- Content writing plays a central role in search engine optimization, which is why it is important to do it right.
- Keywords must be included but not overused, it should feel natural, etc.
- The keywords should be distributed evenly throughout the article rather than being limited to the first or the last paragraphs.
There is no doubt about the role of content writing in search engine optimization. After all, if there is no text on the web page how will the search engines find and recommend its link in the search results. In simpler terms, if the keywords are the fuel that runs SEO then the content is the engine that moves it. Good content is key to both on-page and off-page optimization strategies. This is why the content must not just be written, it must be written right. To get the best optimization results, here are some dos and don’ts of content writing:
Dos Of Content Writing For An Effective SEO
Add Keywords Strategically: Search engines are now smart enough to identify that by NYC restaurant the user means a restaurant in NYC, so writers don’t need to insert the exact search terms, they can adapt it to the grammatical rules to make the passage seem as natural as possible. Doing so improves the UX and decreases bounce rates. Moreover, the keywords should be distributed evenly throughout the article rather than being limited to the first or the last paragraphs.
Update Content: Making changes to pre-existing web content is a surefire way to refresh the PageRank after a long time and bring in some traffic. It doesn’t have to be major, making grammatical corrections and adding new facts are sufficient. One should also include an update date along with the publish date so that the readers will know that some new information was added or some corrections were made. Links, if any, should be checked and if they are broken they should be replaced with working ones.
Write For The Audience: Unless the content is specifically designed for a niche audience, it’s best to go with generic words that are easy to understand by readers who may not be familiar with the topic of discussion but are interested in it. This can also be interpreted in terms of writing for humans vs writing for artificial intelligence. The emphasis must obviously go towards humans because the AI has become smart enough to understand what they are likely to find useful and recommend the content accordingly.
Include Call To Action (CTA): Whether it’s to hit the subscribe button or to buy some stuff from the e-commerce site, the audience must be motivated to take action with CTAs. This can be done by adding a CTA at the end, hyperlinking and bolding text in between or including large colorful buttons.
Don’ts Of SEO Content Writing
Stuff Content With Keywords: This is an important aspect of the strategic usage of keywords. Adding “SEO in Brooklyn” in every sentence was a surefire way to hit the top spot on SERP in the past. Now, search bar algorithms recognize this as bad SEO practice and penalize the overloading of search terms. One percent of the text’s total word count is the absolute maximum.
Copying Content: Copying content from other sites doesn’t just put the firm in danger of a plagiarism lawsuit, it is heavily penalized by search engine formulas. Using a spin bot may reduce plagiarism level to zero but will ruin the copy’s grammar, destroy UX and SERP rank. Instead, original content should be drafted and posted online to avoid such penalties.
Spamming Old Content: Even if the content belongs to the website, it may be flagged as duplicate content. Old content should not be duplicated on or off the domain. Updating pre-existing content and publishing new content on similar topics for other sites are more effective content marketing strategies.
Too Many Outbound Links: The importance of outbound links cannot be stressed enough but too many URLs will be identified by browsers as unnatural and hurt the SEO efforts. This is because too many of them can seem spammy to the readers.
These are just the basic but important points that should be kept in mind by content writers for an effective search engine optimization.