Have you ever wondered why some websites constantly appear in Google search results for a particular topic while others don’t, despite offering unique information? The primary reason is that the former ensures that their content is well optimized for readers and search engines.
Writing SEO-friendly articles is an art that not everyone has been able to master. A well-optimized blog post with high-quality, well-explained content ranks higher than a blog lacking any of these elements.
That is why most writers and business owners these days ensure their articles meet the latest SEO guidelines before hitting the publish button.
If you are new to SEO Blog Writing have no fear. We’ll show you a dozen tips on how to improve and incorporate SEO in your articles.
12 Tips on Search Engine Optimization in Writing Articles
1. Devise Your Content’s Structure
Good SEO writing isn’t just adding relevant keywords to your content – your blog must have a unique style, with quickly scannable content pertinent to the reader. A well-defined blog structure ensures that your content stays on point, thus attracting better reader engagement and, consequently, a higher search ranking.
Jot down what you want to cover in your blog and how it can help the reader. Then create an outline of the different topics and what you must include under each, like a mind map. Begin with a powerful introduction leading to your main topic, and end with a summary of your main ideas as the conclusion.
2. Strategically Place Keywords
To make your blog SEO-friendly, you must strategically place your pre-searched keywords throughout the content. Don’t forget to add the main keyword at the beginning and last couple of sentences.
The number of keywords you use and how many times you repeat them should depend upon your blog’s length and the type of content you write. To make the article search engine-friendly, avoid keyword stuffing at all costs.
3. Include Keywords in Headings and Subheadings
Most readers prefer skimming through the article before giving it a thorough read. If your write-up isn’t divided into appropriate sections, it will decrease the article’s readability, thus dropping your engagement rate.
A better approach is to try and use keywords or relevant phrases as subheadings for the different sections of your text. Although, it is not advisable to use keywords in every heading or sub-heading, as it’ll make your blog sound superficial.
4. Use Keyword Synonyms
While writing SEO articles, you need not repeat the same keywords throughout the text. Try adding some synonyms or phrases containing a part of your keyword instead. A good strategy would be to add a few semantically relevant keywords along with the main keyword so that your text doesn’t look too repetitive.
You can get a list of such keywords called LSI keywords by doing a quick google search or using a reliable keyword tool to find the exact phrases your readers frequently search.
5. Interlink to Existing Content
A common practice in SEO Blog writing is to link articles on similar topics. This establishes your authority and expertise on the topic, thus strengthening your search rankings. Linking your blog to previously written content helps you get into your reader’s and Google’s good books.
It’ll help the readers easily find and read relevant topics, understand the different topics better, and, most importantly, build trust in your brand. High-quality, relevant links build site authority for search engines, thus improving your rankings.
6. Optimize Your Article’s Length
Nobody likes to read a too short blog that doesn’t clearly explain the topic or an extremely long post that takes hours to read. Yes, Google loves longer, more detailed blogs, but only if they cover different aspects of the topic that answer users’ common queries.
An excellent article can be anywhere between 800-2500 words. Anything beyond must be extremely specific so that the reader remains interested in what you have to share.
7. Optimize the Meta Description
Your article’s meta description is a one-line synopsis of what you intend to share with the reader. It must include the main keyword, written in a way that instantly catches your intended audience’s attention.
The meta description is usually under 160 characters and must be informative and interesting, so Google shows it amongst the top search results.
8. Add Relevant Media Elements
Another great tip for writing SEO-friendly articles is adding relevant images, infographics, or videos. Adding visual aids attracts readers’ attention and helps them quickly understand what you’ve covered in your blog. Adding optimized images helps rank your blog in the regular search results and on image search.
9. Cite Expert Opinions
You can also add quotes from popular subject-matter experts about what you are writing about. Expert opinions on a topic, with links to the source, provide authenticity to your blog post and build trust. And when you link to the source, Google’s crawlers rate your article as a high-authority post, thus improving your search rankings.
10. End With a Compelling CTA
If we are being true to ourselves, most blogs are written to sell a product or service, even informative blogs.
So, ending a blog post without a compelling call-to-action that prompts the user to take the next step is useless. A CTA is usually added right at the end of the blog, but for longer posts, you can also add different CTAs in the main body to prompt users to take action immediately.
11. Let Someone Read Your Post
Despite proofreading your content, there can be instances where some things might not make sense to another person, thus affecting your user engagement.
The best remedy is to ask another person, preferably someone with prior knowledge of the topic, to go through your blog post. They will be able to provide an objective view of your blog and help improve its overall readability.
12. Update Regularly
Writing an SEO-optimized blog post isn’t a one-time job. You must regularly update the existing content to include new, relevant information or developments so that even the user stays updated.
Moreover, regularly updated content tends to show up more often, especially when users have set their search parameters to recently published posts, thus getting you more engagement.
Conclusion
SEO Blog writing is much more than just adding as many keywords as you can to your blog. An SEO-optimized blog is well-structured, has the right keyword density, is well written, and includes a compelling CTA.
After all, your search rankings largely depend on user engagement, which relies on the quality of content you provide. If SEO writing doesn’t seem like your cup of tea, resort to SEO blog writing services meant for business owners and bloggers who lack the expertise in creating content that grasps both the reader’s and Google’s attention.