The Ultimate Guide to SEO-Friendly Content

SEO-friendly content is really important for digital marketing. Since the internet age started, more and more people have sought to come online and stay connected. As a result today we are sitting at about 5.45 billion internet users in the world. Considering that the world’s total population is around 7 billion, this is a huge number of internet users.

This means that businesses need to pander to folks online to get more people to interact with them. With things like home delivery and online shopping becoming more common every day, it is necessary to invest in and optimize digital marketing techniques. One such technique is SEO and content marketing.

In this article, we will check how you can create SEO-friendly content for marketing your own business.

Optimizing Your Content For SEO

1.     Keyword Research

A fundamental requirement of SEO is keyword optimization. Keywords are search terms that people use when they are looking for something on the internet. These keywords provide information about the search intent of the user. Search engines like Bing use this intent to find related content and show it to the user.

To find this content, the search engine looks through its database of indexed pages to find instances of the keyword. The keyword is used inside the content on a webpage. The better the content and the keyword match, the more priority the search engine gives to it. And that’s how pages are ranked on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.

Keyword research is the act of finding out which keywords relate to your niche, how much traffic they get, how hard it is to rank them, and how many variations they have. This is done with the help of tools such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and UbberSuggest.

The point of keyword research is to find the best keywords to target so that you get more traffic and rank higher on the SERPs.

2.     Headlines, Subheadings, and Title Tags

Do you remember that we mentioned search engines look through a database of indexed websites? Well, that brings us to our second tip. Indexing refers to the act of crawling a website and making a record of all its web pages, and the content present on them.

When a website is crawled completely, search engines get a complete idea of what keywords its targeting and which search queries it should be shown to. Now, crawling is done in multiple ways.

• The most basic method is that you as the site owner submit a sitemap to Google, Bing, and Yahoo and request them to index your site.
• The second method is when the crawlers find your website by following a link from another seed site.

During this crawling, the search engine also makes a note of what kind of keywords have been targeted by the content on the web pages, and it saves those pages against them. This is called the reverse lookup technique. This is how search engines find the right content to show against a search.

Crawlers determine what the content is about when they check the headings, subheadings, and title tags. These tags are visible to the crawlers, and they check what keywords they contain. Then they check whether the content beneath these tags also has the same keywords or semantically related ones.

The better the match between the keywords, and the content, the higher the page will be ranked in searches using those keywords. So, always optimize the header, sub header, and title tag of your web pages.

3.     Unique and Exclusive Content

Your content should be unique and exclusive. Why is that important? For two reasons mainly.

• Search engines appreciate unique content.
• Readers only read unique content.

That means that your content should not have even a breath of plagiarism (the opposite of unique). If you do end up using plagiarized content, Google and Bing could penalize it. Possible penalties are de-indexing, and rank demotion. Even if these penalties are not levied, there is still another issue, audience engagement.

If the audience does not find new and exclusive content, then they will not bother to read your content. That will reduce the dwell time of the web page, which search engines will understand to mean that the content is irrelevant, so they will reduce its ranking and it will not be able to attract the right amount of traffic.

Now, plagiarism can occur without one’s knowledge, so, always make sure that your content is plagiarism free before publishing it. You can do that by using a plagiarism checker. It involves you inputting your content into an online plagiarism checker, and it will compare it to billions of online sources. Any matches will be flagged as plagiarism and shown to you, so you can edit them out, and make your content plagiarism free.

4.     Internal and External links

Links in your content are important, they fulfill a variety of functions. Some of the important functions of links are:

• Help in crawling webpages effectively.
• Shares link juice from high PA (page authority) pages to low PA pages
• Tells visitors and search engines that there is more in-depth information to be had.
• Build authority of the website that receives the links.

Now, internal links are the ones that lead from one page of your site to another page of your site. On the contrary, external links are the ones that lead from your website to another website.

