The Definitive Guide to Creating an SEO-Friendly Article
Many people are confused about the difference between search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. The confusion is quite understandable because they both have to do with getting your content found by a high volume of relevant searchers.
But what exactly is SEO? How does it work? What are some steps you can take to make sure that your article gets the attention it deserves? In this article, we will answer all these questions and more!
Table of Contents
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the process of ensuring that your content will rank well in search engines. You do this by making sure it has a high number and quality backlinks, keywords with good density (not too many or not enough), appropriate length for its subject matter, and so forth.
Why is SEO important?
SEO is one of the most crucial factors for any online business. As a result, everyone should be aware of this to make the best decisions and get ahead in their field. I mean, it only takes a few minutes to read an article on how you can improve your website’s ranking on Google. It doesn’t even take that much time either!
People need to know about SEO within their industry because if they don’t, then others will overtake them with their knowledge and skillsets. If you want to stay successful and innovative in your career, it’s critical to keep up-to-date with new trends.
The internet is a competitive place, and you should equip yourself with the knowledge that will help you out-perform the competition. Optimising your articles for SEO will help your content rise above the rest and get the attention it deserves.
How to take advantage of SEO?
You should also include your keywords in your
- article’s images,
- the first paragraph
- the meta description
- article title
- headings
- subheadlines
to help search engines find them when people type those words into Google or other engines like Bing. This way, it increases their chances of being ranked higher on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), which means more free traffic from organic searches.
Optimise your Article title.
Think of your article title as your first impression; in addition to using your keyword, there are a few subtle things you can do to make it more desirable to your prospective readers. You should include the article’s topic in your title and make it descriptive.
For example, “How to Create an SEO-Friendly Article” is a better headline than just using keywords alone like How To Write An Excellent Blog Post Title In Just A Few Simple Steps! This way, you are giving people more information about what they will find inside of this post, which can increase their interest level as well because now there has been some sort of promise made that if someone reads on, something good might happen for them.
Include Numbers in your article title, like,” How to overcome writers’ block in 6 simple steps.” Numbers help give your readers an expectation of how long the article will be and what they will get out of it.
Include power word and sentiment words in the title of your post. These are words that are going to make your article more appealing and exciting. Examples of power-words include: “How To, The Best Way Ever!, How I Did It!” These types of phrases will help you get the attention of people who might be scrolling through their social media feed looking for something new!
Sentiment Words include things like,” This Is Amazing!”, Wow That’s Incredible”, etc… these type of sentences can also grab someone’s interest because they want what it says in those statements too, which means if we use them, then our readership should increase as well.”
Devise a structure for your article
List posts, how-to guides and infographics are some of a few ways you can structure your article. The most important thing is to make sure that it a clear beginning and end, so the reader knows what they are reading about before it starts. It will help you get more attention from people who might not have read all of this post yet!
Bullet point lists are a great way to break up your article and make it easier for readers who want the information in an easy-to-use format or just need quick reminders about your talking points!
You could even add images with captions underneath each one as well – but don’t forget to include Alt Tags: These describe an image using words instead of pictures and contribute to SEO.
Use transition words.
Quite often, Google AI bots will crawl your page, and by using transition words, you help the bot understand where one sentence ends, and the next begins. Transition words are also helpful for readers because they can tell when you’re changing topics or going to a new paragraph, making it easier on their eyes!
Use short paragraphs
Long paragraphs can be intimidating for some readers. Breaking down your article into short sections will make it easier for readers to follow. More compressed blocks of text are more inviting and help readers who were just skimming through your post to stay longer once they find what they are searching for.
Link existing content
Interlinking your related articles is a powerful way of signalling to Google that your content is relevant to a particular search term. If you are writing about the benefits of eating healthy, it would be wise for that article to link to another one of your articles on related topics such as “how much water should I drink?” or “how many calories we need not to gain weight?”
You should link to external sources in your niche. Links will make it easier for readers to find out more information and signal that you are knowledgeable about the subject and have done research outside of just what is available on search engines.
