Search engine optimization was not that complicated back in the old days. It just needed some keywords and backlinks incorporated in written content. And that was all. But, that type of SEO had no benefits in the long term as compared to the SEO we do today.
Such days are long gone, and SEO writing is something more than basic techniques. However, here are some tips to help you generate content for the search engines and your real customers.
1. Write content with a user point of view
You have an amazing company and you want to tell the world about it. Yet when you compose your content for SEO, you have to shift your viewpoint. You have to see things from the point of view of your customers and above all, you have to write the things that appeal to you.
It’s not about demonstrating what you can do to your customers, it’s about showing them what they get from you. Marketing researchers write quite a lot about this and just to illustrate their case, they proved to be able to make a major difference by adding a plain, three-letter phrase. This simple technique shifts the perspective from the value that customers expect to receive.
2. Engage your reader for maximum time
The time a visitor spends on a web page will influence the search engine efficiency. What is more critical is that the readers take the next step to become a paying client even more likely. You must continue to engage them. Bullets, subheadings, and lists have long been the norm, and are definitely still helpful. But you could do more.
The thing about user engagement is; if they find grammar or spelling mistakes in your content, they will definitely fly away. If they find that they have read the same article somewhere else, they will move to some other site. So, use a grammar checker as well as a free online plagiarism checker with percentage to create content that should engage your readers for a maximum amount of time.
You may be thinking why I am stressing so much on user engagement. Because user engagement is everything for your business. If you failed to engage your readers, how will convert into leads? To make your readers buy your product or service, it is critical to have them with you.
User engagement leads to the dwell time on your website. Dwell time indicates the number of time users spends on your website or webpage in one session. If users are spending more time on your website, Google will consider it a positive indication and rank you higher in SERPs.
3. Use relational and supported keywords
When we started doing SEO, keyword density was a key factor to consider in the content. You may claim that the secret to SEO success was determined by the density of keywords. SEO experts emphasized the keywords that appeared on a page, where they appear on the page, and the exact words in the link were the most lucrative factors to consider.
All these things are effective to an extent today but do not matter much as compared to earlier. They’re just not supposed to be your first priority. The same thing that is used to mean a lot earlier, may not mean much today. Yes, they are important, but not a clear a prototype to follow.
Today, keywords reused in the content but with a different perspective. They are used to guide the topic. Some guidelines still deserve to be noted. Keywords should be used in the URL, title, and body of the content but you should not stuff your material with keywords.
Google can see that you are doing exactly that. In some places, you put keywords only because you’re supposed to put them there. It doesn’t fine you very much, but it won’t be either happy with you at all.
Instead, you will see some more advantages if you consider your keywords as a guide to the subject in question. Google sees more than just the use of the keyword. They also look for support for keywords. The results of many common searches show this.
When you make a query with a search phrase, Google gives you the results instantly, right? Google also highlights the keywords in the description of each website appeared in the search engine result pages. Did you notice that Google does not only highlight the exact keywords but also the relative terms in the results?
If you will search for a “Pizza with cheese,” on Google, it will not only bold this exact term, but also the relational terms such as “Cheese Pizza” or “extra cheese pizza” etc.
In the past, the only words that were requested specifically in Google’s search were highlighted by Google. Now that Google recognizes the relationship between you and your search, it highlights those words. Don’t put your keywords everywhere in your content to achieve this but instead, concentrate on creating the material that covers the topic efficiently by using the best support words.
4. Include additional content
You don’t hear about all this much, but Google acknowledges that including additional content will help make it an integral component of a top-quality website.
So what Google needs is better sites for their users. But, what is additional content?
This is essentially any feature that helps users find their way through other parts of your website, be it a blog or another downloadable product. However, this does not only apply to those posts. The scope and purpose of the website should be open to valuable supplementary material, and the user should be given some relevance.
The guiding standard here is YouTube. Every page on this website contains 90% additional content. Users count on it for their next video and keep it on the web to discover everything that they can. Nonetheless, you have to be careful if you use it like everything else.
Add additional content to develop and boost the interest of the user in your content. Your reader is finishing an article or video on your page and if he/she finds an interesting article, he/she can move to that page. It is good for websites to take this approach.
But never overuse additional content as users will find it inconvenient and messy. Use the relevant additional content and organize it properly on your web pages. You can also create content when you don’t have usual tools.
5. Engage with your readers
You might think you know what your customers are asking, but you just may not know what questions they want to ask.
Now, you might be thinking about how we can determine the questions of users of they do not ask directly. First, encourage them to ask questions in the comments sections. Then engage with them and answer their questions.
Second, we can know the questions that most users are asking around the internet. Google is a good tool to check what your readers are looking for. Use your targeted keywords in the Google search bar. You will see a section named “People also ask for” in the search engine result pages. Answer those questions on your website as FAQs.
If you click on any question in that section, you will see that there are more questions popping out. And Google shows the answers from those sites who have already answered those questions. You can also feature in this section by answering the relevant question in your niche. Further, you can use schema markup to directly display your FAQs section in the search engine result pages of Google.
6. Consider the level of reading before writing
One of the most popular tips on reading levels of content is that you should write content that is approximately 7th grade. Readability is undeniably significant, but it is somewhat subjective, despite things like the Gunning-Fog scoring, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, or SMOG index.
You should use an online readability score checker to check the readability of your written content. There are several tools available on the internet that can boost the reading score of your content.
If you believe your entire writing needs to stick to these tips, you are once more seeking ways of solving all your problems magically.
Let us assume that your company is designing and delivering incredibly complex engineering devices for companies that work in the electronic and mechanical industry. It’s fair to conclude that the men who settle in this business should understand the content even better.
You can’t help converting your consumers when writing styles are too basic even though Google has a major ranking factor in readability at the 7th level. Like several other SEO aspects, search engines and consumers have to take this into account and give customers the priority.
Wrapping up
The main purpose of content development for SEO is to get more and more traffic which will eventually increase your business revenue. Good content can offer you a good ranking in SERPs but the content is not just about words. It comprises of several factors such as keywords, readability, visibility, and the information you are providing to your reader.
So, follow the above tips and techniques and implement them in your material to produce highly effective SEO content.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jackson Kiel – A Martech Cube Contributor
Jackson Kiel is a content contributor on Martech Cube. He has a flair for developing high quality and value-driven content that not only enriches the readers but also serves as a pivotal facet in their tech journey.