Producing SEO-friendly content is a sure-fire way to grow your business without adding to your marketing budget.
If your website is optimized properly on-page and has solid domain authority, it will rank higher in Google. And ranking higher literally means more customer engagement.
No matter how great your content may be, it serves no purpose if nobody can find your website. This is why search engine optimization is so important. However, many marketers struggle to properly write SEO-friendly content.
In this post, we will review the basics of content optimization.
What is SEO-Friendly Content?
SEO-friendly content is created in a particular way, and it ranks high in search engines. Some marketers think that making content SEO-friendly means stuffing the text with keywords.
But that is not true. By optimizing your writing for search engines, you are basically helping more people find your content easily.
It is not just about stuffing the content with keywords. You can learn about SEO by doing a little research online.
Or you can just follow the below advice and get moving immediately.
1. Use Sub-Headers
For maximum SEO impact, it is important to use sub-headers the right way. Sub-heads make your content easy to read.
When readers can easily skim through the content, they are more likely to read the details and then share it with their friends and followers.
Search engine robots also favor proper headlines and sub-headers. They use headers and sub-heads to understand your content. This way, they understand the relevance of your copy to certain keywords and keyword clusters.
Headers also contribute to keyword saturation. However, it is not a good idea to game the system by abusing this rule.
2. Link to Previously Published Content
Backlinks play a major role in the way search engines rank web pages. To some extent, it depends on how many Backlinks your piece gets. If the content is good, it will be expected to earn more internal and external Backlinks.
If you want to drive traffic across your domain, be sure to link to your older content from the new posts.
By doing so, you will not only make it easier for both search engines and visitors to find older materials, but you will also share more of the page authority from the linking page with the link target.
You can also improve the credibility of your website by linking out to other reputable domains. The better the links, the more likely it will help your own content rank. Readers will also respond favorably if your content acknowledges credible sources.
Check for broken links on a regular basis and address them immediately. Search engines and visitors alike will question the quality of your website if you allow these broken links to remain.
They may think that your website contains outdated and less trustworthy information. So, if you find broken links, update them with relevant and active ones.
When you hire someone to develop your website, tell the developer to make it easy to navigate. The website should also be visually appealing. Incorporate links strategically.
Avoid cramming keywords into anchor texts, because this is called “over optimizing” your link profile. Do not make all of your anchors into “money” keywords — use a mix of keywords, branded links, naked URLs, and even generic texts like “click here” or “learn more.”
3. Write Long Blog Posts
Blogging is no longer simply a volume effort. Just a few years ago, bloggers used to write short posts and publish frequently. They did it because it worked.
That is no longer the case. When you look at the content that populates page 1 for popular search terms, you will find that most posts are 1,500+ words in length.
Data shows that even longer posts are better. Today, bloggers publish less frequently as they did a few years ago.
The reason is simple: Google now prioritizes long-form content with the highest possible quality and uniqueness. Their algorithm is so sophisticated that it can actually crawl and identify which content is higher quality than other materials.
Google wants to help people by providing them with the best stuff. So, if you are planning to write very short articles, change your plan.
To understand the type of posts that generate high engagement on your domain, keep tabs on your Google Analytics. When you are writing posts, keep in mind the length of the posts that are viewed the most frequently.
4. Choose Keywords Wisely
Before you start writing, think about the keywords you are going to use. Do not take SEO lightly.
Determine the keywords you would like to incorporate, and then write them down. This approach is much better than diving into action without any SEO objective in the first place.
What keywords are relevant to your particular topic? Identifying the right keywords may not be a simple process. You might have to use a keyword planning tool or get in touch with a professional SEO services firm to help figure it out.
Take note: you don’t want to just start trying to research keywords without prior experience or knowledge. Spend some time to learn about how keyboard research works first.
There are many online tutorials that can help you do that. Keywords can be used in the headlines, titles, meta- descriptions and main copy.
5. Optimize Your Images
While many marketers overlook it altogether, image optimization is a very important piece of your overall SEO.
Not only do images add context to the written content, but many people search for images and then stumble upon content that piques their interest once they arrive.
However, there are some more important technical reasons for optimizing your images. Image optimization can increase your page speed, and that results in better user experience.
Search engine users can easily find your content if the images used in your content are properly optimized. Be careful about the size of each photo.
Large pictures will affect the load time of your website, making it hard to navigate. Reduce the size of each image without compromising the quality. To do that, you can use an image editor or find a plugin that can apply lossless compression to reduce the file size.
Conclusion: SEO-Friendly Content Isn’t THAT Difficult!
To write SEO-friendly content, you should know at least the basics of search engine optimization. No professional writer can ignore this technical aspect of creating online content.
Optimizing your writing does not necessarily mean sacrificing the aesthetic aspect of your content. We hope the tips provided in this post will help you write better SEO-optimized content.
Feature Image Credit: CC 0; Public Domain. Feature image sourced from Flickr.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
This guest post brought to you courtesy of Return On Now, Professional Austin SEO and PPC Services Company.
Laura Garbers
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