After all, without SEO, Content may be lost around on page 50 of the search results; and we all know traffic on those pages is less than satisfactory. Furthermore, your first-page ranking can only do so much if your content post-click is crummy.
That’s why a great relationship between SEO and excellent content is essential! Here are tips on how to write SEO content to make your content go further and improve your SEO efforts at the same time.
SEO Content Writing Tips
Write for your audience first
This SEO writing tip is number one for a cause. It looks simple enough, yet so many companies make content for all the wrong reasons. Instead, write content that attracts the interests of your target market or answers their questions.
Not all posts need to be regarding your product or service, but they all should be industry-related. Assert yourself and your company as a specialist in your industry by writing SEO-friendly content that is interesting and informative, and do it better than your competition.
Keep it all under the same roof
Get the credit and traffic your website deserves by having your original content under your domain name. That means if you have a blog, opt-out of hosting with WordPress or Blogger and host the blog in a subfolder on your domain (i.e., www.example.com/blog). Any time you have an opportunity to showcase other styles of original content like videos, infographics, or whitepapers, make sure also to embed them onto your website as well and share from there.
Make headlines that pack a punch
You have a concise amount of text to make a huge impression. So don’t underestimate the power of a compelling headline! Write headlines that are clear, engaging and make use of rich keywords.
In addition to a great headline, make sure your Meta descriptions are attractive and further elaborate on the topic of your article. Keep in mind that your title and Meta description are what show up in the search results, so make them total!
Use keyword-rich phrases
Use relevant, keyword-rich phrases in your headlines and throughout your content to let both your readers and the search engines identify what your post is about. But beware, too many keywords will not only turn off your readers but can result in search engine punishments for keyword stuffing.
Rather, use keywords thoughtfully and sparingly, sticking to a more natural feel. In addition to using keywords throughout the body of your post, take benefit of blog tags by tagging a few relevant keywords for each post; most general blogs have tagging capabilities already built-in.
Structure your posts
The contents of your post may be excellent but can be quickly lost in an unorganized, inefficient format. Breaking your content up into more modest paragraphs with headlines makes for a simple read that will keep your readers engaged.
For the search engines, back-end organization is important too. Using proper tag hierarchy when tagging headlines (H1 for titles, H2 for subtitles) is needed to maintain a well-structured article.
Incorporate imagery
Make your posts pop with images! People are visual. Adding an image along with your blog post can make a big response. Have a Pinterest account?
In addition to promoting your blogs across your other social media channels, posts with images can also be pinned, adding different avenues for traffic to your website.
Propel content with social media
Social media is a powerful tool that can help improve the reach of your content and promote sharing. Post each new article on social media sites and in forums, utilizing engaging descriptions and a call-to-action. Since the power of social media lies in sharing, it’s also essential to have share buttons on each of your blog posts.
If you want more control of how your links look when they’re shared, implementing Twitter Cards for Twitter or Open Graph for Facebook (technical) can give your shared links a boost and may help your click-through rates.
Implement Google Authorship
Google Authorship is a quick and easy way to tie content to a particular author; all you need is a Google+ account. As a result, your articles come up as rich snippets in the search results featuring the author’s image along with the article title.
Google Authorship is excellent for personal promotion but can also increase the click-through rate to your articles. If you’re an author, determine how to set up Authorship for your website.
Promote natural link building
Link building has come to a long approach since the days of link buying and link farms, but links are still an important ranking factor for SEO. Linking to your articles or website in your post ensures a link back to your website if another site picks up your article.
If you get creative with different types of content like infographics and videos, adding an embed code on your site helps promote content sharing and adds a link back to the source. Creating excellent content helps increase the sharability and the likelihood that other websites will link to it, so aim for quality!
Monitor your activity
Stay on top of your SEO-friendly content by monitoring your efforts. Google Analytics is an easy and free way to hunt your page views and the average time spent on a page. Check things like your bounce rate and time on site to get an opinion of how users interact with your website after landing on your content.
If you notice a high drop-off in addition to a low average time spent on the page, that’s an indication that your content wasn’t relevant to what they were looking for, or worse, wasn’t enjoyable. Also, take a look at the number of social interactions (shares, likes, etc.) to get an idea of the virality of your post. Just looking at these simple metrics can give you a great idea of which content pieces are well-received and liked so that you can replicate that type of content down the road.