Let's begin this article by defining the term SEO-friendly content. To put it simply, any content that is high in quality and value and is, therefore, simple for search engines to find and understand and does not deviate from the topic at hand is SEO-friendly content. In such a case, the search engine indexes the content higher than other content that does not meet the criteria listed above. When a particular piece of content is SEO-friendly, it is easy to find, and therefore, more and more people land on your homepage because it makes for interesting reading. The readers are encouraged to read the entire thing, and this further leads to more conversions and decreases the bounce rate.
Strictly speaking, SEO-friendly content is content that has been optimized. The latter term involves using the right keywords and headings that enhance the quality of the content, which further leads to search engines finding it easily and finding it appropriate.
Let us now dig a little deeper into some secrets for writing SEO-friendly articles –
Writing High-Quality and Unique Content
One is allowed to borrow ideas from similar articles which can be found in magazines, books or even from the internet but plagiarism is highly objectionable, that is copy-paste is not allowed.
Having covered the distinct and unique factors, let's talk about how interesting content takes precedence over ordinary content. To achieve this, one needs to do extensive research. More research means better ideas to get your content, which you feel is engaging enough, across to the audience.
Write Small Paragraphs
As is obvious, the writer of the article needs to ensure that the reader at no point loses interest in what is in front of him. Long paragraphs are a strict no when writing content for the web. This calls for structuring the content well so that the reader doesn't lose interest. Long sentences and paras often lead to readers forgetting the purpose of reading your article. Also, long paras tend to get boring.
Though it should not be a hard and fast rule, the writer should bear in mind that a para doesn't cross 3 or 4 sentences; that is, about 50-60 characters should be the upper limit of each para. Following this guideline will often fetch more traffic to the article as the engagement factor goes up. More importantly, shorter paragraphs make it easier for search engines to index URLs.
Optimized Images Should Be Included
Images make your content fun and convenient to read. To optimize images, the following should be done –
The content of the image should be kept in mind while naming the image; this practice ensures that the name is relevant to the image.
The image size should be optimized to rank better when SEO kicks in. Also, helps to boost the loading speed of the page.
Alt-text should be added at the back of the image, and keywords should be added to alt tags. Just in case your image doesn't load because of poor internet speed, the alt-text will help the reader make out what the image is about. Moreover, the keywords help the search engine in deciphering what the image is about.
Research and Placement of Keywords
If you wish the search results to give priority to your article over others' articles and if you want to reach the right audience then the above-mentioned activities are of utmost importance. It goes without saying that extensive research for the right keywords is essential.
One should try out different sources for the same, these could include Google Keyword Planner, Answer the Public and many others. Google itself can help you as far as finding out the user intent is concerned. Visiting different industry forums can help find out what topics the users are looking for.
As far as strategic placement of keywords is concerned, the keywords deserve a place in all of the following – title, URL, content, Alt tags, conclusion and meta description. Last but not least, 'long-tail keywords' should be used; this improves SEO rankings.
A Title That Engages
An optimized article will always have a great title that appeals to the readers, as that is one of the things that initially catches their eye.
It should express what the blog is about in a few words. To achieve this purpose, one should bear in mind that one target keyword is included in the same. Further, the length of the title should not exceed 60 characters and finally, it should form a part of the article in the H1 tag.
Inclusion of Links
When writing new blog posts, due diligence should be given to adding links to the blog posts that you created in the past. This reduces the bounce rate and also increases the time that your readers spend on your blog or article. Moreover, this builds trust in the readers' minds as it improves their experience of visiting your site; that is, links help with the User Experience. High-quality links are recommended when using External links. It becomes easier for search engines as far as understanding the relevance of the content is concerned. Care should be taken to link to resources that are authoritative and educative.
There are a few things that need to be borne in mind when interlinking is done. As is obvious, the links should make sense and not be included just for the heck of it; that is, they should not be added just to exploit the various advantages that they are known for. That said, the links should be relevant, and the readers should benefit from them. Further, anchor text should be added to the same. This helps the readers to get a good idea of what the link is about.
Conclusion
To wrap up things, we hope that the above brings about clarity on writing SEO-friendly articles. We guarantee that if you follow these steps, you will be rewarded with traffic, that is high on quality as well as quantity, to your article or blog.