With over 100,000 Google searches every second, search engine optimization (SEO) is growing more important. SEO works to get your website content to rank in search engine results. This brings more traffic to your site and ultimately leads to more sales. Whether you are planning to optimize the content on your website or write new articles, you need to have an understanding of how search engines work. There are several things you should always consider when writing an SEO-friendly article.
1. Do Your Research
Keyword research is the first step in every digital marketing endeavor. Keyword research helps you to better understand your target market and what they are searching for. Through this type of research, you will gain an understanding of search volume, preferred format, and the best keywords for your company. Make sure you also research the topic of your article. Read scholarly articles, if available, and find reliable sources to support your topic and argument.
2. Think About Searcher Intent
When writing articles for SEO, it can be easy to focus too much on what search engines want instead of what searchers are looking for. Google algorithms can evaluate a searcher’s intent correctly and show them the right type of content for their search query. When conducting your research and writing your article, be sure to keep your audience in mind. Ask yourself these questions:
- Who is my audience?
- What type of content is relevant to them?
- What are they searching for?
- Why are they searching?
3. Structure Your Article
Before you jump into writing, create an outline for your article. This will help you to formulate your thoughts in an organized manner and helps you to understand the scope of your article. Be sure to have an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion with a strong call to action.
4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing, though common in years past as a digital marketing strategy, is a big faux pas. Keyword stuffing can make your article difficult to read and hurt its SEO capabilities. Try to use synonyms for your keywords sometimes.
5. Use Headings Well
Headings not only give readers a roadmap for your article, but they also help crawlers get a better understanding of the content on your page. Using your primary keyword in some of your headings can make it rank higher as well.
6. Optimize Your Meta Description
The meta description is the little blurb that appears under the title on the search engine results pages. The meta description helps communicate the subject and content of your article to Google crawlers. They can also help searchers get a quick overview of your article. When writing your meta description, keep it to 1 to 3 sentences and use your primary keyword.
7. Optimize the Images in Your Post
The pictures in your article can also help you rank in the SERPs. When creating an SEO-friendly article, add alt text to your image to describe what the image looks like. This helps Google understand the relevance of your image to the post.
8. Link to Websites with High Authority
Don’t be afraid to link to external sites when writing an SEO-friendly article. This will offer your readers additional, informative reading material. It also shows that you did your research before writing and can build authority for your site. Focus on finding unique, high-authority sites to link to.
9. Link to Existing Content on Your Site
Using internal links will help crawlers find more content on your website. It also helps searchers find other content on your site, which can build brand loyalty. Make sure to use natural language as your anchor text for any kind of link.
10. Work with a Digital Marketing Agency
Writing an SEO-friendly article is certainly a learned skill. By working with a digital marketing company, you can rest assured that your articles are being written with SEO at the forefront.
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