When crafting SEO-focused content, there’s one target in mind: to land on the first page of search results on Google. Achieving this goal is difficult and requires extensive time and effort. You also need to place a strong focus on content optimization.
Simply put, if the content on your webpage isn’t up to a high standard, it’s going to hold back your site’s search engine potential. The bad news is that, whether the content is thin or littered with grammatical errors, several components can negatively impact how your site is perceived by search engines.
To ensure your website content optimization is to a high standard, this guide is here to provide a helping hand. All of the main points regarding SEO-optimized content are covered, which means you’re one step closer to hitting the top spot on Google!
Content SEO: best practices
You’re on this page for one reason. You want to know how to optimize content for SEO. To accomplish this feat, here’s a general outline of the points you need to consider:
- Identify and solve an issue
- Feature the correct keywords
- Maximize the readability
- Go in-depth
- Stay up-to-date
To produce high-quality content for SEO, you need to incorporate each point when creating a page or post on your website. Due to their importance, we’ll take a closer look at each one below.
Identify and solve an issue
The intention of any webpage is to solve an issue of some sort. From selling a specific product to crafting a guide (like this one!), the page’s existence should be due to the fact people are looking for a solution to their issue.
One way of identifying an issue is to inspect a target keyword and analyze the search intent around it. Learn what your audience is searching for relative to the target keyword, and see what angles you can go with for new content.
Once you have identified an issue, it’s all about solving it in the best way possible. This means incorporating as many details as possible and doing so in an easy to understand manner. Unsure where to start in that regard? Don’t be afraid to look at the competition currently showing up on the first page of Google. Analyze what they’re doing right, try and see where you can improve on their work, and go on from there with your own content.
Feature the correct keywords
Keyword inclusion is nothing new. The technique has been around since the first days of SEO. Yet its influence in producing SEO optimal content still remains strong.
What has changed, however, is how these keywords are implemented within the content. Back in the day, it was simply a case of cramming as many keywords as possible onto a page and seeing it crop up on the first page of search results. The system is much more sophisticated now – thankfully.
So what system works best these days? Good question: Google is always refining its search algorithm, so techniques that worked yesterday may not be as effective today. With that said, there are a few general points to follow.
For instance, you have a primary keyword. This is what the content should be built around. While this primary keyword needs to be included on the page, avoid oversaturation for the sake of reaching a certain keyword density level. If the term “builder in Chicago” shows up ten times in a 1,000-word article, for example, this is going to negatively impact the content’s natural flow.
Also, attempt to include secondary keywords within the content. The more keywords you utilize, the greater the chance your webpage will show up in a diverse collection of search queries.
Maximize the readability
To ensure the readability of your content is at a high standard, you need to structure it in a way that appeals to your audience. A wall of unformatted text is only going to cause visitors to quickly lave your website.
When maximizing the readability, here are some of the best practices for SEO content writing:
- Subheadings: The use of subheadings is one of the easiest yet most effective ways to break up content. Tip: wrap them in H2 tags as this helps Google to better recognize the page.
- Lists: Who doesn’t love a list? As this bullet point list helps to demonstrate, they’re a great way to deliver bite-sized content in an eye-catching manner.
- Videos/images: It’s common knowledge that visual content is more effective than text-based content. As a result, intersperse relevant images and videos throughout your webpage.
- Highlighted text: Do you have a quote or interesting snippet of content on your page? This can be highlighted and turned into a standalone piece of content.
Go in-depth
If you’re wondering how to optimize content for SEO, one of the most effective methods is producing long, in-depth webpages.
Google places a particular emphasis on long-form content. This type of content, which contains around 1,800 words minimum, is likely to possess a large amount of useful data and information – the type of elements that Google loves.
However, long-form content isn’t always the answer. Some topics simply don’t lend themselves to this format. Due to this, never fluff up a piece of content just to reach a certain word count. Readers never appreciate being spoon-fed irrelevant or repetitive content. It will cause them to leave your website early, and the lack of retention will be penalized by Google.
To add content depth, utilize various sources and statistics, link to other relevant content, and put in the necessary research to find as much useful information as possible.
Stay up-to-date
If your website has been around for a few years, you will naturally have a few webpages that contain outdated information in some way. Ensure you go back through these webpages, replace any obsolete content if necessary, and update them with any new details and revelations.
Crafting effective SEO-based content is tricky. There’s a reason why, instead of going it alone, many website owners opt to hire a professional content marketer like Click Intelligence. Yet if you’re confident in producing high-quality on-page content, ensure you pay close attention to the aforementioned advice!
