Finished writing a blog post or updating information on landing/service pages recently? Is the content worthy enough to fit and get indexed in Google to compete with millions of other posts and pages that supply similar information? Did you make your content SEO ready for your audience? This blog will give you a clear answer to all these questions.
Content is one of the most important factors when it comes to implementing an SEO strategy. It is crucial to have well-written and SEO-optimized content to ensure that it reaches your target audience. Coming up with creative and well-structured quality content is how you can thrive and stand out in today’s competition. Making your content SEO ready can make a huge impact on your website’s ranking.
In this blog, we are going to make you familiar with SEO-ready content including SEO features or characteristics, types of SEO content, the importance of content in SEO, and how to develop a good SEO content strategy. Let’s dive in then!
What is SEO content?
Before we get into SEO content, we hope you are familiar with what SEO means. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is mainly used to improve website visibility and help rank organically in top search results. SEO content means optimizing your content using SEO practices to help your web page rank high in SERPs.
It is important to have your content SEO optimized so that your page has a better chance of ranking in the top search results or at least on the first page. There is also a catch. Only by creating high-quality content will your page stand out among the millions of pages on Google that share similar information.
Importance of Content in SEO
Creating a content strategy is the sole focus of every marketer to add and implement SEO practices to improve search engine rankings. Content marketing and search engine marketing should go hand in hand in order to rank well in SERPs.
The content posted should be of utmost relevance for a user so that it may have higher chances of getting ranked in search engines like Google and provide the same results for the user searching for that specific area of topic, service, or even a product. Search engines like Google read through the content posted to see if it is relevant for the search results.
If your content does not have useful information for the users, there is a higher chance it will rank lower. Having quality content is the only method to use keywords that can help your business stand out from other brands.
Types of SEO Content
Content marketing can help your website to rank higher in search results, drive more user traffic and generate leads. Here are some of the types of content for SEO:
Blog post content
When it comes to content creation and content marketing, blogs or articles are the first ones that come to our minds. Text-based content drives more traffic in search results. Blog posts are the ideal method for implementing an effective SEO strategy. Users tend to engage more in blog posts designed in a user-friendly manner for them to grasp the provided information at a faster pace. It is a casual approach when it comes to sharing the information that a user is looking for. The number of words can differ depending upon the topic in discussion but with a minimum of 1000 words. Although it is important to be consistent when it comes to blogging. According to a recent study, 60% of bloggers publishing at least one blog post per day are getting to see better and great results.
Product or service pages content
A well-designed website is important for any business. Nowadays, businesses without a website are not actually a business. Due to the tight competition in today’s market, marketers of different industries bring up more creative methods to get a user to their websites. With well-designed user-friendly SEO optimized websites, it can be of favour to your business. The service page is one of the most crucial pages on your website which can help you sell your products and services. Ensuring that the content on this page is well optimized will fetch you good results.se
Guides
Apart from blogs, another type of content that helps your business and the audience is a guide. Guides offer more in-depth content differing from a blog page. Most businesses may have guides related to a particular topic, service, or product. This long content can include every little aspect of the relevant topic, service, or product that work for SEO ranking. There are two types of guides - open content in which the published content is fully accessible to a user. Gated content includes a few available paragraphs which can be accessed fully after the user registers with their email-id. Although this is an effective way to generate leads, this can have a negative impact on your website as there is a higher chance to drive low traffic. Another issue with gated content is that it won’t add up to your SEO ranking as Google cannot access the SEO-optimized content. Google can only have access once the optimized guide is published fully on your website.
Video Content
Similar to content marketing, video marketing is one of the effective strategies to deliver large or short information to a wide number of audiences. It can increase engagement and make users interpret the information in the visual presentation creating a positive impression on Google which in turn results in improving your ranking. A large form of text eg: a blog post, can be converted into a video and designed with attractive animations and pictures delivering information on what the users are looking for. Video marketing is one of the best marketing strategies to provide the required information to a larger audience.
