In the world of information, quality content marketing has long been king, and judging by all forecasts, this trend will only intensify. User preferences are changing in the direction of better and better quality, more meaningful and practical content, therefore, search engines also change their content ranking algorithm to make access to the necessary and relevant information not even instantaneous, but lightning fast. For this reason, the issue of creating optimized content that will be well indexed by search engines remains relevant, and we, in response to an urgent need, created this full-fledged guide.
Choose a Relevant Topic
So it all starts with the topic. Obviously, no technically correct characteristics of your post from the point of view of Google will advance your article to the top if no one is interested in your topic. Therefore, the correct, hot, and relevant topic is already half the success. How to find it?
Analyze your niche again and find possible gaps, or simply questions that have not yet been fully explained to readers. To find such points, you can use Quora or Reddit, Google Trends, as well as thematic forums from your niche.
When you developed a theme, make sure that it is original and unparalleled. The easiest way to do this is to write the name of your topic in the Google search bar. Even if you find something approximately similar, this is not a reason to abandon a topic that seems appropriate to you. Just go back to the previous paragraph and determine which aspects of your topic have not yet been covered.
Decide on a Perfect Volume of Your Text
There are different opinions on which length of the post works better. There are different opinions on how long the post works better. Here is an interesting study that talks about the effect of different lengths of your post – read it and proceed from your goals when determining the optimal number of words.
In addition, long reads have become popular in recent times. This is due to the fact that more and more users want to get to the bottom of things. According to this logic, the ideal post length is 1000-1600 words.
Find the Most Targeted Keywords
So, this is perhaps the most difficult and most responsible part of your task. The ideal option is, of course, to ask an SEO specialist to help you. But if your budget is limited, you’ll have to go it yourself. So, how do you find the right keywords?
- Brainstorming. Start by thinking independently what key queries users can use to potentially search for your article. Write down all the options and check each of them simply by entering them into the Google search box and focusing on the tips.
- Google Analytics. With this application, you can collect the semantic core for your article, and filter out key queries from the most popular to almost unused.
- WordTracker or Keyword Finder. With the first application, you can get a list of the main words and expressions suitable for your niche, and with the second, expand it and get the most specific and long-tailed keywords. And by the way, these phrases may give you additional ideas on what to write about in your article.
Another question remains – how many keywords should be used for perfect SEO optimization? We recommend using two high-frequency, two medium-frequency, and two low-frequency key phrases for 500-600 words of your text. Calculate the amount you need based on the amount of text you plan to create.
And Use Them as Hashtags
Here’s another little clue. When you research your keywords, collect the maximum number of words. After that, select a few common and several specific phrases and use them as hashtags for your publication. Moreover, you can use these hashtags when you announce your article on social networks.
Write Clearly and in Short Sentences
In addition to all other criteria, over the past few years, Google evaluates such an indicator as behavioral factors. In simple words, this is how your users behave on your page. There are many factors that determine the behavior of modern users, and the clarity of a written text is one of them.
Therefore, in order for your content to be well optimized from all points of view, you need to write very clearly and as briefly as possible. Try to avoid too long sentences, passive voices, and superfluous adverbs. All this complicates the perception, which means that users will very quickly get tired of reading your text and just close the tab with your article.
Here’s a little clue. After your text is written, check it with the Hemingway app. This application helps to make your sentences more readable and remove unnecessary linguistic constructions.
Support Your Article With Trustworthy Sources
Continuing our conversation about behavioral factors that Google pays very careful attention to, it should also be said about the value of your content. And one of the indicators that confirms this value is the presence of links to other pages and studies in your article, plus your expert assessment or explanation.
Yes, there are types of content where your personal opinion will be enough, but this is only true if your voice is very influential within your niche. In all other cases, you should definitely refer to the opinions and results of other people’s studies, and they must be reliable and reasonable.
At the moment, users are already used to seeing such links and they do not trust statistical information, for example, if it is not supported by a link to a reliable source. In this case, your article simply loses value in the eyes of users, and they certainly will not share it or create backlinks. And this is another indicator that is necessary for good optimization, but we will talk about this later in our article.
Check Your Grammar
The times when the Internet allowed users to ignore grammar rules or even intentionally make mistakes in words have long passed. Today it is an indicator of illiteracy and bad manner, which will also affect behavioral factors.
