Writing SEO Optimized content is no simple task. There is a lot of things to considers such as the tone or mood and style or ways you want to write your content, to name a few. If you have a fully defined content strategy then you are set on writing friendly web content.

What Is SEO Content?

Search Engine Optimization content refers to content that helps your web pages to rank high in the search engines. SEO content is important because web crawlers, such as Google, read your website, so the words you use on your site determine whether or not your site will rank in their results pages. It is the process of planning, creating, and optimizing content with the primary goal of ranking in search engine results.

To write high-quality content is important but to write a friendly one is recommendable. Here are tips on how to write SEO-friendly content to outrank your competitors.

1. Understand Search Engine Ranking Factors.
2. Use the Right Keywords.
3. Identify and Capture Search Intent.
4. Optimize Content to Obtain Google Featured Snippets.
5. Update Old Content.
6. Apply the Skyscraper Method.
7. Prioritize High-Quality Inbound and Outbound Links.
8. Boost User Signals with On-Page Best Practices.
9. Be Aware of Site Structure and Technical SEO Best Practices

Types of SEO Content

When you create content, you help drive traffic to your site. These are just some of the basic types of SEO content, but don’t let this list limit you – the possibilities are virtually endless. SEO content can include any of the following:

• Product Pages – These are the bread and butter of any retail e-commerce site. A good product page can serve as a both SEO content and a PPC landing page.
• Blog Posts – A blog is one of the easiest ways to create a regular stream of effective SEO content. In general, blog posts are more engaging and more likely to attract links than product pages, so they can be a great way to build some authority for your site. Keep in mind that blogs are very flexible, and you can use them to host any of the below types of content in this list.
• Articles – Think news article, interview, or feature piece. This is the main kind of content you’ll find on most newspaper- or magazine-style websites.
• Lists – A list is really just a kind of article, but framing it as a list (such as “10 Ways to Lower Your Energy Bill” or “101 Things I Hate About Google”) makes it easier to scan. These types of titles also seem to be more clickable when found in search results or in social media feeds.
• Guides – A guide is a longer piece of content that explains in detail how to do something. (Guides are often broken up into multiple web pages, though it’s a best practice to allow users to view long content as a single page if they wish.) You can post a full guide on your website, or you can post a summary or excerpt, requiring visitors to fill out a registration form to read the full guide. This can be a good way to generate leads, but keep in mind that putting up a registration wall will likely reduce the amount of SEO traffic you can drive to that guide.
• Videos – In general, there are fewer videos on the web than pages of text; consequently, it can be easier to rank on the first page for a competitive keyword by creating a video instead of an article. Depending on what type of site or business you run, videos can be a great way to attract and reach an audience. Consider creating video tutorials of how to use your products. Or illustrate a process that is related to your business – for example, a plumber could make a video showing how to unclog a sink. (A note on SEO: You might consider including a text transcript of your video. Here are some additional tips for optimizing videos.
• Infographics – Infographics, or large-format images that contain a lot of data (often in the form of graphs or charts) on a single subject, can rack up a lot of page views and links. However, because so much of the content is embedded in the image and therefore not readable as text by search engines, it’s important to carefully optimize the rest of the page. You can use one of these five free infographic templates to get started.
• Slideshows – A slideshow is a way to display a series of related images. Sometimes pictures are more important than text – say you’re trying to show what all the stars wore to the Oscars. Here again, SEO of your title, captions, image file names, and so on is important because there is less for the portals to “read.”
• Glossaries – I swear more people use Google to look up terms than they use a dictionary. (Do you even know where your dictionary is?) If you work in a specialized industry, a well built-out glossary can be a good way to capture some search traffic. Think cooking terms, medical terms, fashion terms, architectural terms.
• Directories – A directory is a useful taxonomy of links to sites or resources around a given topic. For example, a perfume blog might create a directory of places to buy perfume, from major department stores to independent shops around the country.

How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy

Content creation is an integral part of your website. When it comes to SEO content strategy it involves content production from planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. Developing an effective SEO content strategy is a must in digital marketing if you want higher search engine rankings. Take these steps to do that and spend time planning your SEO strategy.