Characteristics of SEO-Ready Content
It is important to ensure that the content you created makes an impact on your target audience. Here are some of the important characteristics of SEO-ready content.
Keyword and topic research
Keyword research is an important factor when it comes to SEO. When you are researching for keywords to be included in the content that you created, ensure to add keywords that sound natural. The keywords that you have researched are to be added to the titles, subheadings, and content. Google is on the lookout for keyword stuffing. The best practice is to count your keywords once your content is complete and find the density by this formula: (number of times keyword is used) / (total number of words) x 100.
After researching the relevant keywords, you get an idea of what the users are searching for. It is important to keep in mind to develop content that provides answers to the persistent issues the users are facing. Thorough keyword research can help you get deep insights into the needs, interests, problems of the users, and the competition level of those queries.
Derive the keywords from the research and include the keywords in your content so that the users can see you when they search with those queries.
High Quality
Getting your audience to come to your website is one thing, but keeping them for a longer duration is the ultimate task. When a user finds your website and gets on, but the quality of the content that he/she is looking for is not relevant or complex, there is a higher chance the user might leave on the spot. This can have a negative impact on your website. When a user leaves your website as soon as they enter, it increases the bounce rate of your page and can directly affect your ranking. It can give Google an impression that your website is not relevant and not meeting the needs of the user. Recovering from that damage can take an insane amount of time as the level of competition is rather high.
It is important that you provide high-quality content and the content that the user is looking for to ensure that the users stay for a longer time on your page.
Updated and non-plagiarized content
After you have conducted proper keyword research for your topic with quality content, next on the list is to ensure that the content you have developed is your own. It simply means that when your content is fake -- or if you borrowed the content from any external websites -- all your SEO efforts will go down the road. Because Google will penalize your website for duplicate content. Similar to quantity, originality is what will get people to read. It can create trust for your users and authenticity to Google.
How to develop a good SEO content strategy?
Whether it be that you create blog posts, product/service pages or other pages on a website, it is important to make it worth your while. Getting the content right is the first step to having SEO-ready content. Here are a few tips on writing SEO-ready content:
Conduct keyword research
Writing content without proper keyword research is like pulling the trigger with no bullets. The developed content will have no impact whatsoever and no matter how much time you put in, it will all just go down the drain.
- When conducting keyword research, understand what the users are searching for whether an answer to a question, a solution to a problem or even the need that is to be fulfilled. Develop and create content that covers all or most of them.
- Refer to competitors ranking in top search results and go through the content and ensure that you have covered all the parts and included more than what those competitors have.
- Keywords can include short-tail as well as long-tail keywords. Don’t cross off long-tail keywords as they can have higher chances to rank in number 1 when longer queries are searched. Long-tail keywords tend to have less competition when compared to short-tail keywords.
Keeping in mind the above-mentioned points along with the SEO features discussed before, this can be of great help for you.
Using unique titles, headers, and subheaders for the topic
After keyword research and deciding on the topic to create the content, start off with an eye-catching title along with headers and subheaders that are easy to understand. Keep in mind to add headers and subheaders that are easy for your readers. It is important to have headers and subheaders as it can increase the overall keyword saturation. Ensure that the title is not too common but also not familiar.
Build a strong content structure
Similar to constructing a building, it is important to build a strong structure before you start writing the content. Explain the core issue in detail and divide the remaining parts into headers and subheaders so that it makes it easy for you to write faster. Having a strong content structure can help the users understand and make them stay longer on your website.
Produce high-quality content
As we discussed before in the SEO feature part, content is king when it comes to websites. Get people to visit your website by providing them with unplagiarized quality content with relevant information related to their search intents. Implementing SEO strategies on content with low-quality content is like watering a dead plant for it to bloom. Quality is key when it comes to content. And only with high quality, it will turn out to be SEO-ready content.