Backlinks are simply external links from other websites that lead to your site. If they are from really reputable and high-quality websites, then that raises the reputation of your site as well. So, add lots of relevant internal and external links that complement your content to raise its ranking in the SERPS.

And the better your content will be, the more people will be willing to link to it and increase its backlink profile.

5.     Optimize Images in the Content

Images are frequently used to add some spice to the content. Images have plenty of benefits with respect to SEO. Some common wins that images provide are:

• Open a new source of traffic through image search.
• Improve dwell time.
• Improve engagement.

However, these benefits are only available if the images are optimized. Now what do we mean by optimization of images? Image optimization refers to:

• Image loading time
• Image responsiveness
• The looks of the image in different screen sizes

If the loading time is too large, then nobody will wait for the image to show, and simply scroll past or leave. Image responsiveness refers to the image changing its size to fit the screen. If it is opened on a phone the image should not be partially hidden and should be fully visible. Similarly, if the image is opened on a large-screen desktop, then the image should not leave empty spaces on any side while being fully visible.

One last thing about image optimization is to reduce the size of the image. Large-size images make the page loading speed terribly slow which can dramatically increase the bounce rate. You can reduce the size by using the PNG format, and manually reducing the resolution of the image.

2.     Provide Up to Date Info

Providing outdated data in your content is a great way to make it rank at the bottom of the SERPs. Since we want the opposite of that, we need to post updated content that addresses the latest concerns and developments.

Google in particular is really concerned with the freshness of your content. The more updated information you have in your content, the higher it will rank. This is especially true for news-related content as that is supposed to cover the latest developments.

As you saw, most of the posts that rank near the top are “newer” compared to the ones that rank lower. Now, do not go thinking that this only applies to news. If the content is not evergreen, then its newness is an important factor for ranking.

Of course, evergreen content can and does rank higher than newer posts since it covers content that does not age. Its value does not diminish with the passage of time, so it is not trumped by newer posts.

So, now you have learned two things:

• Post evergreen content to avoid becoming irrelevant.
• If you cannot post evergreen content then post the latest, most updated content you can.

7.     Research and Optimize Article Length

Article length is a factor that only affects SEO because of its implications on user experience. For quite a few years now, search engines (especially Google) have shifted their focus to provide value to their users. Now, they tend to raise the ranking of content that was written to appease people as opposed to search engines.

One of the most important things for a good user experience is the article’s length. The main conundrum is this:

Cut the length too short, and the content will not have anything of value in it. Make it too long, and you risk your audience leaving due to boredom. So how do you navigate that? The best way to do so is through research.

You can do that with the very same tools that you use for keyword research. What you need to do is the following.

• Check which of your pages gets the most traffic and dwell time.
• Check how long the content is on those pages.
• Now do the opposite, check which pages get the least engagement.
• Check how long is the content on those pages.

Now, you have information on your hands that shows what content length is the most engaging for your audience. You will get a good idea about the upper limit and lower limit of the best length.

Now make content that stays within those limits to maximize your content’s engagement. The boost in dwell time will naturally prompt the search engines to rank that page higher. In the future, you can also try to experiment with the upper and lower limits to see what works or what does not to get a better idea.

Conclusion

And those were seven steps for creating SEO-friendly content for your website. A short overview reveals that they involve researching and incorporating keywords. Formatting content by using heading, subheading, and title tags. Ensuring that the content is unique and plagiarism free. Adding useful links and images in the content. Make sure that the information is up to date, and the article length is optimized.

If you apply these tips partly or completely, your content’s ranking is bound to rise in the SERPs which will eventually net you more traffic and profits. For professional advice, you may want to have a content audit agency review your content for you.

Does Word Count Matter for SEO? Ideas to Improve Your Content

Many people consider word count as a simple and indistinct factor, but that is not the case. Word count is one of the most important metrics in SEO.

This article will discuss the role that word count plays in SEO and how users can take advantage of it to produce better content.

What is “Word Count” and why is it important?

“Word Count” is a very simple metric that measures how many words are on a web page in total.

