Writing content takes a lot of hard work and effort. And if you are writing it for the search engines, it can multiply your efforts by many times.
While writing SEO content, you are required to take care of so many factors. Search engines have made it challenging for SEO experts to rank their content. Well, I have come up with some content writing tips that can help SEO experts to rank their content in SERPs.
Identify Your Goals And Objectives
If you are writing any content, the most important element is to write it according to your objective. For this, you will need to identify the primary goal of your content.
- You might be looking for better reach and more visitors.
- It is about conversion, and you want visitors to buy your service or product.
- You are looking forward to providing your readers with some information.
- Maybe you are willing to interact with your readers.
It depends upon your objectives and how you will be writing a post or a web page.
Perform Keyword Research
Probably the most important step, when you are writing content to get it ranked in the SERPs is keyword research. SEO content revolves around a specific keyword against which we want it to rank.
In order to find that particular keyword, you can think of a specific niche from your website and look for a suitable keyword that is a minimum of 3-wordy as long-tail keywords can have a better conversion and ranking ratio.
You can simply use tools such as Ahrefs, SEMRush, or Google Keyword Planner to identify some good keywords that have the potential to rank. For instance, in order to check the health of a keyword, you can look for keyword difficulty in Ahrefs. Other tools have similar options as well.
Look For LSI Keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords)
While you are writing about a particular topic around a specific keyword, you will still have to include some keywords related to that focus keyword.
These keywords are known as LSI keywords, and Google values content that contains keywords relating to the content.
You can still use Ahrefs or other tools to identify LSI keywords. But, I will recommend using Google Keyword Planner for it.
Simply type your focus keyword in a selected region, and GKP will provide you with some great options.
Select A Suitable Topic
When you are done with selecting a focused keyword, you can take the next step by choosing a headline for your content. Headlines or H1 have great value in SEO content.
Google sometimes marks H1 of content as the title and starts showing it in the SERPs.
So, make sure that your headline or topic of the content should contain your focused keyword, and it should not be more than 60 characters. Furthermore, it is better if you can use the focus keyword at the start of your headline.
Structure The Post Correctly
Structuring the post simply means creating an outline. You cannot write good content for SEO without creating a proper outline. While structuring your post, keep the following points in mind.
- For instance, if you are writing a post of 1000 words, then it should at least contain four to five subheadings.
- Divide your post into H1, H2, and H3, as per the requirements.
- Use the focus keyword at least once in your subheadings. If you can use it twice, keeping the readability good, it would be better.
- Use at least one LSI keyword in any of your subheadings.
- Have some space for an introduction and conclusion. Ideally, in 1000 word content, 100 words for introduction and 1000 words for conclusion are considered good.
For instance, if you are targeting a keyword, “buy essay online”. Then you should include it in the H1, one or two H2, introduction paragraph, concluding paragraph, and a few times in the content.
Target The Right Audience
You cannot just go on to write a post for the general audience. If you want your post to rank, make sure that you are targeting the correct audience with your content.
For instance, you have selected a topic for college students. Then your post should have a tone suitable to address students. In addition to that, you should use relevant examples considering your target audience. And your whole content should be specifically written for students.
Include WH Questions
Try to include WH questions and their answers in your content. You can create FAQs at the end of your content to feature such questions.
Basically, a large number of queries on Google start from WH questions. More importantly, about 50 percent of searches on Google are voice searches. And most of the voice queries are WH questions.
If you want your content to rank against such keywords, you will need to include them in your content.
Focus On Readers
According to experts working at Assignment Assistance, “While adding keywords, you should not forget about your readers. Make sure that your content is solely written for the targeted audience. It should contain information about what they are looking for. Include visuals in the form of images and videos to engage your audience.”
Furthermore, add a suitable CTA at the end of your post depending upon your objective of the written post.
Be Careful About Keyword Density
Keyword density plays a great role in ranking web content into SERPs. You should conduct competitive research in order to get an idea about the length of your content and the keyword density.
