How to write an SEO Friendly Article
In the last couple of decades, search engine optimisation has evolved massively. Gone are the days of publishing content for the sake of it – yes, we’re talking about those way-too-long low-quality ramblings, you know the ones. Now, it’s all about creating copy that is carefully crafted to rank in search engines. And while SEO can be considered both an art and a science, there’s no denying that it takes skill, practice, and an understanding of search engine ranking factors, along with a host of other technicalities you need to keep on top of.
So, if you’re serious about upping your content writing game and you want to be up there with the best of them, start taking notes. Now. Here, you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to write a SEO-friendly article so you can give your website the best chance of thriving and surviving in such a condensed marketplace.
Up Your Keyword Research Game
SEO writing is basically informative content. It needs to provide users with quality answers to their questions. In order to create answers with substance, you need to conduct keyword and keyphrase research that is optimised in helping SERPs understand your content.
When you write copy that is well-optimised, search engines are able to pair your content with the relevant queries and place you in the top results. So, when you combine good writing with a 10/10 SEO strategy, you are creating guaranteed audience growth through increasing traffic to your website.
Top tips on keyword research:
- Build a localised keyword list.
- Take advantage of negative keywords.
- Look at your competitor’s target keywords.
- Make use of Google Suggest and “People also ask” section.
- What are the most common customer questions?
- Use an SEO toolbar.
Research Your Topic
You need to make sure you thoroughly research the subject you are writing about. Why? Because number one, it saves time in the long run. Two, it allows you to see the whole scope of info on the subject of search straight away. Three, topic research makes sure you understand each area you need to cover on the subject.
Researching your topic also helps you to understand who your audience is and the topics that they care about. If you’ve already ticked off that step, this research will enable you to start constructing the answers to questions so you can provide your audience with solutions.
What is Your Audience’s Search Intent?
So, you’ve got your keyword target, what next? It’s time to figure out what your audience’s search intent is, which basically means finding out what their end goal is. This allows you to create content that not only covers the subject they’re searching for but also directly meets their needs.
Google has a search evaluation quality guidelines page, which is really useful for understanding the four main searcher intent categories: Know, do, website, and visit in person. Let’s break them down:
- Know: The user wants to learn info on a certain topic so they can answer a question.
- Do: The user wants to know how to take specific action.
- Website: The user is looking for a specific resource.
- Visit in person: The user wants to go to a specific place.
So, before you start creating your content, you’ll need to decipher which of the four categories your keyword target belongs to. You can then confirm the category by researching for content that is currently ranking for the keyword. Find out if your competitors are targeting a similar search intent for the query and see how they’ve structured their copy to meet the needs of their audience. You can then look back at your content and structure it in a more streamlined manner.
Also look at “Related searches” and “People also ask” sections again and include any answers to appropriate queries in your copy.
Is Your Meta Title Optimised?
The title in your copy will not necessarily be the headline the search results will show. This means you need to think of your article as having two headings. These are differentiated by their name: the H1 tag, which is shown on the web page, and the meta title, which is the tag that appears in the search results.
In terms of article writing tips, these titles don’t necessarily need to be exactly the same. What’s more important in terms of search engine optimisation is that each tag must contain your target keyword. While the H1 title shows the SERPs how your webpage is structured, for SEO purposes, the meta title is a lot more important. This is because the meta title is what introduces your copy to the user. It’s also why it’s usually the primary piece of info a user uses to determine which search result to click on. This is especially true when users search on mobile.
There are some generic guidelines you can follow to make your meta title more attractive to users and search engines. They are:
- Make sure each page has a unique meta title. If you use the same on different pages, Google can show a different title instead of your own.
- What is the user intent? Make sure your title clearly shows what problems the searchers will solve or what benefit they will receive from reading your content. Use clue words to grab the reader’s attention and make them click.
- Make sure the meta title is between 15 to 40 characters long. The maximum length for a title is around 60 characters, but anything over that can be penalised by search engines.
- Make sure your meta titles include your keywords. SERPs use these titles to determine whether or not your content is relevant to the search query. Don’t keyword stuff or over-optimise as this will also be punished by SERPs.
And What About the Meta Description?
ICYMI, the meta description is the snippet of text that describes what your content is about. It’s located in Google results under the page title, and if written carefully, it’s an easy way to entice the searcher to click on your webpage over your competitors.
To make sure your meta description is properly optimised, follow these five basic suggestions:
- Make sure each page on your website has a meta description. Every description should describe each specific page.
- Your description needs to include a relevant keyword.
- Don’t go over the recommended length (140-160 characters).
- You don’t just have to write them in a sentence format. They can be a perfect opportunity for you to place important information throughout a web page. For example, if it’s a product page, you could include age, price, and manufacturer. When you do this, it makes your content look more attractive to searchers and search engines.
- Pull on users heartstrings! Use an emotion to add a CTA if it’s relevant.
Have a Catchy H1
How to make your blog SEO friendly, you ask? As well as the other five top tips, you also need to make sure you’ve got a catchy and unique H1. Here’re some of the things you need to consider:
- Having a unique H1 will help visitors not get lost between similar pages on your website.
- Use the how, what, why, where model. This helps people to understand what they’ll find when they visit your page. And FYI, how-to articles and guides help to drive 2x more traffic than other H1 types.
- Articles that have list headlines also receive 2x more traffic as well as 2x more social shares. So, use numbers and words together, like ‘top 5’ or ‘10 best’, etc.
- Describe what the body of text is about. If you don’t, Google will deem it low quality.
- Make sure your topic research also includes meta descriptions. This will help you find popular headlines that have lots of social engagement and a high amount of backlinks.
Give Your Content the Chance to Shine
Do blog posts help SEO? The straight-up answer is yes. And SEO-friendly blog posts help the cause even more. Helping you to position your website higher up in search engines, and provide the most relevant answers to your audience’s questions, blog posts provide you with the opportunity to make your website as appealing as possible.
So, with these tips on how to write an SEO-friendly article, you’ll be able to create content that ranks and opens up your business, service or products up to a much wider audience.
