Producing and promoting content is one of the cornerstones of a marketing plan. It’s important that the blog posts you incorporate into your plan are informative, compelling, and of course, SEO-optimised. Here are seven tips to help you write with SEO-optimisation in mind.
Your aim is to create content that is easy to find, resonates with readers, and for them to share it. The articles you write should be thoughtful, thought-provoking and sharable. But of course, to help your search engine rankings, they also need to be SEO-optimised.
Before you begin writing, do your research and if you’re new to SEO-friendly writing, don’t get discouraged. Here are seven tips…
1. Do your prep work
First, think carefully about your message, the purpose of the article, and what your call to action will be. Do some keyword research to figure out which words people are searching for and therefore, are words you should incorporate into your copy. Then draft a rough outline of your blog post so you have a set structure and general idea of what your article will look like.
2. Formatting matters
Use paragraphs to your advantage. Try to keep them on the shorter side and stick to one idea per paragraph, but don’t go overboard with multiple one-sentence paragraphs either.
Using proper headings lets readers know exactly what to expect in the coming paragraph.
Subheadings also help when people scan down the page. Not only will your text be more readable, but if you use some keywords in your headings it helps with SEO too.
3. Use transition words and related keywords
Aside from headings, transition words also help people scan through your post and connect the dots between the different ideas you’ve written about. Signal words like ‘firstly’ or ‘in summary’ and ‘however’ or ‘for example’ point the reader in the right direction, toward the right conclusion and help structure your article.
There can be too much of a good thing when it comes to keywords – overloading your text with keywords not only makes the copy hard to read but it will also lower your rankings as search algorithms interpret too many keywords as ‘keyword stuffing’.
As the goal of search engines like Google is to show the best results, keyword stuffing will have a negative impact. Instead, use synonyms and similar phrases so that search engines pick up the topic based on all related text.
4. Get another set of eyes
Even if you’re a keen editor, it’s always a good idea to get a set of fresh eyes to read your post.
Ask someone else to check for readability, typos, grammatical errors, etc. but also if the concept is easy to understand and that you’re hitting all the beats you need to hit within the text.
5. Length optimisation
Figuring out how long your article should be is a delicate balancing act. A minimum of 300 words is recommended, but while Google likes long articles, readers may not. Brevity may be your friend if you’re just starting out, but if your topic requires a lengthy article to cover everything, make sure it’s engaging and gripping enough for a reader to get through the whole thing without clicking away before the end.
6. Link your content
The more content you build up, the better because you can link to other posts in your article. More articles on the same topic show Google that your site has authority on the subject. The more you write and link, the better your rankings will be. It will also help readers and possible potential customers to navigate and explore your website. It has a happy side effect of letting Google know the relationships between the content on your site.
7. Keep content consistent
Adding content to your blog regularly signals to Google that your website is active which means their bots continue to crawl and index your site. Come up with a content plan and calendar full of quality content because in this case, quality beats quantity.
Get writing
Of course, it all comes down to the writing. Good quality content will naturally appeal to people but by using these tips, your rankings, shares, and hits will surely improve. Writing with SEO in mind isn’t always easy for those without experience, so practise, practise, practise.
We can help ensure that all your hard work doesn’t go to waste and that your blog’s SEO-friendliness is maximised. We can help craft and optimise articles as part of your wider marketing plan so get in touch with us today.
