Content that engages the target audience is just one part of a firm’s content strategy. SEO is also essential. Let us discuss what SEO means in content writing. Search engine optimization is the process of increasing a website’s visibility in search engines. Did you know that it attracts more traffic than a company’s social media efforts?
These are the best ways through which you can optimize content for SEO.
Imagine that a company that sells video games to young adults uses complex language on its website.
Wouldn’t you feel that something is wrong with the content?
Before you write content, you need to know more about the target audience. Are members of your target audience millennials or baby-boomers? Do members of your target audience belong to a particular industry? They should understand the content.
Using Quora or Yahoo Answers are the unconventional methods of figuring out the common queries that people are searching for online.
Imagine yourself in the eyes of a target customer and browsing a web design site. The headline says, “Get Web Design Here.”
Using a headline identical to what thousands of companies are using is a mistake.
Use a headline that stands out.
“Web content that converts leads to customers,” is one idea for a web design company.
You must mention essential keywords in the headline.
Find out the queries that the target audience has in mind and answer them while writing content.
A search query for “web design” shows “how to do web design” as a query asked by people.
Image Source: Google Trends
Primary keywords are directly related to a product/service.
Using tools like Ubersuggest and SEMrush will enable you to understand the keywords that you should mention on your website.
Secondary keywords are related to the primary keywords. You can see them towards the end of the search results. For instance, “web design tutorial” is a secondary keyword that one can see if they search for “web design.”
Image Source: Google
Imagine that a travel influencer links to a travel blog.
The travel blog would get more views and shares than before.
That’s where link building comes into the picture.
If other websites link back to your website, then Google will boost a website’s ranking. However, many people use black hat SEO techniques that can harm a website’s ranking. For instance, one might purchase backlinks to their website.
Does your target customer enter a specific term in the search engine, like “web design?”
Does your target customer enter “best web design companies” in the search box?
Do potential customers ask questions such as “which software to use for web design?” in the search box?
Does a customer search for other services before searching for web design services?
You must write content according to the customer’s intention.
Imagine that a company mentions the term “web design” 20-30 times in a 100-word blog. Would you feel like browsing through the website? Probably not.
If a page has the same word multiple times, it indicates keyword stuffing.
Imagine opening a company’s blog and realizing that they have not updated it for more than a year.
Outdated content gives the impression that a company doesn’t value its website.
Change the content strategy of the company regularly. For example, a gift shop might sell a new category of gifts. They must use keywords related to the original ran latest products.
If the content on a webpage is not structured correctly, you’ll want to skip reading it.
Structuring the content makes it easier to read and understand. It boosts the ranking of the website.
You must use primary keywords in the first half of the content. Include long-tail keywords towards the end of the document.
A meta description provides a summary of the web page. It appears in the search results. Meta descriptions must describe the content of a web page, but they should not be very long. It’s also a brilliant idea to include call-to-actions in the meta descriptions. For instance, “Book a tour today!” is a sentence that can encourage a target customer to view a website.
The below example shows how Yoast SEO can write a meta description.
Image Source: Yoast’s website
Some webpages of your website might attract no traffic at all. In such cases, it’s better to delete the webpages. It will help in boosting your page’s ranking.
A user opens a web page. He/she notices long and complex sentences. It will encourage the user to click on the “Back” button of the webpage.
To grab the attention of the readers, sentences must be to the point. They must not include any technical terms.
You’ve written a fantastic blog post. However, Google can’t pick up the images in it.
Isn’t that a deal-breaker?
To solve this problem, you can use alt text.
Adding alt text to the images makes it easy for a website to appear in search results. It also makes it easy for visually impaired users to know what the image represented. If an image cannot load, it informs the user about the relevance of the image.
The most important thing to remember is that you must write the content for humans and not robots. Yes, SEO is essential in content writing, but there must be a human feel to it.
Many people devote time to including keywords in the content, but they don’t establish a connection with their readers.
Focus on the content first and SEO later on. The results will show.
If you’d like more information on content strategy and how it can help you to grow your business, visit Brand Bucket to kickstart your branding journey!
Connect Now