1. Make a list of topics

The first step is to make a list of topics you’d like your content to address, at least compile a list of about 10 words and terms associated with your product or service and research these words, identify their search volume, and come up with variations that make sense for your business.

By doing this, you are associating these topics with popular short-tail keywords, but you’re not dedicating individual blog posts to these keywords. Each of the keywords that you’ve identified is called pillars, and they serve as the primary support for a larger cluster of long keywords.

2. Make a list of long-tail keywords based on these topics

During this step, you’ll begin optimizing your pages for specific keywords. For each pillar you’ve identified, use your keyword tool to identify five to 10 long-tail keywords that dig deeper into the original topic keyword. And this should go without saying, but you definitely don’t want to do any keyword stuffing.

Use your long-tail keywords to create blog posts that explain the specific topics within the pillars you’ve selected. Together, all of your long keywords create a cluster around a pillar topic. Search engine algorithms depend on the relationships between clusters to connect users with the information they’re looking for.

3. Build pages for each topic

Use the pillar topics you came up with to create a page or post that gives a high-level overview of the topic using the long keywords you came up with for each cluster in step two. These pillar pages can essentially be a table of contents, where you’re giving a description of the main topic, and briefing readers on subtopics you’ll elaborate on in other posts.

Eventually, the number of topics for which you create pillar pages should coincide with your business needs, like the number of products and offerings you have. This will make it much easier for your prospects and customers to find you in display programs no matter what keywords they use.

4. Set up a blog

An incredible way to rank for keywords and engage your website’s users is blogging. After all, every blog post is a new web page and an additional opportunity to rank in SERPs. Consider creating one, if your business does not already have a blog.

The title of a blog post should contain only one h1 tag on the page and include a target keyword. For a typical blog post, 300 to 500 words should be the minimum word count.

5. Create a consistent blogging schedule

Make it a point to blog at least once a week. Remember, you are blogging primarily for your audience, so study your target market and write about things that they are interested in, so that you may anticipate their relevant queries.

It may be helpful to create a content strategy to remain consistent and focused on your goals of making your next blog post. Once or twice per week is a great starting point. Give your readers some time to digest your fresh content.

6. Create a link-building plan

Link-building is the process of attracting inbound links (also called backlinks) to your website from other sources on the internet. When you use internal links, you should use the anchor text technique. Adding descriptive anchor text to the links as people can better understand what the link is about.

Simply put, when you link to a blog post, you see options to add links and title tags. Link to relevant pages within and outside your site in your introduction.

Dedicate some time to brainstorming all the various ways you can attract inbound links. Maybe you’ll start by sharing links with local businesses in exchange for links to their own sites, or you’ll write a few blog posts and share them on different social media platforms. You can also approach other blogs for guest blogging opportunities through which you can link back to your website.

7. Compress media files before uploading them to your site

The bigger the file size, the more difficult it is for an internet browser to render your website. It’s also harder for mobile browsers to load these images, as the bandwidth on their devices is significantly smaller. So, the smaller the file size, the faster your website will load.

It’s worth considering the use of a compression tool to reduce file sizes before uploading images, videos, and gifs. However, to compress your media, keeping files in the kilobytes (KB) range is a good rule of thumb.

8. Stay up-to-date on SEO news and best practices

The search engine landscape is ever-evolving. Staying on top of current trends and best practices is an important strategy, and there are multiple online resources that can help you do so. Here are a few resources to check out:

• Moz
• SEOBook
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Engine Land
• Diggity Marketing
• This Blog!

Update your content regularly Even if you create engaging and high-converting content, you need to write blog posts and update your site content on a regular basis. This is because Google wants to provide searchers the best results for their search queries.

9. Measure and track your content’s success

You can monitor organic traffic using your preferred web analytics tool or create your own dashboard using Excel or Google Sheets. Also, tracking indexed pages, conversions, ROI, and your rankings on SERPs can help you recognize your success as well as identify areas of opportunity. Research resources to create competitive content already shown up in the search results.

Strong SEO Writing Needs Good Keyword Research

Writing for SEO means that your content focuses on providing users with valuable information that answers their search intent. Additionally, it means optimizing for keywords and key phrases that help search engines understand.

