How to Write SEO Friendly Content

In this post you’ll find blog SEO tips to help you improve your website’s chances of ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). It teaches you how to write SEO friendly blog posts, so every page you publish helps appeal to both readers and search engines.

 

4 Stages of Writing Content for SEO

 

Stage One: Gather a list of your Keywords

Even before you begin to write your content you must first workout the best keywords relevant to your subject. Try to avoid putting content together and then review.

 

1. Select one primary keyword

To optimize your content for SEO, start by performing research and analysis on one primary keyword that:

• Is closely relevant to your post. Search for a phrase or term what is pertinent to your primary subject theme of your content and is naturally tied to your topic
• Is popular with visitors. Choose a variation of the phrase that are regularly used by google searches. (For example, if your topic is based on hotel accommodation and you are using “cheap hotels” you may find that more people are searching for “hotels near me” Therefore, “hotels near me” may be a better primary keyword for your post than “cheap hotels”).
• Has a low competition rate. Research a variation of the keyword that has a completion level that you can compete with. To be able to compete for a term, the phrase must have a limited number of competitors competing for the term and/or your website must have an authority high enough to compete for the term. For a better chance of success, choose low competition keywords that are within your reach.

To find keywords that meet this criteria, this is a very handy free tool to use Keyword Difficulty Tool. This tool will report on

• A report of top keywords related to your subject matter.
• All keyword’s popularity score, which will indicate how regurlarly users are searching for the term.
• All keyword’s competition score, which will indicate how hard it is to rank for the term. It also takes into account the authority of your website, so you can see if you can compete for the term.

Use this information to select the primary keyword for your content.

 

2. Identify some secondary keywords.

Once you identify a primary keyword, next is to choose two, three or four secondary keywords to also use in your content.
Secondary keywords, are also known as Latent Semantic keywords (LSI keywords), are related keywords that are closely tied to your main keyword. By incorporating a few secondary keywords in a post, you help search engines understand and properly rank your SEO content.

To find related keywords do the following:

1. Enter your primary keyword in a Google search query.
2. Look at the list that is additionally relevant to your search list.
3. Choose two to three search phrases that relate to your primary keyword.

Now that you have one primary keyword and a few secondary keywords, you can start writing your SEO friendly content.

Stage Two: Write Your Content

Great content is feasible and useful for both readers and search engines. Use these content SEO tips to learn how to optimize posts for search while keeping readers happy too.

 

3. Write for visitors looking to engage with your conent, not search engines.

As you write, remember that while you’re writing for search engines, it is us humans you are trying to engage with. As a best practice, never create content exclusively to appeal to search engines. Always keep your readers in mind, and as you create content, don’t make changes if they are going to improve SEO but decrease user experience.

 

4. Try to keep your word count over 300.

While there is no secret potion for the best word count for a post, but you should make sure you do not go under the minimum word count as a benchmark. A post that is over 300 words is enough information for the search engines to understand the page and its content purposes and give it a good ranking. There are multiple debates about the best word count to use for SEO ranking, but as a best practice, write as much as you need to cover the topic recommending a word count of between 500 and 2,500 words. If you exceed that word count then it is probably best to split the text into multiple linked pages.

 

5. Use the primary keyword organically throughout the content.

Using the primary keyword throughout the content helps the search engine understand and index/categorize the page. A good keyword density is approximately 2%, so use the keyword naturally about one to two times for every 100 words.

USEFUL SEO TIP: Rather than writing with a keyword in mind, draft your text and then go back and add the keyword where it fits naturally.

 

6. Use the secondary keywords once throughout the text.

Secondary keywords provide additional context for your content, which helps search engines further categorize the text. Use two to four of your secondary keywords at least once in the content.

 

7. Use the primary keyword in the first paragraph.

Include your primary keyword as close to the top as possible and in the first paragraph.

 

8. Use the primary keyword in a subheading.

A subheading is formatted with H2, H3, H4, etc. and creates a break in the paragraph. Great SEO friendly content uses a subheading to break up big blocks of text. This makes it is easier for the visitors to digest the content earlier and for search engines to categorise the content. Use the primary keyword at least once in the subheading.

