Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of making your website show up higher in search results on Google, Bing, and other engines.
The idea behind SEO is that the higher your website appears in the search results, the more traffic you can get. And the more traffic you have, the more sales you can make.
SEO can be a complicated topic for many
businesses, but it doesn’t have to be. There are some basic things you can do
to improve your performance and give yourself an edge over your competitors.
One of them is by creating original and unique SEO content.
When you’re writing content, it’s not just the words themselves that are important; how you inject meaning into them is also key.
If you can get your content frame right, it can be easier to read, and more useful for your audience, and it can also boost your SEO.
To help you create the perfect SEO content, we’ve put together this guide with five tips from some of the top online marketers in the business.
Make Sure to Conduct Thorough Keyword Research
The only way you can drive traffic to your blog is by ranking on the first page of Google for your target keywords.
So, the first step to boosting your traffic is to research the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business and content.
You can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs for this purpose. Keywords should be relevant, specific, and cover both short-tail and long-tail keywords.
Add links That Make Sense
Links are important for SEO but do not overuse them as it will annoy your readers, which will affect your bounce rate negatively.
You should add links that make sense and help you drive more traffic to other pages on your website.
You should also link out to authority sites when needed, as it helps with building trust among the readers.
Internal linking. Linking from other pages on your site can help both users and search engine spiders navigate your site more easily.
It also helps distribute “link juice” throughout your site, which can have a positive effect on search engine rankings for pages that are frequently linked to by other pages on your site.
External linking. Linking out to other sites is great for credibility (Wikipedia is a good example of this) but do so sparingly and only when necessary.
Search engines reward sites that are seen as highly credible sources of information, so linking out to authority sites can have a positive impact on your ranking.
Structure Your Content
Always keep in mind that the goal is to create content that readers will love.
You don’t want to focus all your energy on trying to make Google rank your pages higher.
A search engine is just a tool; you still have to provide the best content out there if you want readers to come back and spend time on your site.
There are many things to consider when structuring quality content, which can make things confusing for some.
To help you out, here are five tips on how to structure your content so that it can boost your SEO effectively:
Write Catchy Titles
Titles should be short and to the point. They should also accurately describe your content.
Search engines are very good at guessing what you mean, but if your title is misleading, it can cause you to lose traffic.
Headings Tags
You need to make sure that the headings, subheadings, and paragraphs on each page help Google understand everything that is being discussed in it.
Use HTML tags like H1, H2, H3, etc.,
to structure the text on each page.
Using a proper heading structure helps Google understand which keywords are important as well as where they are located on each page.
Use Small Paragraphs
Long paragraphs tend to bore readers, especially on the web where people don’t usually read articles word for word.
Break up your content into smaller and easy-to-read chunks of text. Use images and headings to guide users through your piece.
Stick to the Optimal Content-Length
The optimal length for content varies depending on what type of site you’re writing for. But generally, longer is better than shorter.
A good rule of thumb is that if your post has fewer than 1000 words, it’s probably too short (unless you have an enormous number of high-quality media)
On the other hand, if it takes 30 minutes or more to get through a single post, it might be too long (unless it’s an incredibly detailed guide).
Use a Grammar Checker
Make sure to detect all possible mistakes, including typos, spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors as they can adversely affect the quality of your content.
Grammar checkers help not only to find problems but also solve them automatically (in most cases).
Make it Plagiarism-Free
One of the most important things that you need to do is to make sure that your content is unique and original. It should not match with any previously published material.
To check this, you can use a plagiarism checker online. This will let you know if any of your content is unique or not.
Rephrase All Duplicated Parts in Your Text
If your plagiarism checker finds out that some parts of your content match with a previously published online source, you can use a rephrase tool to change its structure and wording.
Doing so will make it unique again.
This way, the search engines will not see it as duplicate content, and your SERP ranking won’t get damaged.
Keep Your Content Up-to-Date
You know the old saying: Out with the old and in with the new. The same thing applies to content, especially when it comes to SEO.
You should be regularly updating your content so that it remains fresh and relevant for both search engines and users.
If people land on a page that contains outdated or irrelevant information, they’re going to leave quickly. And that is going to send negative signals to Google and other search engines.
Whenever you update a piece of content, make sure you’re adding something new or improving the existing material.
You could add some new information about a topic or include some new examples and data to back up your points.
If you find information that’s no longer relevant or accurate, remove or update it so that people don’t get confused when they land on the page.
Optimize Images
Images play an important role in improving the user experience on your site. And they can be optimized for SEO purposes as well.
Search engines can’t read images the same way humans can, so they rely on alt text to understand what an image is about.
Make sure that you name all the images properly before uploading them and fill in their titles, alt tags, and descriptions.
This way you can improve the organic ranking of your content and increase traffic to your website from image searches on Google.
Wrapping up
In a world where the average attention span is that of a goldfish, it’s hard to get users to stop and read your content. It’s even harder to get them to come back for more.
But getting traffic and keeping it isn’t impossible. At its core, SEO is all about content.
The more high-quality content you have on your website, the more relevant and effective it will be to search engines.
So how do you make sure that your SEO content is as effective as possible?
Well, to start, try working on implementing the above tips in your writing. Make sure that your content is easy for the audience to read.
Whenever you finish writing an article or post, use content optimization tools to make it on-point.