For this, you can select the top 10 websites for a particular query and put their content in wordcount.io.
You will get a quick idea about how many words there should be in your content and what are keywords and densities your competitors have used.
According to experts, in 1000 words content, if your focus keyword is 3-wordy, it should be there 6 to 7 times.
1.5 to 2 is the maximum density for a focused keyword. Or else Google can hit your content for keyword stuffing. Moreover, add LSI keywords once or twice in the content depending upon the need. Spread all the keywords equally in the content, and make sure to add your focus keyword in the first and last paragraph.
Always Be Original
Google will never rank content that contains duplicate material. Google has a strict policy against plagiarized content, and it can penalize your page or website for using duplicate material.
Hence, it is necessary to create original content every time you want it to rank on the search engines.
The best way to create original content is to research your topic on different resources available, create an outline of your own and write about what you have learned and what you know in your own words.
You can simply check for the originality of your content using various tools available on the internet. CopyScape is the most used tool most website owners rely on for checking on plagiarism.
Add Relevant Internal & External Links
Adding links to your content improves its credibility in the eyes of a search engine bot and reader as well. However, you need to be very careful while adding these links.
Your post of 1000 words should contain at least three to four internal links. Or you can add as many as possible until they look good. These links are basically from other pages on your website. Make sure to add them in an authentic way that they should not sound like they have been added forcefully.
Make sure to divide these internal links throughout your post. Do not merge them up near each other.
Now, the external links are links to other web sources which you include in your content. While adding external links, make sure to select high-rated websites only.
I will personally recommend adding external links for referring stats only. If you want to refer to a term that your readers might not know about, then you can link it externally with an authentic website having a high DA or DR.
Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR) can be checked through Moz and Ahrefs, respectively. Before getting started on SEO, make sure to buy a domain name that represents your brand properly.
Improve Readability
Readability has a handsome role in ranking your website’s page. Make sure that your content has a good flow and a specific tone considering your audience. The following points will help you improve the readability of your content.
- Do not repeat words again and again.
- Make sure to use short sentences under 20 words.
- Divide your content into paragraphs. Do not use long paragraphs. A paragraph of 40 to 60 words is enough.
- Try to use an active voice that can directly address your targeted audience.
- Use transition words to keep your content intact.
- Check for grammar and sentence structure. Use simple sentences so that it can be easy for your readers to understand the context.
Yoast SEO can be used to identify readability issues. You can install the plugin to your WordPress or can also use it online.
Add Suitable Title And Description
The most important step for SEO content writing is creating catchy titles and meta descriptions.
As a reader, you interact with titles and descriptions first when you search for any query on a search engine.
- Make sure that your title contains your focused keyword.
- Adding a number in your title can make it catchy.
- Try to add your brand name in the title.
- Start your title with your focused keyword.
- Keep your title to fewer than 45 to 55 characters.
- The good length for meta descriptions is from 145 to 155 characters.
- Use your focused keyword and one LSI keyword at least in your meta description.
- You can make your meta description engaging by adding a question to it.
Optimize Images
Google values the images added to your content. Make sure that all the images have suitable Alt Tag and description added to it. Furthermore, work on the size and image quality. Be sure that you are not uploading a huge image. Keep them under 500KB.
While Summing Up…
Ranking web content on search engines is not impossible. If you can keep your content as per the requirements, you can rank it in a few days. I have tried to cover all the elements that are necessary to rank content.
I hope these content writing tips will help you as an SEO expert to create meaningful content and rank it in SERPs. Let me know in the comments section if I have missed any important element/s.
Author Bio
Claudia Jeffrey is currently working as an Editor at Crowd Writer UK, where she assists students with numerous tasks. She is always there to guide pupils in academic and professional careers. Claudia has worked as a freelance SEO writer for different clients. She also shares her views at Word Count Jet.