When you’re writing content for your website you want it to be relevant to your target audience, but you also want to be sure it is appearing in search results. Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) facilitates this by increasing visibility. Let’s cover some ways you can create SEO friendly content.
Do Your Keyword Research
Before writing your content, the first thing you want to think about is the keywords that you want to use that will increase visibility within search engine results. One reason this is important is because often, there is the risk of using industry jargon that is not relatable to your readers. The keywords you use should be terms that your target audience will be searching for. This means you will want to understand the user’s search intent.
One way that you can do keyword research is to go on Google and search for keywords that you think might be relevant to your business. Pay attention to Google’s autocomplete suggestions; these will give you clues as to which searches are frequently being completed by users. Ideally, this will only be the beginning of your research. Utilizing a marketing agency to help produce your content can give you in-depth keyword research based on the terms that are already bringing customers to your site as well as those that are searched for most within your industry.
Use a Consistent Pattern
If you’re aiming to create great content, it is a good idea to follow a consistent pattern. For example, your evergreen service pages may all follow a similar format that’s easily scannable and includes common FAQs potential customers may have about your business. It’s also important to continue posting new content to your site. This usually comes in the form of blog posts. Creating a regular schedule of posts, such as once weekly or twice monthly will give users more reasons to come back to your site. These posts also offer opportunities to focus on more specific keywords or long-tail keywords.
With any piece of content, you should include a call to action (CTA). This is what turns readers into customers—if you don’t offer clear steps for readers to take after reading your content, they may never follow up by making a purchase, calling for more information, or joining your mailing list.
Format Paragraphs and Headings
Formatting is a big part of SEO friendly content. If your post is not formatted to be user friendly, it can impact whether a reader takes the time to read the content entirely, or at all. This can lead to an increased bounce rate because the user will be less likely to visit other pages on your website. Bounce rate is a ranking factor that tells search engines that searchers are not finding what they’re looking for on your site, which can lead to lower search engine ranking.
Rather than writing out one long paragraph, consider breaking up each idea into its own paragraph. If you are covering several related topics, use headings and subheadings. This can greatly improve the user experience by allowing readers to effortlessly search your page to understand what they will be reading or help them quickly locate specific information within the content. Using headings also improves accessibility by providing jump points for screen readers, for visually impaired users, as well as easier reading on mobile devices. These are all important factors for the technical side of SEO, which greatly affects your search ranking.
Identify Related Keywords
Have you ever read a post and seen a keyword used repeatedly? It doesn’t make for pleasant reading and can be quite irritating. Keyword stuffing is one way to lose a reader’s interest fast. In addition, Google will penalize you for it. It’s much more important that you have good content that users will enjoy and find useful rather than constantly repeating keywords.
One thing that Google does to reduce keyword stuffing is understand synonyms and keywords related to your primary keyword. Adding in related keywords, rather than using the same primary keyword constantly, also increases the opportunities for your content to rank in different user searches because those keyword variations may just be what someone else is searching for.
Optimize Your Content
There are a few ways you can optimize your content to be SEO friendly. First, you want your posts to be at least 300 words. Longer posts of up to 2000 words tend to rank higher in search results because they get more social media attention, but your goal should be quality over quantity. Second, with mobile usage so prevalent, your content being optimized for mobile devices is a must. And finally, include optimized images within your content to improve the user experience. Be sure to use proper alt text and descriptive titles so search engines can understand the image subject, which increases opportunities of visibility.
If you’re interested in improving your website’s search engine rankings, Group6 Interactive’s qualified team can help develop an SEO strategy for your company. We can even produce the SEO friendly content that your site needs to capture more attention for your business. Contact us today by calling (803)342-4656 or sending us an email via our contact form.
