With the advent of the internet businesses now need an online presence, this is even more true since the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to stay home. For a business to gain traction online, SEO is vital. One of the most important factors of SEO is the creation of content. However, there are some steps that must be followed for content writing to garner the attention of an online audience.
Regardless of whether you are preparing content for the first time or merely wanting to improve your current SEO strategy, these six content writing tips can boost your business.
Target Multiple Keywords
A business need only search online to find that there are several ways of promoting a business online, keywords play an important part of the process.
Keyword research is important, as they are used to draw visitors to the website, but they must be used in the right way. It is useful to see what keywords your competitors are ranking well in as it give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t. With this in mind, instead of attempting to rank for a few keywords, why not consider some synonyms, alternate terms and long-tail keywords?
It is also worth nothing that a lot of keywords should not be placed in one piece of content but used on several pieces. The more informative and reliable the content is, the more likely it is to show up on relevant search engine results.
Not only will search engines like Google review the content more favourably, but the content also has the potential to reach a wider demographic.
Do Not Overlook the Value of Meta Tags
When searching online, users will often be met with snippets of information below the website. This information is drawn from the website itself or a meta tag. A meta tag is a description no longer than 160 characters that summarise the webpage to the visitor, as well as providing information to Google.
When posting content online, ensuring you use the meta tag ensures that those searching for content online are given a clear summarisation of the page, and not a blurb which comes to a sudden halt.
There are some that argue the importance of meta tags, but anything that can help increase clickthrough rate should be welcomed, especially when they are so easy to include as part of the content.
Different websites will serve different purposes, but some of the important meta tags to consider include the header and description.
To get the best from your meta tags, you should try to keep the character count to around 130, as this amount has been shown to have the most traction regarding clickthrough rates.
Some people tailor their search engines to search for specific information and using meta tags makes it more likely for relevant websites to show up in their search.
Become Familiar with Latent Semantic Indexing
Keyword research carried out in the correct way allows online content to prosper but becoming familiar with Latent Semantic Indexing can allow content to reach more people.
Although the term can seem overwhelming, it is merely a concept used by search engines to study how terms and content marry together, despite insufficient keywords and synonyms.
These keywords are semantically related to a topic, meaning that some information can be deemed relevant, despite the content never being optimised.
Those wanting to investigate the concept of LSI keywords can invest in one of several tools, but some find that using the Google auto-complete bar is effective, not to mention free.
Not factoring in LSI keywords may not cause any detriment to your current content strategy, but it could mean that the website is missing out on a potential audience. It can also aid those who may believe that some keywords are being overused, as the sourcing of LSI keywords means you are using the main keywords less.
Make the Content Readable
It should go without saying that good content is a must in any regard, but many are surprised by the vast amount of poor content surfacing online.
As such, Google has updated its algorithm to filter out content that may not be deemed relevant, even from a readability perspective.
Ensuring that the content produced is readable not only ensures that more traction is gained regarding an online audience, but also ensures the website is meeting the guidelines put in place by Google.
Some recommendations made regarding the improvement of content is to use shorter sentences, break the piece into paragraphs and use strong headers.
Create a Strong Anchor Text
Although there are many goals associated with the creation of content, one of the main goals is to send the correct signals to Google and other search engines. One of the best ways of doing this is via anchor text, which users a hyperlink that elaborates on the details.
Google uses several algorithms to score potential search results, a strong anchor text tells this algorithm that research has been carried out and that further evidence or information is available to back up any claims or statements made online.
To ensure that you are getting the full value from anchor text, you need to ensure that you are linking to reputable and high-ranking sites. Simply linking to any website could mean the content is considered SPAM, even if this is not the case.
Make Sure to Optimise Images
So technically this isn’t writing, but nearly all blog posts contain multiple images, so it is very important to take this into consideration. When formatting copy for use online, the images need to be given just as much attention as the text.
Although the overlooking of optimising images is understandable, it could end up losing you a potential audience, especially as there are over a billion searches for images on Google daily.
Just as you should ensure the correct keywords are used for text, the same applies to the description of the image. For example, a picture of a blue phone box should be listed as such, and not contain a description that contains other keywords.
Optimising images is an easy win for your site as there are lots of free tools available online. If you have an attack of writer’s block, then focus on getting the images optimised, before coming back to the writing.
In conclusion
Optimising your content will mean some additional work, but the time invested will yield better SEO, while still offering valuable content to its customers. SEO is an important component of your marketing strategy, but it is also important to focus on other areas too, like email marketing and social media marketing. Also, it is crucial to realise that optimising your content may not bring about immediate changes to your SEO, but in the long term you will begin to reap its benefits.
Bio:
Joe Dawson
Director of Creative.onl
Leicester, Leicestershire, UK
Joe has a passion for creating meaningful experiences. Through design he creates authentic and innovative digital products.
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