We’ve all heard the term, “SEO-friendly content”, but what does it actually mean? And how can we write in an SEO-friendly way?
Let’s start at the beginning.
It’s all about the algorithm
First, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
This means that search engines like Google can find your article, blog, or website and place it within their search results.
The more optimised the content is for the search engine algorithms, the higher up in the results it will appear.
Sounds simple, right?
But search engines regularly change their algorithms, which means what may have worked last year, won’t be as effective this year.
Plus, it’s important to remember that real people will also be reading the content. So it has to be user-friendly too.
SEO keywords
One of the easiest ways to stay ahead in the SEO race is to include relevant keywords throughout an article. Keywords are words or phrases that people type into search engines to find out more about a topic.
For example, if writing a travel blog post about Mexico, the top keywords and phrases to include would be:
- Travel tips Mexico
- Things to know before traveling to Mexico
- Useful Mexico travel tips
The best places to include these keywords would be in the title, in subheadings, in the body of the text and in the conclusion.
However, the writing still needs to flow so don’t stuff the article with keywords, which will just turn readers away.
Blog title and URL
The title of a blog is important because it’s the first thing that people will read. It should be attention-grabbing while providing context about the topic of the article.
Going back to the topic of a Mexico travel blog, a suitable title could be, Ten tips for travelling in Mexico. It includes the relevant keywords of “travel”, “Mexico”, and “tips”, as well as providing the reader with the knowledge that ten tips will be included in the article.
Next, the URL should accurately represent the topic while remaining SEO-friendly.
For the Mexico blog, the automatically generated URL would be ten-tips-for-travelling-in-mexico. But it can be modified to travel-tips-mexico to make it easier for search engines to crawl.
Paragraphs and subheadings
When writing for SEO, paragraphs should be short, with no more than two to three sentences. This ensures the content is easy to read and understand, especially for people reading on a mobile device.
When it comes to subheadings, use them wisely to break up the text and include keywords. For the Mexico blog post, an example of a suitable subheading could be, Safe travel in Mexico.
Formatting is another important consideration, so be sure to use headings in the correct hierarchy.
For example, H1 should only be used for the main title, then H2 and H3 used respectively throughout the article.
Optimise images for SEO
It’s not just the words in an article that helps a blog to rank high in search engine results. Correctly optimising images can have a huge impact, too.
Most images in blog posts have generic titles like image23.jpg. This means nothing to the search engine algorithm. But a photo with a title Mexico-2020.jpg provides more information.
The same applies to the Alt Text, which is another opportunity to include keywords, like Female travel Mexico 2020.
It’s as simple as that.
For more information about copywriting services, get in touch at hello@hayleymaguire.com
Hayley Maguire 