Here’s the dilemma - If you only write for your readers, then your site won't be fully optimised. But if you only write for search engines, then your content will be flat and boring and your visitors won’t enjoy it. So, what can you do?
SEO needs quality content
If there’s one thing that the Penguin and Panda updates have taught us is that producing high-quality content should be part of your SEO efforts. That means that content and SEO should go hand in hand and you should not sacrifice the value of your content in the hope of getting higher search engine rankings.
When you write your content, stick to best practice in SEO, but don't think that means you have to compromise on quality. Here's how to make sure you're getting it right:
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Make content, not spam
People only share awesome content, that type of content that inspires or makes them think, laugh or cry. So, if you want them to take notice of you, you need to write great content.
Great content is:
- Useful - it solves a problem
- Interesting - it grabs people's attention
- Sticky - it makes the visitor engage, read more and come back for more
Choose the right keywords
Use Google’s Keyword Tool to find the most popular keywords in your niche and put together a list of strong keywords that you’ll be using to optimise your content for search engines.
This will help your content rank higher in search engines when people enter a search query using those keywords.These keywords tell you what your potential customers are looking for on the web when searching for products or services in your industry. This kind of research gives you an idea about what they’re interested in and what valuable information you can provide to attract them to your site.
But don't go crazy with the keywords.
Stuffing is for Thanksgiving
Write for your readers first and then tweak for the search engines. Create useful content that that you've optimised, rather than optimised content which you have tried to make useful. We're talking about a gentle tweak, not stuffing your pages with keywords from beginning to end.
Even if your visitors don't know about SEO, the rubbish you churn out will be massive turn off and they'll avoid reading or sharing your content since it wasn’t written for them in the first place.
So, if you’re only writing for search engines, then you’re writing spam content which has been created with the sole purpose of packing in a bunch of keywords. Not only will no one find value in it, but it’ll also be a waste of time as you won’t benefit from it. Keywords should occur in your articles naturally, rather than being shoehorned in whenever you have chance.
Create easy-to-skim content
By making your content easy for your readers to parse, you also make it easier for search engines to index.
Remember that the structure and organisation of your content is essential not only for your readers but also for search engines as they’re using an algorithm to "read" your content and rank it.
Improve your content’s readability by:
- Writing short paragraphs - People often don’t read in depth on the web and writing chunks of text can put people off. Instead, write short paragraphs (3-4 lines of text).
- Using sub-headlines - Break your content into blocks of text separated by sub-headlines that summarise it.
- Embracing bullet points - whenever possible as people prefer reading clear, concise ideas rather than pages of text.
Provide extra information by linking to other resources
Your mission is to get visitors to stay on your site as long as possible. So, show them other resources they might be interested in by linking to other pages on your site. However, make sure the pages you’re linking to are relevant to what you mention in your content, otherwise you’ll probably going to lose them.
Increasingly, what is good for search engines is the same as what is good for your visitors. But if you ever find yourself in the position of having to choose one over the other, it always makes sense to give your readers what they want.
After all, search engines don't have money to spend.
on
Great article. Creating content that gets shared now even goes beyond quality and into the realms of content that is exceptional or makes users go wow! As more poeple realise that they have to create quality content the bar just gets raised so you need to go above that.
on
Nice, simple article! I like that advice you give to create the content for readers FIRST before thinking about SEO. Ultimately, if your content is good, people will visit your site whether your page rank is high or not. But I hope you can go into more detail about how to go about keyword research.
on
Good Article!! It is great how you have put it in simple language the dilemma of a blog writer. I agree that writing in a structured manner really helps, especially to readers. That is why, it might be useful to start your writing practice on platforms like HubPages, which enforce some structure while writing articles.
One of the usage of Keyword Tool would be when a writer is having a writer’s block. If it is not clear what to write about, put some random searches and see what are the most related search keywords. This sometimes gives an idea on what blog post to write…
Thanks again for good information.
on
I was looking for something like this and I am lucky that I found this blog. Those tips are going to help me. Thanks a lot.
on
I totally agree with you on the quality of content that you upload to your blog or site. Content can either make you or break you and knowing that to improve your ranking you need quality content will help your site to rise fast on google ranking.
on
Quality content is important. Some people can be too engrossed with keyword density that they forget to check the quality of their writing.
on
Writing from an SEO standpoint is a problem that many bloggers create for themselves, when in reality, it’s quite unnecessary. A natural part of writing centers around relevance to the topic, and that’s the main thing that SEO is about. Of course, a lot of people who blog aren’t natural writers, it’s kind of a learned skill. So no matter how much some people try to balance between user appeal and search engine friendliness, there’s going to be an awkward strain that ultimately leads to lower quality content.
on
Thanks for another informative article. Your content really should be SEO and user friendly!
on
I guess one challenge that a writer faces is making an article that is both substantive and SEO friendly. These are helpful tips for us to reconcile content and SEO! And I definitely think that this article religiously follows the tips you mentioned.
on
Its a difficult task to get a quality and innovative content.. Any topic we chose is already present in vast database of the internet, which make it great difficult bringing out something new and interesting.
Can SEO be supplemented by submitting backlinks, i guess. Or is it same? One doubt i have is how to make the post sticky as you stated above.
In between, thanks for sharing the useful stuff.
on
Ah, content and keyword density: the yin and yang of the website. Even some experienced marketers find it tough to find the balance between the two but I think you really hit the nail on the head, Alex. Too many people advise looking at a keyword list and building from there, but the key is that the real judge of the content will be your viewers, not the search engines. You definitely want to write interesting, useful, and engaging content above all. It’s much easier to swap a few target words after writing anyway.
on
Very helpful article for the eager bloggers out there. I agree especially on “Stuffing is for Thanksgiving”. Don’t overdo the keywords in your article. Google is already smart enough to figure what you should be ranking for and can easily scan if you’re doing too much.
on
Thanks for the article! Really enjoyed it and learned from it. Will use your suggestions.
on
It is harder to make interesting content. What makes content interesting? Is it that it solves a problem that makes it interesting or adding comedy?
I believe that is why it is better to concentrate on a niche that you love because you will spend time researching and what not. If you had to write interesting captivating content for another niche that you do not enjoy will make your whole day feel like crap.
Great tips by the way. I took the easy to skim advise and it my blog looks 10 times better. I use to bunch everything together and just post it. I am definitely seeing more activity after I changed it .
Thank you