (MaaS), or Relliverses™, to do that and more. A Relliverse™ is an ever-expanding enterprise- and topic-specific large language model (LLM) that enables a user organization to confidently leverage generative AI for unsurpassed market-specific competitive intel and insights. Content marketing teams combine rellify’s Relliverse™ and Article Intelligence Application for reliable, relevant, performance-level topic ideation and end-to-end content development workflow. From strategy and planning to writing, optimizing, publishing, monitoring and beyond, the efforts of content managers, analysts, editors, writers, SEOs and webmasters are more supported, informed and effective than ever.

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Peter Kraus, CEO of the Virginia-based startup Rellify Inc., sees the award status of his German subsidiary as clear evidence that Rellify’s innovations have identified and addressed both the need and the process for organizations to integrate and apply generative artificial intelligence, or AI, in a reliable and effective way for advantages within the highly competitive content marketing environment.

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“The emergence of the AI revolution presents marketers in the enterprise environment with unprecedented challenges,” Kraus said. “What topics should they occupy to be relevant? How can their messages get the attention they deserve amid the influx of unreliable AI-synthesized content? And how can they create high-quality, well-optimized content efficiently and economically when ChatGPT and other free or low-cost text-generating chatbots are inappropriately influencing marketing budgets?”

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Moreover, Kraus noted, “those machines can’t help organizations create original thought-leadership content by serving up thoughts they’ve scraped from the articles of others. They’re chatbots,” he said, “and they shouldn’t be relied upon as an authoritative source.”

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What Rellify had begun developing long before the current trend emerged is distinctly more efficient, helpful and effective for entire content marketing teams, Kraus said. “It’s human intelligence supported by AI for a most reliable and powerful total content-development solution,” he explained. “We call it ‘Content Intelligence’.”

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The company’s “intelligent” applications address today’s content marketers’ challenges with powerful tools for identifying highly relevant topics and content and the cost-efficient creation of content in an AI-guided process. Authors and editors can also control the degree of augmentation to the automated functionalities based on their needs and preferences.

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“We offer companies with high demand for relevant content a solution to three of their most pressing problems,” Kraus explained. “First, our customer-specific AI models deliver topic-focused insights with a depth and precision that the other large language models can’t offer. Because knowledge is power, the understanding generated by our models alone gives our customers significant competitive advantages.

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“Second, he said, “Rellify makes these insights directly actionable with the Relliverse™. In their own custom Relliverse™, our customers can see at a glance what topics they need to address, what questions they need to answer, and what keywords they need to serve in order to reach, engage, and be noticed by their target audiences.”

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Finally, the Article Intelligence Application brings Rellify customers full circle, Kraus said. In this AI-powered browser application, content teams with NLU and NLG support create and publish content tailored to the needs of their business. It’s highly cost-effective and, most importantly, true to their brand.

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“In short,” Kraus concluded, “we offer our customers a) a deeper understanding of relevant topics and content on the Internet, b) precise, company-centric topic ideation, and c) a production environment that guarantees massive efficiency benefits.” Content teams needing support either on or off the platform can also outsource professional services from rellify’s expert SEOs, analysts, writers and editors, who use the Rellify applications to strategize, produce and optimize high-performing content for them.

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Against the backgrounds of Rellify’s successful activities in the German-speaking markets and the high satisfaction of its customers, the nomination as one of the most innovative marketing and sales technology solutions doesn’t come as a complete surprise, Kraus said. “We are very pleased that our innovations, which are already in use by renowned brands in Germany and the U.S., are being so positively recognized by WirtschaftsWoche. We see this as affirmation of our efforts to make the enormous opportunities that generative AI can offer available to companies within an easy-to-use, value-creating and ROI-optimizing environment.”

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The winners of the WirtschaftsWoche Best of Technology Award 2023 will be announced August 29, 2023, in Munich. For more information, visit: https://award.wiwo.de/bot/

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For more information about Rellify, visit: rellify.com

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Press contact:

Peter Kraus
Mail: peter@rellify.com

By Dan Duke — Thoughtful long-form content can, and probably should, be an integral part of your content marketing strategy.‍

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It is especially useful for providing detailed, well-researched, in-depth analysis and insights on a topic. It can be heavy, like "the impact of artificial intelligence on the search marketing industry." And it can be fun, like a look at "how to keep our canine companions healthy in the winter" — including a video with happy puppies playing in the snow. The important thing is to take advantage of that longer word count to establish authority and expertise on the subject.

What is long-form content?