Therefore, when writing your article, pay attention to grammar as well. Watch for punctuation and don’t let typos get into your text – this spoils the overall impression. Yes, the human eye can miss such minor flaws, so after your text is ready, check it using Grammarly or a similar service.
Add Unique Pictures and Write Alt-Tags for Them
Visual content has long been an integral part of a quality post. Moreover, photos downloaded from photo banks are no longer suitable – users have already seen them a huge number of times in other publications. Therefore, your task is to create unique graphic content, for example, using Canva. This program is very easy to use, and all its features are intuitive.
And be sure to add alt tags to your images, for some of them you can even use keywords from your semantic core so that your images appear in the image search and lead users to your article.
Embed a Video With a Transcription
Video content is also a must-have if you want your post to be engaging and well optimized by search engines. Even if you upload a video that is available on YouTube, it will already increase user engagement. But the best way is to shoot a video clip yourself. Moreover, today it is easier than ever – you need a good smartphone, a good script, good diction, and good lighting. Basically, this is enough to create a video that has a chance of viewing.
And in order for your video and your entire page to be optimized even better, you should add a transcription to your video. In simple words, add the text you speak in writing. It will look like inline subtitles that will be in front of the audience.
Why should you do this? Search engines do not have eyes to watch your video, but they can read the text. If you add several keywords from your article to the script and transcription of your video, search engines will optimize your video according to these keywords and increase your position in search results. And yes, your video will be displayed in Google’s search in the Video section, and on YouTube, respectively.
Write a Catchy Headline
The title of the article is what users pay attention to first. But do you know why we raised this issue almost at the end of our article? The thing is that it is much easier to come up with an attractive, capacious and meaningful headline when you already have the text ready.
Here are a few rules for the perfect headline.
- The headline should contain a specific problem. For example, what to do to get 10,000 subscribers on Instagram in two months?
- The headline should contain a number. This is a subconscious trick – research proves that headlines with numbers attract more attention. And we have already given the corresponding example above.
- The headline should contain no more than 10 words. Otherwise, while your reader reads the heading to the end, he will already forget what was in the beginning. The title should be capacious.
- The headline should reflect the essence of the article. That is why we recommend writing it after your text is ready. This is very disappointing for the reader when he sees a headline that suits his request, but the essence of the article is completely different. Do not make this mistake.
- The headline should be attractive. This is a fairly subjective criterion, however, you can test the attractiveness of your headline using the Headline Analyzer.
Link Your New and Previous Posts With Each Other
Be sure to create internal links between your articles so that users can easily slide from one of your material to another. Studies show that this approach stimulates the involvement of readers well, which means that your position in Google is improving due to a large amount of time that users spend on your pages.
Empower Your Post With Backlinks
Backlinks are also a very important indicator for search engines. This indicates the reliability of your material. However, you have to wait a very long time until the link mass grows in an organic way, therefore, it makes sense to boost this process a bit. For example, you can use Adsy to create several guest posts with a link to your main article.
Plus, if you were looking for a topic on Quora or Reddit, don’t hesitate to return to the questions that prompted you an idea and share a link to your article as an answer. You will receive not only a backlink, but also an influx of new readers, and this, again, is about good behavioral factors.
Take Care of Your Meta Title and Description
Everything is quite simple here. Go back to our tips on how to write a headline to create the same good meta title. As for the meta description, put on the user’s shoes when you write it. What would you like to read so as not to pass by your article? Create an intrigue, point out the problem, and invite users to get a ready-made solution with you.
Get an Indicator of Your Text Uniqueness
This is a formal recommendation, because if you wrote your text yourself, then a priori it will have the highest possible uniqueness. However, additional verification will not be superfluous – sometimes text uniqueness verification systems have their own criteria. Just make sure you don’t use too popular expressions or do it too often.
The same goes for keywords. If you stuffed too many key queries into a small amount of text, then the uniqueness indicator will be lame. Therefore, as we have already said, the number of key phrases should be balanced – do not try to stuff the text with all the phrases that are potentially relevant to the topic of your article. Focus only on the most important and targeted.
Conclusion
As you can see, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. The main thing is to know the rules according to which your text will be ranked by search engines. And never forget that you write for people, not for search robots.
About the Author
Tiffany Porter has been working as a Chief Writer at Online Writers Rating reviewing variety of writing services websites. She is a professional writing expert on such topics as digital marketing, blogging, design. She also likes traveling and speaks German and French.
