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.
First, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
This means that search engines like Google can find your article, blog, or website amongst the almost infinite amount of online content 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 enough, right?
You would think so 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 in the content 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 some 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 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.
It still honestly conveys the content in the post but has been simplified to be picked up by search engines.
Paragraphs and subheadings
When writing with SEO in mind, paragraphs should be kept short, with no more than two to three sentences per paragraph. This is to ensure 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. 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
This final tip is something that many people forget when creating SEO-friendly content.
Ranking well in search engines is not only the result of the words used in an article. Correctly optimising images can have a huge impact too.
Often when we upload images to use in a blog the title may be something 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 with the Alt Text – it’s another opportunity to include some keywords, like Female travel Mexico 2020.
It’s as simple as that.
I hope these quick tips are useful but feel free to get in touch to find out more. Perhaps we can work together to create SEO-friendly content for your website.
For more information about copywriting services and rates, send an email to hello@hayleymaguire.com
Hayley Maguire 