Long-form content generally ranges from about 1,000 words to 10,000 words. It comes in a wide range of formats, including:

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• Blog posts.
• Evergreen informational pages.
• Pillar pages.
• Guides and tutorials.
• Whitepapers, e-books, and gated premium content.
• Webinars and virtual events.

What is short-form content?

In contrast to the main subject of this article, short-form content is brief and concise. It's typically written in fewer than 1,000 words. The goal of short-form content is to convey information quickly and effectively to capture the attention of the audience. It tends to be more mobile-friendly than long-form content and is particularly effective when used strategically on social media platforms. Examples include:

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• Blog posts.
• Videos.
• News articles.
• Infographics.
• Social content.
• Sales and marketing emails.

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Short-form content has its place in marketing, especially when it comes to storytelling, promotion, and brand awareness. Some markets or specific sectors also may be a better fit for short-form content, such as gaming, entertainment, and news.

Why you should focus on long-form content

When it comes to longevity and versatility, long-form content is an excellent asset. It's fuller, richer and more generous than shorter, "thinner" content could possibly be. And it's wise to understand the long-term benefits and value of rich vs. thin content as you develop your content marketing strategies.

SEO and search rankings

Long-form content can present many of the qualities that help web pages rank well in organic search. Content creators can satisfy search intent by using keyword research to find the best topics to cover. The content also provides ample opportunities to use content optimization techniques to earn the appreciation of both readers and search engine bots.

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Google wants to make every user experience satisfying by providing exactly what a searcher wants as quickly as possible. Part of how it achieves that is an emphasis on what it calls E-E-A-T — experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Composing quality content that answers readers' search intent clearly and authoritatively is at the heart of long-form content as well as SEO.

More backlinks

Long-form content typically earns more backlinks than shorter pieces of content. Building quality backlinks to your web pages can boost your site’s domain authority, SERP rankings and traffic and, in turn, generate more leads. Be selective about your backlinks, though. Irrelevant backlinks generally won’t help, and may even hurt search rankings. Strategic use of high-quality links from credible websites will help develop trust. You’ll see increased traffic from both search engine bots and humans.

Thought leadership

In the current digital era, where the competition is fierce, long-form content can make a significant difference in your content marketing strategy. Long-form content can help position you as a thought leader in your space and a strong voice in your industry. Your target audience will naturally see you as a market leader if you regularly produce written content that educates them and helps them make good decisions. By looking at the big picture and providing depth, you can produce evergreen content that will draw readers and benefit your website for many months, and possibly for years.

Conversion, engagement, and bounce rates

The conversion rate of long-form content is typically higher than that of short-form, largely due to the attention given by a reader and the intent of their visit. When you provide comprehensive and insightful information, your readers perceive you as an authoritative source of knowledge. This makes them more likely to respond to your call to action, whether that's social shares, signing up for a newsletter (providing lead information), or conversions. High-quality, long-form content can boost your site's engagement rate by holding readers' attention for long periods of time. It also can improve your bounce rate by motivating them to click into other pages on your website to learn more.

It's dynamic

Long-form content is not just for blogging. Once you have a piece of quality work, it can be repurposed into various formats. Creative content distribution gives you more bang for your buck. For example, an e-book can be broken down into several blog posts, infographics, podcasts or even videos. A 1,200-word article can be summarized and repurposed into infographic posts across social media. Repurposing content not only saves time and resources, but also helps you maintain consistent messaging across multiple channels.

How do you write long-form content?

Successful long-form content that will connect with readers and deliver content marketers tremendous results isn’t that different from your typical high school English essay. Here are a few tips and steps to get you started in the content creation process.

1. Start with a focus keyword

This keyword or phrase is a cornerstone when you create content of any length. Research your focus keyword and see what others have written about your topic. You want to pick a focus keyword that has a relatively large search volume, with low competition from websites that have high domain authority. Often, you’ll have more success using a specific phrase — a long-tail keyword — than one word to draw in your target audience. For example, “dogs playing in the snow” as your keyword rather than “dogs."

2. Add a strong topic sentence

The article should immediately tell readers what the article will focus on and how this knowledge might improve their lives — or at least how the information will satisfy someone’s search intent. Does it entertain, inform, or compel us to make a purchasing decision or other transaction? Create a great first impression and catch the reader's attention by showing them how the article will answer their questions and help to solve problems.

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For example, if you’re writing an article about dogs getting exercise in the snow, your intro sentence could be something like: “The temperatures are getting colder, but our favorite furry friends still need their exercise. Let’s look at ways to help them make the most of the season.” This sentence sets an engaging tone and, along with the Meta title and Meta description, tells readers what ground the article will cover. Your audience members know exactly what they're getting into.