It is usually provided by tools that analyze and report on the text’s count in any structured content.

It is used by search engines to determine the relevancy of a page and thereafter rank it higher in search results.

Does Word Count Matter for SEO? Ideas to improve your content

The higher the word count, the more relevant and high-quality content you have to offer your readers.

It is important to understand that not all pages need to be as long as others; it is all about delivering high-value content, which will ultimately help increase your website’s visibility on Google and increase traffic.

Your goal should be to create a large number of quality and unique articles. That way, you can achieve a good ranking for your target keywords in search results. Today, with the advanced artificial intelligence, you can create your article using AI.

1.    Ensure User-Oriented Content

To make things as simple and informative for the readers as possible, it must be made sure that the content created complements its purpose.

This means that any content must be created with the benefit of the audience in mind and must carry enough credible information to facilitate the intended readers.

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs once said: “People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.” This implies that you do not require sophisticated software to make your point.

2.    Create Sufficient Content

It is important to understand that not all pages need to be as long as others.

It is all about delivering high-value content, which will ultimately help increase your website’s visibility on Google and eventually increase traffic.

Your goal should be to create a large number of quality, unique articles so that you can achieve a good ranking for your target keywords in search results.

3.    Be Specific and To The Point

Be specific in what you write about, do not just say “content” or “website.”

Instead, say “website about [topic]” or “content on [topic]” or, even better, “great article on [topic].”

According to research, our attention span has markedly decreased in just 15 years. 

In 2000, it was 12 seconds.

Now, 15 years later, it’s shrunk significantly to 8.25 seconds.

Scientists reckon we now have shorter attention spans than goldfish, who can focus on a task or object for 9 seconds.

Make sure that you count your words and character in this regard.

For this, you can use a smart word counter tool, which can conveniently and accurately provide you with a real-time count of the words in your content.

1.    Break up Content

This is another very important point that must be considered when creating content.

As we mentioned above, the reader’s attention span is quite low.

It is essential that the writer breaks up the content and ensures maximum readability.

For this, the writer can use bullet points and headings within his writing so that the content is easy to read and the reader can easily go through the entire article without having any issues.

2.    Avoid Technical Lingo

This is the last point that really matters a lot in this work.

Most people on the internet are not as tech-savvy or as technical as the rest of the users and have issues with technical terms and jargon.

For an in detail explanation, here are 5 examples for you:

Jargon can be found in a variety of fields, from law to education to engineering. Some examples of jargon include:

• Due diligence: A business term, “due diligence,” refers to the research that should be done before making an important business decision.

• AWOL: Short for “absent without leave,” AWOL is military jargon used to describe a person whose whereabouts are unknown.

• Hard copy: A common term in business, academia, and other fields, a “hard copy” is a physical printout of a document (as opposed to an electronic copy).

• Cache: In computing, “cache” refers to a place for short-term memory storage.

• Dek: A journalism term for a subheading, usually one or two sentences long, that provides a brief summary of the article that follows.

3.    Specific Content Guidelines by Google

Avoid the following techniques:

• Automatically generated content intended to manipulate search rankings.
• Participating in link schemes
• Creating pages with little or no original content
• Cloaking
• Sneaky redirects
• Hidden text or links
• Doorway pages
• Scraped content
• Participating in affiliate programs without adding sufficient value
• Loading pages with irrelevant keywords
• Creating pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware
• Abusing structured data markup
• Sending automated queries to Google

Conclusions:

Any company must have search engine optimization (SEO). It includes a number of elements that optimize the content, produces new leads, boost organic traffic, and increase the web business’s reputation and profitability in its market. In order to compete for the first page, you need to optimize your business website or online eCommerce for SEO.

This article covered the topic of word count and its importance within SEO. Many people consider word count as a simple and indistinct factor, but that is not actually the case. Word count is one of the most important metrics in SEO.

“Word Count” is a very simple metric that measures how many words are on a web page in total.