to create an optimized, comprehensive and useful guide //

There are many guides on the internet. You can find guides on any topic by searching for “guide” and the word.

There’s a reason for that: well-written guides make excellent content.

Your guide can change the life of your audience if they meet it at the right time and place. Your guide could be the pivotal point or turning point for your audience’s experience with a certain topic.

You can teach them important skills, introduce a concept that is vital, help them expand their knowledge or make a difficult subject easier to understand.

A good guide will help to build trust between the brand and the person.

Trust is also important to a positive customer experience. It can lead to profitable actions, such as converting a casual follower into a subscribed reader or turning a fan in a customer.

It’s now time to learn to create useful and comprehensive guides that are optimized for search engines. This will help you build trust with your readers through quality content.

What is a guide, exactly?

A guide is an extensive piece of content designed to educate a target audience.

• Introduce them to the topic or subject.
• Teach them a concept or idea.
• Walking them through the process of achieving a goal.
• You can show them how to do something by showing the steps.

A good guide will help you learn in some form.

The best content will speak to you on your level, in terms that you can understand and help you move to the next step to expand your knowledge.

How to make a guide in ultimate-style

1. Understanding the level of knowledge of your target audience

You need to know your audience’s knowledge level and their interests in order to write an excellent guide.

• What are they already aware of?
• What is their starting point? Are they beginners? Intermediates? Experts?)
• What do they NOT Know?
• What are the top challenges they face?

You will need to know these points because they will be used as a guide for the beginning and content of your guide.

If you don’t know the level of knowledge your audience has about your topic, your guide will be less useful.

If you start a guide about baking bread by mentioning mixing bowls, it will only be useful to those who are just starting out and don’t yet have the necessary equipment. This won’t help baking enthusiasts who are beyond the point of acquiring equipment.

If you want to know what your audience already knows about a topic, then you will need to conduct some research.

When all else fails directly ask them . Post a survey or poll on social media or ask your audience for feedback.

2. Outline your topic after researching it

It’s now time to begin drafting your guide.

I start by creating an outline, and then I write down all the information I think should be included in the guide.

Then, I do some research to find out what I am missing, what other people have written, and if there are any additional details I can add.

Even if you are an expert in a particular field, it is not advisable to solely rely on your own brain when attempting to flesh out a subject.

It is important to cover the most important topics for your readers.

Google the topic. Make sure you include all the subtopics that are covered in the top articles.

Say you are writing a guide about planting tulips. The guides that appear at the top on Google include additional information such as when to plant, how to take care of them, and tips for container planting and varieties. Your guide should be equally thorough.

You’re not finished until your outline is as thorough as the most popular articles on Google. You still need to do more.

Include information based on your expertise (or that of the brand). This is the mix of education with experience that makes your content unique.

• Add personal experiences to your insights.
• You can add insider information that the majority of people do not have.
• Include any tips, tricks or advice.
• Guides like this one often lack useful information.

In this tulip plantation guide for example, the author included information about common pests as well as fun facts. These pieces are missing from similar guides:

Look for other sources of information to help you flesh out your topic. You can also watch videos, read books or listen to expert interviews.

Double-check your guide to make sure you have included the most relevant and accurate details.

3. Divide your guide into sections organized by subtopic

While your draft is still being trimmed down, you should organize it.

• Divide it into sections. Each section should cover a sub-topic. The tulip guide, for example, would be divided into sections such as “when to plant the tulips”, “how to plant the tulip bulb”, “how to grow tulips” and “tulip types”.
• Sort the sections logically. For example, you wouldn’t place “how to plant tulips” before the section about caring for tulips because they naturally go together. You can’t take care of tulips that you haven’t planted!
• If you include instructions or steps in your guide, make sure they are clear, logically laid out, and easy to read. Each step should be numbered to help readers see the order at a glance.

4. Use keyword-rich headings

The best guides will have sections clearly labeled with descriptive headings. This format allows readers to find information without having them search through paragraphs with no labels.

This is also good for SEO. Especially if you use keywords in the section headings.

Here is an example of a Chicago Travel Guide with clear and keyword-rich headings in each section.

Note that each title includes the word “Chicago”.

Imagine each heading being more generic. For example, “When To Go” and “When To Go to Chicago”. The difference would be optimization. The latter heading has been optimized, but the first is not.

Consider including terms and phrases that are related to the main keyword. Enter your main keyword in Semrush or Ahrefs to find them.

Write headings to help your reader scan and find information in your guide.

5. Go deep

Guides are long form content by design. Readers expect comprehensiveness when they look for a topical guide.

Don’t skim the surface. Go deep.

You should include as many examples, descriptions or comparisons in your guide.

• Examples help your readers to understand your topic. This shows your readers how to apply what you are saying in the real world.
• Gives sensory details to readers that will help them understand. You can help your reader visualize something by describing how it looks, feels, smells, or tastes.
• Compare things that your audience might not be familiar to things they are comfortable with.
• Definitions are also a great way to help your reader understand a difficult topic. By defining these terms in simple language, you can help your reader get the most from the rest of the guide.

It really depends on the topic.

You might describe the final product’s appearance and taste in a recipe guide for a complicated dessert. This will help your readers understand what a good end result is.

In a bird-watching guide, you can help your readers identify a bird species by comparing them to another similar species, and noting their key differences.

It is a skill to explain a topic well. Take the time to do it right and create the best guide for your audience.

