Presence on the Internet is mainly measured by the search results of Google and Bing (who uses Bing, if not by accident, let’s face it :D) or social networks like Facebook or Twitter and others. To do this, you need to create a content structure that meets the needs of people looking for information on specific topics in which your products or services are embedded. Writing SEO content is an art that you learn through practice, observing the results and constant optimization. In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about writing SEO-friendly content.

But first of all, how to write SEO content?

Although we know that attractive and relevant information is essential for good copy, in digital marketing there are other aspects that need to be considered when creating optimized content. Here are some simple tips on how to create top-notch content for your website:

1. original content

It is important that the content is original in all formats (videos, texts, infographics, etc.). The cut-paste technique no longer works. Of course, in many cases you will need to gather information from various sources and then create new content from the information you receive. However, make sure you put your own stamp on it and add your perspective.

writing original SEO content

2. selection of keywords

No technical knowledge is required. You simply need to align each piece of content to a specific theme. For example, if you write about “vacation by the sea”, you should use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find out which keywords are most frequently used on this topic.

Keywords are the primary mechanism Google uses to determine whether your text is useful in a particular user’s search. Therefore, the selection of these terms must be done carefully and strategically.

Finally, the keywords in your text, along with all the information they contain, must show the search engine that your content is best suited to answer the user’s search questions.

The intent of the keywords is very important. It’s not just about including the keyword in your text, but also providing the information the searcher is looking for. Make sure that the search intent is correct! When I search for “buy shoes online”, I probably want to buy shoes, so I search for an online store. When I search for “comfortable shoes for sports” I look for information, maybe a list of the 10 most comfortable shoes for sports and what makes them comfortable. I am not ready to buy yet, but I need information. So make sure you fulfill the search intent, it’s very important!

use keywords in your SEO friendly content

3. the optimal length of SEO content depends on…

The current rule regarding writing search engine friendly content is that we need to write long texts. That’s what everyone says, write more than 1,000 words or more than 2,000 words. There is no fixed rule. Yes, you should have a lot of content, but depending on the keyword and competition, you may only need 400 words of text. Let’s say you have an online store, you don’t want to write a 1,000 word description for every product. Write as much as necessary to fulfill the intent of the search term, and try to explain as much as possible. Google is developing many new features, such as displaying snippets in search results, where only a certain part of the article is displayed. One trend we are seeing is that instead of writing many different articles that all answer one question, it is better to write one large article that answers several questions on one topic.

So be careful not to listen to the rules that the article must be so and so long. Do your research, check out the latest top articles and just write naturally.

4. title and description

There are already a large number of articles written on the subject that concerns us. So your main goal is to differentiate yourself from others. Therefore, you need to write a clear title that best describes the content of the article. It is very important that the title has a length of 50 to 70 characters, so that it is fully read in the search engine results.

On the other hand, a long title can have a greater impact on social media, so it will be shared more often. Use the title tag for this, as it will be displayed in the search results.

The description is similar. It should be no longer than 150 characters and briefly describe what your content is about, using the most important keyword and creating a clear call to action. As with the title, you should use the description tag. If you work with WordPress or another CMS, there are plug-ins that will help you in this situation.

title and meta description beSIRIOus on Google

5. clear and consistent content structure

Common sense is key when writing content optimized for search engine optimization, because you need to write for humans, not search robots. This was true even in the early days of search engine optimization. Therefore, the structure of a content should be easy to read, quick to understand and provide relevant information to the user. The fact that a person leaves the website without having their needs satisfied is counted as a percentage of the bounce rate, which negatively affects the positioning on the web, something you must avoid at all costs.

Structuring the content with H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, etc. tags is the best way to start. The title must be H1 and be unique throughout the content, while the hierarchy of subtitles and important paragraphs must be composed of H2 in order of importance. A common example is marking subtitles with H2, subtitles with H3 and so on.

H1 H2 H3 title tags and how to use them

6. pay attention to spelling and writing style

SEO-friendly content is people-oriented. For this reason, both grammar and spelling must be correct. A poorly written text has less chances of being shared, linked or visited regularly, as these are some of the factors for good SEO positioning. The use of boldface is acceptable to highlight sentences that are important to read. It is not a relevant factor for positioning to put keywords in bold.

