Writing for the web is one of the most important aspects of content marketing. It helps you rank in Google and increase your traffic.
To make your SEO content stand out, there are a few things you need to consider. These 10 rules will help you create optimized content that will both attract people and get ranked on search engines.
1. Create a Content Outline
If you want to optimize content for SEO, you need to understand what makes it rank high on Google. Specifically, you need to know how to create evergreen content that remains relevant for your audience long after it has been published.
One way to do this is to create a content outline before you start writing. It can make the writing process much easier and faster.
2. Create a Rough Draft
Writing a rough draft is a crucial step when it comes to SEO writing. It helps you get all the ideas down uncensored and allows you to experiment with different concepts and points of view.
The rough draft can also help you identify holes in your research and improve your content. It can even be a good time to test new ideas and see which ones work best for your site.
3. Ask for Feedback
Feedback is a great way to identify areas for improvement. It can also boost your SEO rankings.
Ask your clients for feedback using a survey or email template. This allows them to give their thoughts in the most comfortable format.
4. Revise Your Draft
Often, the best writers will spend time revising their drafts. It gives them a second chance to zoom out and catch mistakes they missed the first time.
When revising your draft, focus on big-picture issues like topic and structure. It’s also a good idea to get someone else to read your draft so you can receive a fresh perspective.
5. Share Your Draft
Share your draft with a circle of critiquers to get feedback on your work. This can help you improve your writing skills and ensure it’s ready for publication.
When you’re sharing your draft, be sure to @mention your teammates in a comment. That way, they can see the conversation in their Shared with me section and start collaborating.
6. Optimize Your Draft
Optimizing your draft as much as possible for users and search engines alike is important. That’s why you should use keyword-rich headlines and implement SEO best practices throughout the article.
For example, organize your content with relevant H2 and H3 tags. These help Google understand the context and hierarchy of your page. This can lead to higher ranking opportunities and improved traffic, shares, and backlinks.
7. Optimize Your Images
Images are a powerful visual element on your website that contribute to the overall narrative of your site. However, unoptimized images can slow down your site’s load times and decrease customer satisfaction.
Optimizing your images is a simple process that can help improve your page load times and boost your SEO performance. It involves reducing your image file size while maintaining quality.
8. Optimize Your Video
A video is a visual content format that’s increasingly important in marketing. It can be used to teach viewers or demonstrate products or services.
Taking intent into account when optimizing your video will help you reach the right audience and move them forward in their journey as a consumer. This will also help you rank your content on search engines like Google.
9. Optimize Your Schema Markup
The right schema markup can tell search engines what your content is about. This helps them better understand your page and rank it higher in SERPs.
There are several ways to add schema markup to your website, including adding it directly in the body tag or as microdata. It is important to choose the best option for your website.
10. Optimize Your Meta Description
The meta description is a small (but valuable) real estate space in search engine results to explain what your page offers. When done well, a meta description can increase your organic search CTR.
Meta descriptions should intelligently employ the page’s target keywords in a non-spammy way that compels the user to click through to the page. This is a key part of SEO optimization.