6. Search and link to authoritative, useful sources

This one is a quick return to the English classes in high school. Referencing sources is a useful lesson to learn when writing guides.

Citing sources will give your content credibility. By including them, you are essentially saying “Hey, these other experts on this topic agree with me.” This is why you should pay attention to me.

Even if your topic is well-known, citing sources shows you have done your research. You are drawing on collective knowledge about the topic and not just your brain.

Some claims are not credible. For example, if you claim in a bird guide that 10% of birds can’t fly. Even if you are the world’s foremost bird expert, you will need to prove this claim.

To add credibility to your guide you can link to authorities.

Look for recognized names in your field. WebMD, Mayo Clinic or the American Medical Association are all examples of reputable authorities in medical information.

If the name of the person is not well-known, check their credentials and experience in their about page.

When evaluating a website, consider a variety of factorssuch as their DA score (domain authority), whether they accept and/or publish sponsored content, the way they label this content, and if the site actually provides good information, or if it’s just trying to sell something.

Note: One way to identify credible websites is if they accurately link outside sources within their own content!

Linking to other sources, along with proving credibility, can provide readers with additional information and context about your topic from a reliable point of view. (One you have vetted! ).

Consider adding links to other blog posts, eBooks or full-length books that are related to yours to help the reader learn more.

7. Add useful visuals

The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is true. Addition of visuals is therefore a good idea.

By the way, “visuals”, as we use it, is much more than a few stock images. Try to use a variety visuals that will add to the meaning of your guide.

• Photos showing how to dig holes for tulip bulbs could be useful in a guide.
• The best way to learn to knit is to show a video, or even a series photos that demonstrate how to cast on the yarn.
• An infographic chart could be used to compare and contrast different mental disorders.
• It is more helpful to have screenshots and instructions on how to use a software program in a beginner’s guide.

Consider what visual elements will help you to clarify your text. What visuals would you find most helpful if you were a beginner reading this guide?

8. Format for Readability

Long-form guides that lack a good format can be difficult to read.

What’s your initial reaction when you see a wall of paragraphs unbroken on a website?

You probably want to run screaming away if you are like the majority of people. You may try to read some paragraphs but your eyes start to glaze over, and your mind starts to wander.

If people try to read your guide but fail, then it’s a failure.

The best guides are those that you can easily scan, skim and read to find what you need.

They are not:

• Organize and divide into sections using clear, scannable headings.
• The text is formatted to be read online, with short paragraphs.
• Use of numbered and bulleted lists makes the text digestible even if it is lengthy.
• They are not dominated by walls and walls of text, but include useful visuals that break up the text.

9. Edit and optimize

Once you have your first draft completed, you can now edit and optimize it.

Self-editing can help you improve your content even if you do not have a professional editor.

Editing Steps:

• Take a break. Do not edit on the same day that you have finished writing. Allow yourself to take a day off from the piece in order to see it clearly.
• Edit to flow. Make sure your sections flow from one to another.
• Clarify your writing . Editing tools can help you simplify complex sentences, improve your grammar and find spelling mistakes.
• Improve the readability. Look for ways to break up long paragraphs. Replace paragraphs with bullets or lists. Add more visuals.
• Use a second set of eyes. Ask someone who you trust to edit and read your guide if you don’t already have one.

Steps to optimize your website:

• Keyword placement. You can find your keyword focus in the title, headings (H2) and at least one subsection (H3). The keyword should appear throughout the article, as well as related terms. You can edit the word into your content several more times if you don’t think it has been used enough.
• Meta title, description. Keyword should be at the start of both. Think about how to attract Google searchers and what the main benefit is of reading your guide.
• Image alt text. Make sure that your images are tagged with alt text and a few contain the keyword.
• Links. Verify that you have linked to relevant content on your website in an effective way.

Here are 5 examples of guides that work.

Check out these guides for inspiration and guidance. They incorporate all the steps above well.

Hiking guide

This Beginner’s Guide for hiking the Appalachian Trail explains everything you need to do, such as when to begin, what to bring, where to stay, what food to eat and other resources.

This guide also shows you how to include links to useful and authoritative sources within your content.

Influencer marketing: the definitive guide

This ultimate guide will show you how to use influencers in marketing, including the what, the when and the why.

The book is very comprehensive, and it’s broken down into sections like “Getting started with Influencer Marketing”, and “How to work with Influencers”.

Guide to cooking mushrooms

is an excellent example of a guide that dives deep into a topic. The author explains 15 different types of mushrooms. She also explains how to prepare them.

You’ll find the usual suspects like button mushrooms and Shiitakes, but also some you may have never heard of, such as black trumpet mushrooms or Lion’s Mane mushrooms.

Financial Planning Guide

This guide to financial planning is an excellent example of “overview” or “snapshot” content.

This guide is designed to introduce a new topic. This type of guide helps beginners understand what a topic is, how it works, and why they should start.

This guide is not deep, but it gives beginners the basics to help them understand the topic.

Tech stack guide

The audience for this tech-stack guide is software companies. Therefore, the content has been framed to meet their specific needs and problems.

The software uses a lot of terminology that an average person will not understand, but a typical founder or staffer at a software company will.

Create guides that will help you to grow your audience

It’s worth the effort to create a guide.

If you optimize your guide correctly, it will bring more than just search traffic to your site – people looking for the information that you offer will be drawn to and connected with.

Your guide could be the one that changes someone’s perspective on a subject. It should provide useful, readable and educational information.

This is a powerful tool that can help you grow your audience, and thus your business.

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