7. use internal and external links

To avoid going off topic, it is best to link to related articles when mentioning another topic, if possible within your own website. On the other hand, it is best to cite a reliable source, such as Wikipedia, to confirm the content, especially when statistics or specific definitions are involved.

These are the most important points to consider when thinking about how to optimize an article for SEO. This also answers the question of what an SEO article or text is.

For links in general, you should know the difference between “follow” and “nofollow” links.

8. satisfaction of the search query

With all the above, this is the most important. Satisfy the search intent! What is meant by this? For example, if you’re searching for “how to write SEO content,” you’re probably not interested in hiring a writer, but want to learn how to write content yourself. When you search for “SEO service”, you want to hire someone to do SEO for you. Keep this in mind when writing content that targets a keyword. Don’t just try to sell your products, but add value to visitors and fulfill search intent. This is the best long-term SEO strategy.

How to optimize SEO content

But what is a well-optimized, SEO-friendly content? This means writing in such a way that you will rank higher in searches for related keywords. You should use keywords in the page title and then strategically throughout the text. Ideally, content should be optimized for both search engines and humans.

Growing in the digital environment can be a challenge for many companies, but it’s not an unattainable task. Because with the right techniques, it is possible to stand out in the online environment, especially if the strategy is to create textual content. Below, we outline five key steps you can start taking today to rank and optimize your digital articles.

1. focus on the keywords of the content

What words did you type into Google to get to this article? They were certainly the ones we defined as key to the structure of this text. Following this strategy is essential for effective application of SEO techniques in your text content. Finally, visitors to your blog will be found through keywords.

Ideally, you should use them in the title, throughout the text, in the meta description and in the optimization tags. They can be used individually or in a long tail, as complete sets.

However, the best option is undoubtedly to use tools that display users’ main search terms on a particular topic or term. To help you out, we’ve listed some of the best free tools that you can save to your favorites and use when you need them:

  • Google Trends (a free tool from Google)
  • Google Keyword Planner (a free tool from Google)
  • Ubersuggest (a free and paid tool that we use).

It is important to remember that keywords change from text to text. Therefore, this search must be unique for each topic of your blog. You should not use the same keyword for different articles, as this way you would create competing content.

2. create a custom meta description

You’ve probably stopped opening a piece of content after reading the meta description and concluding that it wasn’t the text you were looking for. The meta-description, as it is also called, is the text responsible for getting the public to read the content. It not only contains the keywords that are crucial for organic search, but also shows the reader if your text contains the answer they are looking for.

Writing an effective meta description that is conversion-focused will increase the likelihood that your content will be clicked on, and consequently improve the text’s ranking on the Google page. Therefore, it is essential for an SEO strategy.

To create your meta description, follow the tips listed in the topics below:

  • Use the defined keywords;
  • Be objective and describe the solution your text offers. Think about the persona’s pain: what is she looking for? Answer this question in a timely and compelling manner;
  • Beware of exaggerations. Do not promise to deliver something that your text does not contain;
  • Pay attention to the character limit.

3. edit your content with a focus on readability

Surely you have had the experience of starting to read an article and then abandoning the page because the way the content is distributed did not improve readability.

This is a very common mistake among companies that create blog content. It is not enough to pay careful attention to information and SEO. The text must also be comfortable and intuitive for the user to read on any mobile device.

Readability is one of the issues Google evaluates to deliver organic content. So if the text is not easy to read, Google knows that the user experience will not be positive. Therefore, it tends to reduce the relevance of the text.

So creating easy-to-read text for the digital reading experience is one way to optimize content, thinking first and foremost about your audience’s final experience. Most hosting platforms, such as WordPress, indicate whether the readability of the text is positive or not. So pay attention to these details before publishing. When you install Yoast SEO, you also get a readability rating.

Here are some tips to improve the readability of your text:

  • Create paragraphs with maximum 4 lines
  • Bold important keywords and phrases, but without exaggeration
  • Add topics, subtitles, lists and bullets
  • Switch the weighting of fonts between body text, headings, and subtitles.

By following these steps, your brand will be able to deliver easy-to-read and readable content. Also, remember to adapt the text for different digital devices, ok?

4. add internal and external links

This is an essential technique in terms of on-page SEO and brings several benefits to your website, such as:

  • Improved positioning of your page on Google
  • Increased authority of the website
  • More traffic
  • Optimization of organic delivery

The idea behind this strategy is to add value to your page. Therefore, when choosing websites to be clickable in your text, you should evaluate the authority of these profiles, the loading process, the security, the quality of the content and the reputation of the website.

