If you have experienced crafting a blog post, you understand the length of time that is needed.
It takes a considerable amount of time to go through all the steps necessary to produce a blog post, which includes picking a subject, conducting research, writing the material, and ultimately publishing it. If your post doesn’t get the number of visitors you hope for, it can be quite disappointing.
There is, fortunately, a method to tackle low site visits: search engine optimization. As marketers, our goal is to compose content that is favored by Google and SEO is the tool to help us achieve this. That leads us to ask: How can you incorporate this into your content?
Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. In this article, we are going to explore 12 techniques for becoming an SEO writing expert.
What is SEO writing?
Creating content for the purpose of being placed on the top of the search engine results page on Google is referred to as SEO writing. This necessitates examining search terms, authoring top-notch material that is in line with user aim, and adjusting your headers so the page can be readily crawled.
A research project by Search Engine Journal in 2020 uncovered that 25% of people who view the search engine results page (SERP) click on the website which is positioned at the top of the list. The percentage of website visits decreases sharply when looking at sites located in the second position, to just 15%, and then further decreases to only 2.5% for sites ranked tenth. Once you advance to the second page of Google, the quantity you’re looking at is even lower.
If your website does not appear on the first page of search results, there is minimal opportunity that people will be able to locate it naturally. Going to your website less often results in fewer chances to acquire potential customers, and that can lead to reduced profits.
An alternative strategy to consider is investing in advertising to get people to visit your website. But if your financial resources are limited, why not spend time on creating SEO content? It won’t cost you anything, and the effects may last longer than those of an advertising campaign.
Tips on How To Incorporate SEO in Your Writing
Use headings to your benefit.
The header tags used in a blog post can assist Google’s search engine bots in making sense of the article as well as the different categories within it.
View the crawlers as people who are rapidly scanning your blog. They are requesting a summary of the topics your article will address; this would be your main headline. After that, your H2s, H3s, and H4s will divide the content into different sub-topics.
Your section headings should be related to the body of the text and should consist of words that indicate someone’s motivation to learn/do something. Using terms that your intended audience is likely to type into a search engine increases your probability of appearing on the search engine results page.
Optimize your content for featured snippets.
Google’s featured snippets offer the most immediate responses to user inquiries. For example, if I looked up “How do you write a blog post?” Google might use a featured snippet to display the most helpful reply.
In order to receive the honored spot at the top of the Google search page, you have to provide a comprehensive, yet concise response to the inquiry.
An example could be if one query “How to screenshot on mac,” the title of the page or article could be “How to Take a Screenshot on a MacBook Computer” and the instructions could be outlined in a numbered or bulleted list.
Make sure you incorporate some of the inquiry in your response once you complete it. To capture a screenshot on your MacBook, these are the steps you should take…
Begin each sentence with a verb that can be acted upon, such as “click” or “select.”
If you’re looking to grab the Featured Snippet for a certain search term, make sure to write out the definition of that term in 58 words or less.
Write for humans, not search engines.
With all the guidelines related to SEO, we can easily overlook the fact that when someone is using Google, they are searching for a response. Maximizing your opportunity to rank higher can be achieved by producing excellent blog posts.
What does that look like? Thorough answers, scannable sections, organized subheaders, and visual aids.
Maintain awareness of the buyer personas, what motivates them, the impediments they face, and their preferences. Selecting topics that would be of interest to your target audience and that solve their issues is essential. You can select search engine optimization tools to help with any technical details involving your website. In addition to that, you could consider employing tools that primarily help you compose content that follows SEO guidelines, so it can rank high and be reader-friendly at the same time. Various instruments can also assess how attentive people are to the content, helping you gauge the amount of time people spend on the page, if they’re exploring more than one page, and to what degree people scroll down the site.
Include keywords in your meta description.
Are you adding meta descriptions to your post? If you don’t think your answer is “yes,” then your post isn’t getting the maximum amount of attention it could be. Let’s get into why they’re important.
At this point, we have discussed two methods by which a blog post can interact with Google: subheaders, search terms, and summaries. However, that’s not an exhaustive list.
Google looks at meta descriptions when deciding where to place websites in its search rankings. Meta descriptions are brief summaries that appear under the title of a search engine result consisting of one to three sentences.
Use meta descriptions, to sum up, what your post is about, and remember to:
- Keep it short.
- Use one to two keywords.
- Make it compelling. After all, there are going to be other posts similar to yours so you’ll want your description to stand out above the rest.
The majority of content management systems (CMS) incorporate meta description boxes, making it very easy to access the function.
Add alt text to images.
You will want to include alt text for any images, whether they are featured or make up the body of the post.
The role of alt text is to explain the content of an image and give context to it. This helps Google and people with visual impairments gain an understanding of why the photo is included in the article.
The alternative text should convey the message that a businessman is participating in an online meeting or conference while using a pen.
This phrase is illustrating the main keyword “virtual event.” Thus, even when using a stock image, you can fashion a story that is relevant to the blog post.
Target Longtail Keywords
Target phrases that are longer and more particular than traditional focus keywords are called long-tail keywords. Longer keywords tend to have reduced search amounts than shorter keywords, however, they can be very beneficial.
Long-tail keywords demonstrate the motivations behind why users might be searching for something and not just the exact phrases they are searching for. Shorter keywords are no longer as widely searched as their longer counterparts.