Optimise the length of your article
The length of your article is essential for both SEO and the reader. If your paper is too short, it may not have enough information to be useful or interesting. Do not make your articles too long either, as this may hurt your user experience as well. However, if you are writing about a complex topic, say, Quantum physics, I doubt that 500 words would be enough to cover the subject, so try to balance it.
The length also affects how much time people spend browsing through your articles. Remember that shorter pieces might get more attention than longer ones because people nowadays have short attention spans.
I always try to keep my articles between 1500 and 2500 words long. If I’m covering a complex topic, I will write a piece no longer than 3500 words long.
Try to mix up the media on your article by including images, video (embed youtube videos), infographics and lists to help keep the reader engaged.
Publish articles regularly
Try to post articles as frequently as you can. It is crucial to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. The best time to publish a piece is in the morning because this will give you a head start on your competition, and it also gives people more chance of reading them during their lunch break or before they go home for dinner at night.
Newer posts tend to out-rank older posts, so if you have run out of content to publish, revisit older articles and try to improve on them. Search your desired keyword and peruse through the posts that are currently outranking you. Try to pinpoint why and look for something they might have missed that could give you an advantage.
Avoid Plagiarism
Do not copy content from other publications and try to pass it off as your own. Plagiarism is a sure way of getting penalised by Google, and you will not rank for anything in the long run. It is okay to get some inspiration from someone else’s work, but copy-and-paste is a no-no!
Use a Keyword Tool
A keyword tool is an online resource that helps you find keywords related to your niche or topic of interest and gives them in order from most searched for, least-searched term on the internet! It will also offer suggestions as well, so it’s worth checking out before starting any article writing process if possible.
I love using a paid tool called Ahrefs. It will give you a list of keywords related to your topic and then show how many people are searching for them on Google, Bing or Yahoo. Ahrefs also offers keyword suggestions, helping you find new content ideas that have not been written about before.
You do not necessarily need paid tools to get good keyword suggestions. There are many free tools on the market like Keyword Tool, Wordtracker and Answer The Public and more!
Backlinks
Many industry professionals consider backlinks to be the most critical part of SEO. They are the backbone to any successful campaign, and without them, you will not get anywhere near your desired ranking on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
Backlinks are hyperlinks that point to your website from other websites. These links are essential because they show Google and the rest of the search engines what sites think about you, which is a good indicator of how relevant or valuable it may be concerning their content on those particular pages (or articles).
The more backlink sources pointing at one site means there’s an increased chance people will find them when searching through SERPs as well! It also helps if these external webpages have high domain authority – this can help push up rankings even higher than before, too, so don’t forget all aspects while building out link-building campaigns: quality over quantity always wins here, folks.
If someone has written something negative against my company’s brand, I would want to know it. The first thing you should do is get in touch with the person who wrote that post and ask them for link removal or if they can edit their content so as not to mention your company’s brand name again, but don’t be surprised when this doesn’t work out well because most people are stubborn like me!
The next step would then involve contacting Google themselves through an online form which will take some time before anything happens on either side of things; I’m sure we all have better ways than waiting around, right? There could also potentially come up other issues such as being penalised by search engines due to having backlinks from spammy websites.
Backlinks can come from various sources: social media posts; guest blogging for other websites to promote their content while also promoting yours at the same time! You could even create an infographic that is so good it goes viral across all platforms like Pinterest, where people share organically, which then leads back into more traffic coming through onto the website as well
The possibilities do go endless when we start talking about how many different ways there ARE out here!! It’s just up to you to take advantage of these opportunities! You can earn backlinks naturally by writing quality content that people want to link to or share. Other writers arent as patient and will buy backlinks (not recommended) but to each their own.
Another popular strategy is to reach out to other websites in your niche and request to write a guest post for them. This is a great way to get your content in front of new audiences and earn some backlinks as well!
Search engine optimisation is not a new thing. It’s one of those things that has been around for quite some time, but it’s still as relevant to businesses today as it was back in the day. The tactics are just different than they were before: now, there are no tricks! You have to be creative, engaging, and prolific to keep up with this ever-changing world in which we live.
Ever wondered what is the longest body of work in english literature? This article on Fanfiction has the answer! Oh, and if you are thinking about publishing your very first book, consider this self-publishing 101 article!