Remember, this is an indication of your brand to the reader, so it needs to be well thought out. Do not link to a website that you would not trust as a user.

Internal links, links that take the reader to other text on your blog, are all about keeping the user on your site as long as possible. This increases the relevance of the blog in the eyes of Google, which raises it in the ranking of the page of the largest search engine in the world.

Here’s a tip: Keep a list of all the content that has already been published on your website. This way, when you create a new article, you can easily see what content you can add as an internal link.

But you don’t have to clutter your text with clickable links. It is not good if the reader leaves your page quickly. This may indicate that the text is not good and will not keep the user on the page for long. Experts recommend at least two links from external sites and two more from internal sites.

5. create permanent URL links for ranking

Many online content producers are unfamiliar with this technique, but be aware that an objective, simple URL increases the likelihood that the reader will remember your content and retrieve it directly from the URL.

The idea is to make them friendly and intuitive. Finally, confusing URLs like%20/test%look like an unsafe link. They don’t stick in the reader’s mind and therefore don’t have the style we see on websites that appear on the first page of Google.

So, if you want your blog to appear in the first places among users, looking for URL optimization is essential. To do this, research how to configure this information on the platform you use to host the content. The tip is to keep it simple and short and of course use the keywords in the text.

Is content important for SEO?

The truth is that SEO begins and ends with writing quality content. This is so important that the most important websites and portals do not implement an optimization strategy without a solid content strategy. After all, the most important material search engines crawl is written content, and the better written and optimized content tends to rank better.

Although simply publishing content doesn’t have a huge impact on your SEO, it’s the most important aspect of your ranking strategy because if there’s no content, there’s nothing to rank for. It is very important to combine the quality of the content with SEO-friendly formatting. It is this combination that causes the algorithm to consider your page a good result option for a user and place it at the top of the search results.

Take a look at some of the reasons why written content is important for SEO:

1. strategic use of keywords

Although great strides have been made in page ranking, keywords are still a fundamental aspect. Search engines first judge a page by its keywords, so its ranking initially depends heavily on them. Only when you write strategic content can you use the right words to serve the search engines properly. If there is no content, it will be difficult for the algorithms to rank your website for the relevant keywords.

However, avoid keyword stuffing 😀

2. in order to rank your website, search engines need content

This logic is very simple. If you don’t have content, what will the search engine algorithms use to analyze your site and decide if you should be ranked? With Google Images, for example, Google classifies images. In Google Video, Google classifies videos. And that’s how the normal Google section classifies written content (but also for images and videos the description, alt tags, etc. play a role).

That’s why content is important for your SEO. It gives the algorithms a reference point for the evaluation. It also tells you which keywords and search terms your content should rank for.

3. social validation

Many websites can rank well because of the social validation they gain. However, this can only be achieved through brute force and financial investment. For a small business or startup, the only way to get social validation is to publish quality content.

If your content is good, it adds value to the brand and helps people find what they are looking for. This leads to more public engagement with them, including through social media, sharing their links and interacting with publications. Search engines see these actions as social validation and use them to rank your pages.

4. link building and backlinks

Backlinks are also a form of social validation, but you don’t necessarily have to focus only on social networks to do your link building. There are external links that can be obtained only with quality content, and the search engines can identify them with a certain quality.

Apart from the fact that it is possible to pay for links on different websites, and this is easily recognizable, the search engines can also determine where the links to your website run. They can also determine if the website visitors are really interested. If this is the case, search algorithms use this confirmation by users to rank your pages.

5. identification of the purpose of the text

This is an emerging trend. Does your content help solve problems? What purpose does it serve? Soon search engines will be able to classify your content according to its true purpose.

A user must be able to find exactly what they are looking for when using a search engine. For this reason, developers are working on algorithms that can figure out whether users will find exactly the information they need in their text. And if that is the case, your site will surely rise.

Conclusion

There was a time when SEO existed in isolation, but that is no longer the case. Today, SEO is the sum of all your content marketing efforts. Without good content, you can’t expect good rankings in search results. With these tips, we hope you can now write content that will rank well on Google and help your website grow organically and optimally in the digital world.

If, after reading all of this, you are interested in outsourcing your content creation, let’s schedule a meeting so we can discuss a possible content strategy.