It’s not always easy to craft high-quality content that’ll generate organic traffic to your site. While many site owners can write decent content, they often struggle to produce content that shows effective results on the search engine. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) seeks to accomplish this.
Content that generates new clients and has value is one thing; saving your precious time is another. But believe it or not, creating SEO-friendly blog articles is much simpler and more effective when you have a framework in place. You should know that Google’s search engine regularly updates its algorithms, so you’ll need to stay abreast of SEO techniques in 2021.
To rank higher on Google, you can use several strategies and techniques, but getting the basics right will improve your chances drastically. With the best SEO practices, you can set the foundation to make your site more visible in search engines.
Find out some pro tips on content writing and SEO below:
1. Start With Keyword Research
Content optimization score helps grade your writing for better SEO. All SEO and content creation begins with keyword research. You can use keywords to get your site ranked higher in search engines and get more page views. The first step is to think about all the words your target audience may use to search for web content similar to your website’s.
If you don’t know where to begin, try using keyword research tools to find out the best keywords you can use for your niche topics. If your a b2b tech company, look for problem-solution keywords as well.
2. Qualify And Evaluate Your Keywords
While creating a website for your startup is crucial, your SEO is just as important. The most effective way to create SEO-optimized content is to make decisions based on data, which is also what will give you better results. ‘Qualifying’ a keyword means determining whether it’s worth pursuing.
One of the most common criteria used in qualifying keywords is the search volume. This is a feature you can find on keyword planner tools available in the market these days. If there’s a high search volume for the keyword you want, that means there are lots of users searching on the web using keywords, but that also means more competition.
While you might find keywords with lower search volumes not worthy of pursuing, it’s actually something you can use to your advantage. However, look for something in the middle—keywords with search volumes that are neither too high nor too low. A mid-range number of competitors will give you better chances at ranking higher and getting a significant amount of page views.
Other helpful criteria you should use are keyword trends, user engagement, and social signals.
3. Write A Well-Organized Content
Content writing and SEO both require good article structure. Make use of the subheading tags on your blogs to make them more organized and easier to read. Keep in mind the following tips too:
- Include an outline for longer articles and lengthy content when needed
- Make your content easier to read by using H2 and H3 tags
- Break up long sentences and keep each paragraph focused on one main idea
- Provide answers to the most common questions people might have about your topic
- A bulleted or numbered list makes an article more readable and understandable.
- Make sure key points are highlighted with bold or colored fonts.
4. Remove Distractions
Sites are frequently riddled with distractions that don’t provide much value to the user. Sidebars and pop-up ads are some of these distractions. Be considerate of your users’ time. They came to see what you have to offer. Anything that hinders readers from finding the information they need should be avoided.
It’s important to remember that what makes a reader come back (or not) to your website is the experience they have while navigating. An experience centered around conversions usually leads to poor results. Keep your site is informative and user-focused to make your readers stay longer.
5. Use Descriptive URL Names
When search engines decide whether your article provides the information a user seeks, the URLs you use are taken into consideration. Create URLs based on the content’s title in a simple and readable format. Add hyphens to make them easier to read, keep it short, and use lower case letters. Don’t forget that your main keyword should also appear in the URL.
Conclusion
Optimizing your content for SEO is something you can easily learn and master with patience. With these tips, you should be on the right track to ranking your content higher on search engines. Do note, however, that results take time to show in search engine rankings, but if you keep at it, you’ll eventually see the fruit of your labor, in numbers.
Also published on Medium.
