You’ve heard it a thousand times: good search engine optimization (SEO) is important to getting your company’s website and content noticed online. But how is good SEO achieved? Creating engaging content that also appears on the first page of search results may seem like a daunting task, but it can be done!
If you’re interested in content marketing — marketing your company, products, or services with relevant, engaging, and original content — then you need to ensure that it is optimized for search engines so it has a better chance of being seen by your target audience. If this is something your business has been trying to accomplish, yet you keep finding your content on the second or third page of search results, keep reading for four tips to write engaging and SEO-friendly content.
1.) Ensure that your content and website uphold basic SEO best practices.
Google and other search engines use specific, dynamic algorithms to ensure that the most relevant, useful content appears when a customer enters a search query. General guidelines exist to optimize your content, giving it an opportunity to appear on search results based on these algorithms. To begin, be sure that there are at least 300 words of content on your webpage, as search engines tend to link to longer content. Consider including headings in your body content, and include your keyword in your title, URL, and headers (more about this in tip #4). Include a clear meta description that pulls readers in (this is the description Google displays with your content listing). Lastly, be sure that you’re including ALT tags on your images, which are simple titles, captions, or descriptions that describe your images to search engines.
2.) Create content that is relevant to your audience.
Keep your audience in mind! If your content isn’t relevant to your audience, they simply won’t click it or engage with it. Be sure that the keywords you use for your content captures what your target audience would be searching for — and that the body of the content reflects this, as well. If you’re trying to push your content to the first page of search results, the keywords you use will need to match both the website’s content and the terms and phrases your audience is searching for. In order for your readers to stick around, they’ll want your content to contain the information they were looking for. Keep readers or website visitors engaged by creating relevant content that addresses your audience’s needs, and be sure to include how your business can help them achieve their goals.
3.) Include links in body content.
Search engines love links! Including links, both inbound (links that connect to other pages on your website) and outbound (external links that connect to other websites), in your page’s body content increases your SEO strength and keeps readers engaged. As with any content writing best practice, only include a moderate amount — having too many links in your content can negatively affect readability and may appear spammy. Verify that these links work by testing them yourself and having a coworker test them from another device, as well. Lastly, ensure that these links are relevant to both the page’s content and the keywords and subject matter your audience is searching for. If customers are looking for information on a particular topic, make sure the inbound links on your page connect them to pages that detail how your company can help them, and that outbound links connect them to any relevant outside information or research. Your audience will appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the subject, and this can increase user engagement as well. Don’t just include links because they are “good” for SEO — be sure that they serve a purpose and will help your audience in some way.
4.) Include keywords in content.
It’s a good idea to occasionally include your keywords in your content. However, you do not want to inundate your content with the keyword, making it repetitive and unreadable. A general rule is to include your keyword around one to six times per 300 words, comprising about 0.5-2.5% of the content. Additionally, ensure that your keywords are relevant both to your audience’s needs and your content. If your audience isn’t searching the keywords you’re using, your content may not appear in their search results. If your audience is searching for the keywords you use, but your content isn’t relevant to those keywords or search queries, readers will not engage with or even click on your content. Lastly, ensure that your keywords are optimized for SEO in general. Think about what your customers would be searching for to find your website or business, and use those as keywords as well as close synonyms in your content.
Strong search engine optimization is a great way to get your website or content noticed by current and potential customers. If you’re interested in improving your content marketing strategy or simply strengthening your business’s SEO, but you’re not sure where to start, contact Pulse Marketing Agency today for a free 30-minute consultation.