When it comes to digital and content marketing, learning about SEO is crucial. To advertise your brand and rank higher on Google, you need to know how SEO works. It’ll make it easier for you to claim your spot on the market. It will also help you stand out from your competitors and improve your business.
It takes time to become an SEO expert, and you’ve got to start somewhere. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 7 essential tips on creating SEO friendly content. They’ll help you learn the SEO basics necessary for building killer content that ranks high.
Let’s break them down together.
1. Keyword Research
SEO is all about putting the right pieces of the puzzle together. Keywords are the building block of your content.
Choosing the right keywords means sending Google algorithms the right signals. You’re telling them what your content is about and which searches to link it to.
That's why you must conduct keyword research and choose your keywords wisely. Here's what you should do:
- use a keyword research tool such as Google Keyword Planner
- aim for specific keywords that are closely related to your content
- avoid global keywords that everyone’s fighting for
For example, if you’re writing an article about foods that speed up your metabolism, don’t aim for a keyword such as “healthy living” or “food tips”. Instead, aim for something specific like “foods for metabolism”.
Also, be careful not to stuff your content with keywords.
Use keywords moderately, and don't allow them to damage the overall quality of your content. Make sure they help you rank higher instead.
2. Title & Meta Description
Once you know which keywords you want to use, it’s time to dig a little deeper.
You need to make your content appealing to the readers and Google algorithms as well. That means you should focus on:
- the title tag
The title tag of your blog post needs to be catchy, unique, and descriptive.
The reader needs to be 100% certain he knows what to expect from the content based on the title. At the same time, the title needs to be intriguing and get the readers to read further. Finally, it should be up to 60 characters long.
- meta description
When you look at Google search results and spot the short description beneath the title, that's a meta description. It should be up to 160 characters long. This brief yet informative description needs to further motivate the readers to click and read your content.
Try including keywords into both the title and the meta description. Also, check out what your competitors are writing on the same subject and give your content a different twist.
3. Optimise Your URLs
You may not be aware of it, but search engines take your URLs into account.
This is why you need to make sure your URLs:
- contain a keyword
- aren’t too long
- aren’t messy
Here’s what we have in mind:
- a bad URL: http://website.com/3434251/
- a great URL: http://website.com/create-seo-friendly-content/
This will make the difference for your audience and the algorithms as well.
4. Valuable Content
There’s one important thing we mustn’t forget. SEO isn’t just about following the rules and doing the math.
SEO heavily relies on the quality of the content that you publish.
That means that you won’t get very far unless you have content that:
- provides value to the readers
- answers their burning questions
- covers industry-related trends and topics
- is highly informative
- is professionally written
In case you need help with writing quality content, you can always get help from a writing service such as Wow Grade, Best Essay Education, or Supreme Dissertations.
5. Be Mobile-Friendly
Optimising your content for mobile devices is another must-follow SEO trend. More and more people turn to devices such as smartphones and tablets to search the web.
If you ignore their needs, your bounce rate will skyrocket and you'll keep losing your audience.
To make sure it doesn’t come to this, you should:
- optimise all your content for mobile devices
- adjust your design to all screen sizes
- test before you publish
Make sure that your content loads quickly on all devices. Adjust your design, and simplify it for the best effects.
6. Add Links & Resources
Link building is among the most important SEO techniques that every business owner, blogger or digital marketer should use.
It’s quite simple but it makes a huge difference for those algorithms. Also, it gives your content a stronger note and allows your readers to continue reading on the topic.
When it comes to link building make sure that you’re:
- adding external links to credible sources
- adding statistics, data, and informative facts
- adding internal links to other content from your website
- using creative anchor text that isn’t “click here”
Your links need to adapt to the rest of the content smoothly, and not bother those who don’t plan on clicking.
They should be linking to websites that are credible and relevant to the subject matter.
7. Refine Your Content
When you’re writing your content, you need to keep one idea in mind. People love to scan online content and get answers to their questions as soon as possible.
This will help you adjust your structure and make it friendly for those who don’t have much time to read.
Follow these guidelines on content structure:
- use headings and subheadings to break it down
- write short paragraphs, up to 3 sentences
- use bullet points or numbering
- make lists and tables
- use bold or italics to emphasize important information and facts
- avoid huge chunks of text
Help your readers scan your content and you’ll significantly decrease the bounce rate.
Finally, make sure that you proofread and edit everything that you write several times before publishing. In case you need help with any of that, here’s a list of useful resources:
Trust My Paper - This online writing service can analyze your content and make the right adjustments before you send it out for publishing.
Grammarly - When you want to proofread your content, you can use the help of this online writing tool. It will highlight the weak spots and mistakes, and let you know how to fix them.
Grab My Essay - You can have the team of professionals from this writing service proofread for you and send you back mistake-free content.
Studicus - If you feel your content isn’t strong enough, send it to this service, and they’ll proofread, edit, or rewrite the whole thing.
Hemingway - This app will help you proofread, improve readability, and work on your content structure.
Writing Judge - The writers at this writing app can shape your ideas into content that is ready for publishing.
Final Thoughts
Creating SEO friendly content isn't as hard as it may seem. You must know the basics and start from there.
Use the tips provided above to establish strong grounds for your SEO friendly content. Build on from there and never stop learning. You'll be able to see improvement in your results sooner than you expect.