Add SEO optimized images and visual content
Apart from writing and optimizing content, it is recommended to add images and other visual content to improve user experience. Content with no images vs. content with a few images or visual content can make a huge difference in traffic. Visual representation can attract a user and make them stay longer on your page. Images and other visual content deliver the information to the user faster and in a more understanding manner. It gives an opportunity for your content to be more catchy and attractive. Content included with images have a higher chance of getting shared over content with no visual presentation.
Adding images is a simple task, but how can Google understand that the image is relevant to your content? That is where optimization comes in place. Even if there are in-text images, Google cannot read those text in images. Here are some of the things you need to do:
Resize image size
Uploaded images that are the recommended image sizes so that it does not affect the loading speed of the page. Uneven image sizes can affect the SEO of your page and slow down the page load time. Resizing images with the specified dimensions can make your page load faster, get the most out of the SEO benefits and also deliver an excellent user experience. Also, keep in mind to not compromise the quality and visibility of the image when resizing or compressing.
Create image name
When you save an image, be sure to give it a name that is descriptive and relevant to your content before you upload it. This can have a positive result on your webpage.
Add alt tags
Generally, alt tags are not visible to a user. Alt tags are to help Google understand what the image is and how relevant it is to your content. Similar to giving an image name, make sure to describe the image in one or two sentences so that it can help in better chances of ranking. If your image doesn’t load on time, the alt text will be shown in place of the image. Try to write unique descriptive sentences rather than repeating the main target keyword of the content.
[caption id="attachment_65129" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Source[/caption] Edit and optimize your content
After adding keywords, images, and other visual presentations to your content, do a final checkup on your overall content, go through it and check for grammatical errors and duplications using plagiarism tools. Check for content length, and ensure there is quality over quantity. Writing gibberish information is of no use to the user and will have direct implications on your page. Write the content with useful information that satisfies the user's search intent. It is suggested to have longer content to have better chances of ranking, get more likes and social shares and also generate leads.
Check the optimal speed of your website by optimizing the site for mobile-friendly. Ensure that your content page is mobile-friendly for improved user experience.
Create and optimize meta title and meta description
Compress and limit the meta tile to under 60 characters as Google displays 60 characters in the search results. When you exceed 60 characters, the words after 60 characters will not be displayed in the search results. Add the target keyword on the title and describe it as informative as you can.
Typically, the length of a meta description should be kept between 150-160 characters, basically 1-2 sentences. .Summarize the content by including primary keywords naturally with spaces. This is shown beneath your meta title in search results. Add call-to-action in the description.
Create a readable URL for the content
For the final step of describing the content of the page, add a URL that clearly makes a user understand what the page is about. Follow these Google’s recommendations to have a readable URL:
- Include the primary keyword in the URL.
- Use lowercase letters instead of capital or mix them with capital letters.
- Instead of using underscores (_), use hyphens (-) in between words.
- Make the URL as short and as descriptive as you can with the contents of the page.
Looking Ahead
Well, we have reached an end to the descriptive guide on what is SEO content, the characteristics or features of SEO content, and how to develop a good SEO content strategy. Keep in mind the above-mentioned tips and tricks when you start off writing a new piece for your page or republish the old ones. Adopt and implement these tips and in time you see results of better website traffic, leads and conversions.
FAQs
What is SEO-ready content?
SEO-ready content simply means, optimizing the content of your website using SEO techniques for better ranking in search results.
What are the elements of SEO-ready content?
Elements of SEO-ready content include high-quality content, proper keyword research and non-plagiarized content.
What are the types of SEO content?
The different types of SEO content are blog posts, guides, videos and product or service pages.
Why content is important for SEO?
Implementing SEO in websites with content of useful information to satisfy the user's search intent can have better ranking in search results.
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Thank you for sharing such an amazing blog with us.
on
Content is very important in SEO, at first when I have just started I don’t know how to right content and then contents is plagiarism free or not. once you start work regularly in one work then you can work easily and contents coming up in your mind.
on
This is certainly a well-written article and very through.