 

9. Use the primary keyword when summarising the content.

Complete your content with a conclusion that contains the primary keyword. This bookends the post with signals that define the page.

 

10. Write original content.

Search engines are not in favour of duplicated content (same content on multiple webpages). Do not duplicate content from other pages on your website or content from other websites and use canonical tags where applicable. Instead, write original content that is not live on other sites online so as to boost the SEO power of your website.

USEFUL SEO TIP: While it will not help your content be SEO friendly, you can republish some legacy content to expand your brand reach. If you need to reuse content stick to the best practices, so you don’t receive duplicate content penalties from search engines.

1. Research Old Posts.
2. Refresh this Post.
3. Make sure you have permission to republish used content.
4. Make sure canonical tags are used – https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en

11. Make sure you used the correct grammar for your content without any spelling errors.

Primarily you want to engage the visitors with your high quality content. Search engines will also rank websites and pages using triggers from their grammar, syntax, and spelling algorithms. Make sure you check your draft before publishing and make sure it does not have any mistakes. Run a spell/grammar checker when finished.

 

12. Keep it simple stupid – KISS.

Keep your content simple and easy on the eye and try not to over complicate the subject.

Visitors and search engines value this, so use short sentences and paragraphs and avoid lengthy and complex terms.

USEFUL SEO TIP: Run a readability score on your content before publishing – https://app.readable.com/text/?demo.

 

13. Add internal links.

Internal links are hyperlinks to web pages existing on your own website. This will help the search engines to understand pages and direct users to the information they are looking for. Add hyperlinks where pertinent and also use anchor text in a keyword for the internal link.

 

14. Add external links.

Similar to internal links above but these are links to web pages outside of your website. External links should be used to source additional information about your topic.

Make sure the hyperlink is set to open up on a new page so your own website stays open and you are not redirecting your visitor away from your website permanently.

 

 

Stage Three: Optimize Content for Search Engines

Once you have drafted your content improve the SEO by optimizing the following sections.

 

15. Use the primary keyword in the page title.

The name of the page is where you see the page title at the very top. When creating this title use the primary keyword relevant to your content and try to put it towards the beginning of the title.

 

16. Use the primary keyword in the permalink.

A permalink is the part of the URL that comes after the main domain or sub domain. This is unique for each webpage and post. To create an SEO-friendly URL, include the primary keyword.

 

17. Use the primary keyword in the SEO title.

This is also called the meta title. Unlike the page title, which users can see while viewing the page, the SEO title is a secondary title for the page that is used as an invisible description of the page. It is however visible on search engine results pages and helps search engine crawlers read what is on the page. This SEO title should include your primary keyword and not exceed 55 characters, as that is the limit for SEO title characters to show on search engine results pages.

 

18. Use the primary keyword in the meta description.

A meta description is a blurb that describes a webpage. Like the meta title, the meta description provides backend information for the search engine crawlers. The text is also usually visible on search engine results pages, which can help users make decisions about which results to choose. Make sure the meta description for your page includes the primary keyword and does not exceed 155 characters, so the full text can appear on search engine results pages.

 

19. Assign relevant tags categories and categories.

Tags and categories are classifications used to organize content on a website. You can assign categories and tags to each page to connect them to specific topics and themes. A well-structured system can boost a site’s SEO. Set up a strong system by assigning one or two categories to each post and using tags that accurately describe the post.

 

20. For image alt tags use the primary keyword.

Adding images to a blog post makes it look reliable and useful to both search engines and readers. So include at least one image in your content. When you include images, use the primary keyword in the image “alt tag,” which is a text description of the image visible to search engine crawlers but not to users.

 

 

Stage Four: Double Check Your Blog SEO

Once you create your post and hit publish, check your work with a SEO On Page Checker. This free tool is a very good example – https://sitechecker.pro/seo-report. You also purchase tools that are more advanced.

The On-Page SEO Checker report also tells you if you have selected the appropriate keyword for the page. It considers your site’s Competitive Power score (which is a number that indicates how much authority your site has in search) and compares it to your primary keyword’s competition score.

By going through these SEO best practice tips, you can plan for, write, optimize, and check your content for good SEO.