Finding the right keywords will help you dominate the search results and satisfy your target audience. Keyword ideas have total domination of the organic search results for any transactional keywords.

Keyword research in SEO is as important as oxygen in human living. It’s the first step for developing successful SEO for your website. It helps to get a targeted audience for your website through search engines. It is the most important part to choose relevant keywords for your business or blog to reach relevant people. Avoid stuffing keywords or over-optimization.

Content Marketing vs Content Strategy

So, what’s the difference between content marketing and content strategy? Here’s what, your content marketing efforts will drive targeted traffic to your site and once they arrive, your on-site content strategy will work to convert that traffic into leads, followers, and customers.

Content strategy is the thought and research put into establishing an effective content marketing campaign. Content marketing is the campaign itself, which comes after the strategy.

How To Create an SEO-friendly website?

And the way to create an SEO-friendly website is by following these tips:

Use responsive design to connect with mobile users.

Like URL structure should be as simple as possible. Here is what Google recommends to keep a URL readable.

Create website content to target valuable keywords.

Although there’s been debate in the digital marketing community as to whether or not keyword research is dead, keywords are still a crucial part of SEO. The targeted keywords for each page, so it will improve the search visibility of your website.

Should you target a particular keyword? Yes. Google still uses keywords to gauge what a particular web page is about. The truth is, although Google looks for mentions of keywords and related concepts on your site’s pages, the page itself has to add value outside of pure keyword usage.

Instead, you should look to target multiple keywords to establish an overarching theme for your site and brand. By targeting keywords within your content, you’ll help your business appear in more relevant search results.

Optimize header tags to help search engines better understand your pages.

As the main descriptive title tag of the page, the heading tags or H1 should contain that page’s primary keyword or phrase. Each piece of crawlable content you create should have a unique primary keyword target.

Use internal linking to help search engines crawl and index your pages.

Creating great content that can be used to earn inbound links during off-page optimization strategies. After all, internal linking is an integral part of SEO and helps make your homepage, even more, SEO friendly. Adding links that make sense and that could benefit from further clarification. You don’t want to add links to your internal pages randomly to get those pages indexed.

Optimize meta description to boost site clicks in search results.

The meta description should explain what your article is about and include your target keywords. There’s no guarantee that the original meta description you’ve labored over will appear in the search results. It’s best to write meta descriptions between 150–300 characters in length.

So, the best solution is to figure out your target keyword and include it naturally in your meta description. Save Meta descriptions are very important. You should go back to any of your previously published posts that do not have meta descriptions and add one.

Focus on readability to keep people on your site longer.

You may have awesome pages with valuable content on your website, but Google may not be able to find it and don’t stay on your site longer.

Improve page load time by optimizing images on your website.

This way, when people search for an image at Google Image Search, they will land on an image in one of our blog posts. and won’t take long to appear, that’s why site speed has been a ranking factor since 2010.

SEO Copywriting: How to Write Content For People and Optimize For Google

The principal way to accomplish to build your blog audience is SEO copywriting. Your online business must go beyond simply “writing content.” Your content needs to accomplish two goals:

1. Solve a particular problem.
2. Appeal to the end-user (customers, clients, prospects, readers, etc.).

Creating content that ranks well with Google and also persuades people is what SEO copywriting is all about. Before you implement the elements of SEO copywriting, remember that there are things that should come before on-page optimization. Here are six elements of SEO copywriting that matter:

1. Site Speed
2. Headline
3. Content
4. Meta description
5. Keyword frequency
6. Page links

The Bottom Line

So, responsive website design is a way of designing and developing websites to make them search-engine friendly. Making an SEO-friendly website means that Google search and other search engines can crawl each page’s content on the website efficiently, interpret the content effectively, and index it in their database.

If your audience can’t read your content to determine its relevance, you will fail to have a user-friendly website, which impacts your SEO friendliness. Therefore, it is important that you design and develop an SEO-friendly website to increase organic traffic and earn first-page rankings in Google.

Finally, know exactly what you want, before you write it.