It is really useful to have this on hand when purchasing branded make-up.
Many thanks for the informative article.I look forward to your next blog post.
on
Posts with extremely quality content I appreciate that, surely your article will bring a lot of useful knowledge for everyone. respect you
on
thanks for sharing wonderful information with us
on
This is good, vry nice discription.
on
Knowing that Google can apparently check things such as quality of content can lead to be a little bit concerned. I am not against giving quality content. However, I hope that Google algorithm will always be logical. That way, webmasters may not end up with content that does not make sense.
However, I have learnt that this major search engine was using human reviewers. I think that while a lot of things are automated, Google can still be tricked. As long as they have human reviewers, this could be a proof of the fact that this search engine is not perfect.
on
The keyword density formula is news to me, I have been using the “3 or 4 times” rule for a long time – but it makes perfect sense, why would a phrase said 3 times matter in a 10,000 word epic? Thank you a lot for this post, it confirmed a lot of things I already knew, and added a few new things to keep in mind.
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I find it very reassuring that page rank is based on quality rather than just keyword content. It encourages writers who are trying to do their best and put their best efforts forward. I absolutely hate blogs that have poor grammar, spelling, formatting, and so on. People will ask me to review their blog, and while I don’t want to hurt their feelings, I don’t want them to publish junk. I’m thankful that I have this article to direct them to when I need back-up, so to speak.
on
Content and consistency are the two important characteristics of SEO. Nice tips and thanks for sharing.
on
As always, content is king. Too many people spend their time awkwardly forcing a given number of keywords into a certain number of sentences.
What I do is write the blog post first without keywords in mind, because if you have chosen your keywords well then they should naturally crop up in your writing a decent number of times. Using the formula you provided for keyword density after writing the post, you can add or remove the keywords a certain number of times from your post if necessary. This way, the writing is natural and the human content reviewers employed by the major search engines will highly rate your work.
I can’t help but think that if people spent more time following the simple tips you just provided rather than spending their money on all the latest seo courses then they would run far more successful blogs.
Thanks for the read, yet another no-nonsense article on TechWyse!
on
Good stuff. There is so much to consider when talking about SEO. This is one of the better articles I have read on the subject. There needs to be a good balance between the technical aspects (keyword density etc,) of SEO and the creative side, actual content of a post. With out those two things, your ranking will suffer.
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The bottom line here is that while your content must have the relevant keywords in a reasonable amounts throughout the article, whatever you write must be relevant to what the viewer is looking for. It should also have enough information to hold their attention and thus get them coming back.
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Quality should always come hand in hand with keyword density. You would not be surprised to see numerous websites, blogs and online articles spam their content with too much keywords. Thus, the reader ends up getting too frustrated in wasting his or her time reading an irrelevant and unsubstantial article.
on
Too many people are trying to hold onto the old ideas about the importance of keywords. Quality content really is the most important part of SEO these days. If the articles and content are high quality, the keywords should appear naturally. I am also surprised that sites are still copying content. Recently, I was searching about detoxing and found three separate sites that had the exact same content. All it does is hurt the reputation and popularity of a website.
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Google and Bing use human reviewers to evaluate their search results and the quality of the sites showing up. As the author states, the #1 thing they are looking for is the quality of the content. More specifically, the reviewers are asked to determine if the site appears to be an authoritative source, and if it’s authors appear to be experts in the subject matter or not. They give a lower score to sites with content that is too generic and vague, and lacks any real insight or originality.
on
Many of the points mentioned in this article I have them in mind. Anyway, there is one in particular that can mean trouble. Those who don’t have much experience in this vast universe of online publications can’t adapt his style to the algorithms that Google uses to index the sites. That aspect, then, can often influence the style that each person has to write. Isn’t that an obstacle? I think the key is to achieve a balance, but that often means a dynamic of trial and error.