A recent survey revealed that almost all online searches (91.8%) are for long-term keywords. This marks a vast alteration from the early years of the web.
It is advantageous to focus on long-tail keywords because they typically point to a user’s specific search query with the intent to take action. That is because they can be tailored to the actions you are hoping users take on your site, so you can limit the keywords to those that are particularly pertinent.
An illustration of a key phrase consisting of a few words is “how to rank on Google,” contrasting with a brief phrase like “Google ranking.”
The intent behind these variations is very different. One way to show up in a search engine for “how to rank on Google” is to provide an immediate response to the question.
We cannot determine what is being sought by someone who searches for “Google ranking”. Perhaps they are attempting to comprehend its significance.
In general, longer search terms usually have fewer searches and thus less competition. Therefore, they can be easier to rank for.
What is the most effective way to use long-tail keywords in your content?
It is not a wise decision to incorporate an array of extended specific terms into your existing content, with the anticipation that it will be effective. This can yield entirely contrary results to what you desire.
Tips for adding long-tail keywords to your content:
- Determine the blog topics you want to cover.
- Identify long-tail keywords related to your chosen topics with high search volume and low competition/CPC.
- Narrow down your list of keywords to the ones with high search intent. For example, if you are a credit card company, and one of your topics is “opening a credit card”, a long-tail keyword you can target would be “how to open a credit card for the first time”.
- Write relevant content that answers the user’s intent behind the chosen keyword.
Include Multiple Media Types
You can take actions that will result in improved SERP ranking. Incorporate various forms of media within your blog.
Apart from visuals, media can encompass audio recordings, movies, electronic books, and GIFs. These platforms are designed to be interacted with, so they will help extend how long viewers stay on your website and improve their overall experience.
Based on Hubspot’s research, videos have become the primary medium utilized in the majority of content plans, surpassing the use of blogs. Nearly 9 out of 10 businesses are utilizing video marketing to help grow their business and 8 out of 10 people will be influenced to purchase a product or service after viewing a brand’s video.
The amount of time the average consumer spends listening to audio is increasing. Approximately 61 percent of businesses intend to enlarge their allocations for digital audio advertising.
Incorporating videos and audio into your blog can be a nice enhancement to viewers, extending the time they spend on your page. You can begin by inserting brief audio clips in blog entries or short videos that break down complicated topics.
Tips for including more media types:
- If you don’t already, create a YouTube channel as another marketing avenue to build a following.
- Embed YouTube videos that cover similar topics in relevant blog posts.
- Include audio clips from relevant podcasts that fit your topic.
- Present data and stats in more engaging ways such as with data visualizations and other custom graphics.
Use Internal Links
I previously mentioned that when Google is determining the ranking of a website, it takes into account the amount of time visitors spend on the page. The amount of time spent on the whole website is another comparable statistic. This is another key ranking factor for Google’s algorithm.
The more time someone spends on your website, the more likely they are to get farther along in the funnel. It is also an indication to search engines that your material is of quality and applicable.
Over four-fifths of search engine optimization professionals think that each blog entry needs a minimum of 2-5 internal links, with most individuals allocating the same amount of time for their internal and external linking plans.
The two key steps to increasing time spent on your site are:
- write engaging, in-depth content
- link to relevant internal content
When you provide a link to other pages on your website, you encourage your visitors to browse further. The likelihood of viewers having some sort of partaking in regards to your articles (for instance, putting a remark on a blog entry or promoting via social media) is raised, which is worth it for SERP rankings.
Tips for incorporating and leveraging internal links:
- Choose pages with additional content that is relevant to the topic the user found you from.
- Use anchor text that sounds natural and encourages users to click on the next page.
- Avoid using generic anchor texts such as “click here” or “read more”. More descriptive anchor text helps Google understand how to index your page.
- As a rule of thumb, make sure the most important pages on your website are always three clicks or less away from the first page seen.
Bad SEO Practices to Avoid
1. Keyword Stuffing
Putting as many relevant keywords, both primary and associated, into a piece of writing as is feasible is known as keyword stuffing. The concept is that the more keywords included in an article, the more pertinent the material will seem and the higher position it will achieve on search engine pages. The exact opposite is true, though.
When a particular term is used repeatedly on a page, Google’s search robots will deem the page to be untrustworthy or deceptive. This will negatively affect rankings.
2. Keyword Cannibalization
When two or more pages on a website are attempting to compete for the same predominant keyword, it is known as keyword cannibalization. This is frequently seen on more recent websites where the proprietor might believe it is advantageous to divide up longer pieces of material in order to make more pages.
3. Duplicate Content
Somewhat related to keyword cannibalization is duplicate content.
Content which is identical or close to identical to content that exists elsewhere on the website or on other websites is known as duplicate content. The latter is also termed plagiarism.
4. Exact Match Anchor Text
Avoid having the same anchor text phrases appear too frequently in your content, which is similar to the black hat SEO practice of keyword stuffing. Why? It is an unmistakable indication to web crawlers that you are attempting to influence positioning.
To stay away from this behavior, it is first necessary to ascertain the extent (namely, inexact or exact) of any backlinks to your site. You can do so with the Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Conclusion
No matter what changes Google’s algorithm and SEO rules, staying relevant with high-quality content is always the best first step.
