The main secret of marketing is to create content which is both engaging and SEO-friendly. For this to happen, you need to align professionally written content with the more technical part of SEO.
What is the best way to do this? Keep reading and you’ll find out.
Steps to Creating SEO-Friendly Content
Understand Online Engagement
First and foremost, take time to understand how SEO-friendly content is made. You need to feel the heartbeat of search engines.
To start off, here is the basic step-by-step guide of how online engagement works:
- A search query composed of various keywords is entered in the search engine
- Content is ranked based on search query and keywords based on SEO
- Title attracts the interest of searchers
- Engaging content satisfies the audience
- Searchers become buyers, readers, clients, or users
Without the complete understanding of these 5 steps, you can’t move further.
According to Amanda Sparks, marketing specialist and author of the TopDownWriter blog, Google displays web pages in its search results according to the authority and relevance of the page, with the explicit goal being to enhance the user experience for the person searching.
The key is to expose the searchers to your engaging content and to gain their loyalty. Once you achieve that end, the results will come.
Keyword Research
Keywords are useful for emphasizing the main parts of your content and targeting what SERPs (search engine results pages) you might rank on.
While creating your overall strategy, make sure that you prepare a list of related keywords. It will save you time along the way.
Use the keywords evenly across your content. Don’t sacrifice the quality of the content just for the sake of increasing the number of keywords stuffed into it.
On the SEO scale of importance, content quality should always be above overdoing the SEO piece.
Optimized Titles
Depending on how interesting and valuable your titles are to the readers, your click-through rate will vary.
The perfectly optimized title will attract the reader’s intention and create a desire to click on it to read more.
Brainstorm as many variations of the title as you can until you find the perfect candidate.
Aim for a headline that has 55-60 characters, since this is what Google will display on the SERP.
You should also aim to use your focus keywords in the headline, as long as it sounds natural.
Original Content
The title will attract the readers’ attention, but the content needs to satisfy that reaction. The content plays the biggest part, since it is the one that will provide you with the readers’ loyalty.
Focus on delivering relevant information. Create content that is unique, entertaining, and valuable.
It can be helpful if you use some accessible free online tools such as Grammarly for grammar check, Upwork for writing services, and CopyScape to check for plagiarism.
Content Structure
Besides the content, how you structure it will also determine how search engines will choose to rank the content.
Readers and search engines alike will prefer a clear structure with appropriate use of headlines and sub-headlines.
“The value of headings is that they assist search engines in getting an overview of your content and creating a general idea of its importance to the readers,” explains James Daily, writer, content manager, and blogger at Brainished.
It is up to you whether you will use H1 to H6, or just add H2 and H3 headings at relevant points throughout the text. Just pay attention to the consistency.
Link Optimization
Pay close attention to this one…too many content marketers overlook the importance of optimizing the links.
In order for you to understand this fully, we need to clarify the difference between internal and external linking:
Optimizing Internal Links
Internal links help you emphasize your authority and the importance of the content you choose to point links at internally. Do this by finding an appropriate and relevant keyword and add a link it to a significant internal page.
It will add additional value to your posts, and search engines will better understand your key topics.
Optimizing External or Outbound Links
External linking will show your interest in the subject and validate the information that you are presenting to the users. It shows that you did your research and that you based your content on valuable or expert opinions.
If you are in the writing business, external linking will also provide you a stronger bond with prospective advertisers by earning their attention.
Samantha Lieback, a digital marketer at BestWritersCanada, agrees that the linking must be relevant to the theme of the article. You should never add the links just for the sake of link optimization. That will only distract the readers and take their attention away from your content.
Conclusion
Creating SEO-friendly content doesn’t have to be difficult and time-consuming. Keep in mind that you need to satisfy both the audience and search engines.
These tactics on authoring SEO-friendly content will give you a better understanding of this big online machinery and help you show the search engines how valuable your content really is.
Feature Image Credit: CC 0; Public Domain. All images sourced from Pixabay.
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.
Natalie Andersen
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- How to Create SEO-Friendly Content - November 13, 2018