3. State your thesis

The thesis crystalizes the point and tells readers what's at the heart of the content. The most important thing here is not sophistication, but clarity. It could be something like:

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“We all need to know how to give our dogs the proper amount of exercise during cold weather — and how to do that safely.”

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That way readers interested in this topic will know the answers are here. And they might even see cute pictures of snow dogs.

4. Provide evidence that supports your thesis

The main thing that will demonstrate authority for your content and your website will be the originality and depth of the information in your content. Generic information rounded up from other sources won't get you far. The more original information you can provide, and the more distinctive your take on the subject is, the more you will impress readers and search engines.

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In addition, links to another well-established source or two will let readers and search engine algorithms know that you know your stuff. Use links to academic studies and statistics from credible sources where it makes sense.‍

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‍You might even want to provide points/counterpoints to let the reader know you’ve explored different options that inform your overall conclusion. Link to helpful information, but not articles that are exactly like yours and not articles on your competitors' sites. And when you choose the words to highlight for your link, make them match as closely as possible the headline of the article you are linking to.

4a. Pick relevant evidence that aligns with the overall article

Choose your statistics wisely. Use respected sources and don’t overwhelm readers with numbers. For the dog article, you could say something along these lines:

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“With an estimated 56% of American dogs considered overweight or obese, it’s important to keep our canine friends active during the winter months.”

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Here, we’re citing the American Kennel Club, an authority on dogs. It's sobering information. If you want to help readers get motivated to trudge out into freezing temperatures for the sake of their dogs, you could tap into their emotions, too. Include more links and information along these lines:‍

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"Your dog will be happy to get outdoors in the cold, and that will make you feel better. Studies show that even looking at photos of dogs can make people smile, so here are some pictures to brighten your day.” This citation also comes from a reputable source, Psychology Today, and aligns with the article goals established by the topic sentence and thesis.

5. Add supporting information and visuals

Obviously, long-form content can accommodate evidence and research to make the reading experience engaging and satisfying. However, because it’s longer and requires more concentration than shorter items, follow SEO best practices to make an article easier to follow and comprehend.

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It can get pretty overwhelming when reading a long-form piece that consists only of black and white print. Add visual content to illustrate ideas and make points efficiently. Charts, tables, and other infographics can vastly improve your readability. They help readers better visualize complex ideas and make sense of things.

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The dog article is a great example of long-form work that can use photos and video content. Articles like this, and the visual content, engage your audience. What’s more, they can help you engage with your audience. For example, you can invite user-generated content, either in a comments section or through social media.

6. Wrap things up

What did you find as a result of your research? A good way to end long-form content is by restating key points:

• “Now you can use our 7 safety tips for exercising dogs in cold weather and snow."
• "Use our template for planning cold-weather outings to keep your furry friends healthy and happy."

Simple recapping statements, and maybe a supporting sentence or two, are all you need to help readers feel good about spending time on your article.

If you have more serious web pages or educational content, you might want to wrap things up with a more sophisticated analysis of the material you’ve presented. 

7. Call to action

Always invite readers to follow up on what they’ve learned. Your content should be part of an overall marketing plan, and the call to action should reflect the goals of the plan. Do you want leads? Ask them to click on a link where they can provide contact information. It might be a link to a white paper, survey, or free assessment. Do you want to move them through the sales funnel? Ask them to follow a link to a product page or a page on your site that describes one of your services.

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For our example, the call to action could be: "If you enjoyed these photos of dogs playing in the snow, post your pet's photo on our Facebook page (with a link to the page). And share this article with your friends so they can benefit, too.”

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For this long-form content article — spoiler alert — the call to action will be to contact Rellify for all of your content marketing needs.

Create the best content for your audience

Rellify upgrades and streamlines every part of content creation, from keyword research to blog introductions to analytics. We can start you off with a content audit, then help you form and execute an effective content strategy.

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With a custom Relliverse™, a company-specific AI subject-matter expert to identify your strategic topics, you're set on the path to better SEO from the very start. In our content management system, AI tools help you create content briefings that lay the foundation for great long-form content. You also can keep track of how well your blog fulfills crucial SEO elements by checking the "R-score" our AI tools provide. Every single part of the Rellify platform is designed to make evergreen content creation simpler and more effective — and that means a higher ROI and more conversions for your blogging efforts.

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Ready to find out more? Contact a Rellify expert today to find out how Rellify can change the way you blog.