Since the impact of SEO optimized content on a site’s search engine ranking was discovered, experts in the field have studied the strategies leading up to achieving fully optimized content. Why does every website owner strive for optimized content? This is because everyone concerned with digital marketing knows how important a decent SERP ranking is.
If you are wondering, a spot within the first ten ranks on the search engine result page is almost as far as your audience is willing to go. No one enjoys the stress of going through pages and pages of the millions of articles in Google’s index. For this reason, a spot on the landing result page has garnered the competition it currently has.
Although several methods have been invented to give sites better ranks, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains at the top. However, such a thing with immense potential effects does not come easy. How then can you enrich your webpage with SEO-optimized content? As this is the aim of this article, let us get down to detail.
What Is SEO?
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. It is not a one-stop game-changer that brings about massive changes to what your rank is on search engines. Rather, it is a series of steps you take to organically increase the chances of your articles meeting standards set by the search engine.
What Do SEO-Optimized Articles Mean?
An SEO-Optimized (or SE-optimized article) is web content that is in line with measures of optimization as recognized by search engines. In other words, one could say that an SEO-optimized article is an article that is fully optimized or enhanced for the search engine.
Optimizing your Articles for SEO
For one’s articles to be optimized one must focus on both on & off-site SEO. In terms of on-site SEO, you will be concerned with–
Keyword optimization; and
Content optimization
However, off-site SEO deals with more technical factors. Some of these SEO boosts are–
URLs containing your keyword
Persuasive meta-description
Image optimization
Quality links; and
Optimized site layout.
Keyword Optimization – Keywords have a positive impact on your on-page SEO. However, you can not jump on a random keyword that comes to mind to center your article around. Therefore, you must carry out keyword research. From the results, select the keyword that has a low SD (search density) value and a high CPC (Cost Per Click) rate. The SD value is the estimated value of competition a keyword has in organic searches. Using a keyword that has a high value for SD, you will be facing more competition. How can you use your keywords optimally?
Place your Keyword in the article’s H1 heading. It would be even better if you add the keyword to one of the sentences close to the heading in the text body. However, the H2 and H3 headings should not be left out. By adding your keyword in these headings, Google understands that the content under these headings is related to the keyword.
Let your keyword appear in your article but do not practice keyword stuffing. When does inputting keywords in your content translate to keyword stuffing? When your keyword appears more times than necessary in a bid to increase your keyword count and variety, or page density, it becomes keyword stuffing. You need not do this as the relevance of sites is no longer rated by the frequency of the keyword in articles. Rather, input your keyword into your article only when there is a spot for it. When you force your keywords into the article, it disrupts its natural flow.
Including LSI keywords is another great way to good ranks on Google. LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords tell Google how much your article covers a topic. Using this keyword requires you to research some phrases that are related to your article’s theme.
Content Optimization – Although the factors that affect SEO are subject to change, quality content as a factor remains constant. What does Google look for in the content of your page?
Length; It is a fact that Google favors detailed content. Why? The wordier an article is, the more details and information it contains. For this reason, long articles rank better on Google for most niches.
Readability; Another factor Google considers in ranking articles is their level of readability. No doubt, length is valued, however, regardless of the length of your article, individuals should find the content easy to read. Understandably, the definition of readability varies across niches. Google understands that a site whose niche is the medical field would not be as simplified as one in the cooking niche to be considered readable. Essentially, keep unnecessary jargon out of your content. There are several tools online that can help measure the degree of your article’s readability. A good example is Hemingway.
Up-to-date content: To ensure that its users get the best, Google ensures to give these users the most time-relevant content. If your article was written in 2016 and has not been updated since then, Google can not consider such content as current. To make changes to your content–
Visit the blogging platform you used in posting the article.
Click on your post title
Edit the article however you like, then click on the preview option to see what it currently looks like.
If you are satisfied, click on Update/Revert to draft.
When you frequently update your articles, Google recognizes these changes and acknowledges your page content as being up-to-date.
Including Some Elements of Technical Factors for ranking –
Your on-page SEO practices are just as important as your off-page SEO practices. Here are ways you can optimize some of the vital technical off-page ranking factors;
Enrich your URL with your keyword– Rather than pick a random URL to your site like most other site owners, you can utilize the provision of a link to your advantage. A URL with your keyword in it has two major advantages.
Optimizing your URL by including your keyword makes it easier for your audience to remember.
In addition, being able to see your keyword in your URL mix Google rank your site above the competition.
Include a persuasive meta-description; When you post an article on the Google search engine you either create your article’s description or leave it to Google to put in a random snippet. These snippets are meant to tell the audience what lies in store for them in your article, however, if you settle for something random, it might not be as persuasive as you need it to be. Without requiring complicated programming, the Yoast plugin allows you to edit and create meta-descriptions and URLs alike for your posts.
Optimize Images; Although it has been established that the human mind works better with visual content, the importance of images in web content is somehow overlooked. Optimizing your image content can be achieved in two simple ways;
Firstly, change the image’s title to one or more keywords in your article.
Next, include a short but apt description that shows the image’s relation to the article’s content.
Build quality links; Another important off-site SEO factor is link building. Considering how not all guests to your site discovered that page on Google, internal links and backlinks are must-have. By enriching your articles with quality links, you have a higher chance of more people visiting your site. These visits can come from your social media, Google Search card, or guest outreach. You should also fix broken links on your site as these will hinder your SEO rankings. Using tools like Dead link checker helps one to identify broken links.
Optimize your webpage; To ensure that your audience has good user experience, you equally need to optimize your site. Here are some things you should give attention to–
Seeing how most persons carrying out searches online do so using mobile devices, your site should be mobile-friendly. However, this does not mean your site should be inaccessible to desktop users.
Decrease your site load time as much as you can. The more time it takes for the content of your article to load, the quicker a visiting individual would want to return to the SERP and visit another site that does not lag. Therefore, your SEO could go to waste if you neglect your site optimization in terms of loading speed.
Ensure to use valid HTML and CSS. Although this side of optimization is more technical, you can get the help of a web developer. Following the rules for these web frameworks helps you avoid a penalty and gets you a decent score or recommendations on areas where you can improve. W3C validator is an example of a tool with which you can validate your markup.
Focus on more than text; As social media has long gained the attention of several individuals, including a social sharing plugin would encourage your audience to share those posts they love considering how they can achieve this with the click of a button. You should also prepare and include keywords that will likely be used for voice searches. For this, you can use keywords like “how to” or “around me”. By including such keywords in your article, it increases your chances of being accessible to individuals who carry out voice searches on Google.
Why should your site’s content be optimized?
Although we can not over-emphasize the benefits of well-optimized content, here are some major benefits of SEO optimized content–
Impressive ROI
A key factor to consider in measuring the effectiveness of one’s digital marketing strategies (SEO in this case) is the Return on Investments. While it might take time to observe the results of an SEO strategy, when properly implemented, it yields great ROI.
Attracts trust & credibility
Getting a spot on the landing search engine result page requires a lot of effort and a blend of on-site and off-site SEO signals. Sometimes, your audience also recognizes how difficult it is to rank. Therefore, if you can bring your site to this position, it means you have successfully optimized your content and your site layout for a shorter load time or mobile-friendliness. With time, this builds credibility between you and your audience.
Results that are not short-lived
Unlike when drawing traffic using paid ads, the results of well-optimized articles do not disappear when your campaigning funds run out. As long as you continually put in the effort to optimize your content and stay up to date, you can benefit from the round-the-clock promotion you get for ranking well.
Better PPC turnout
Your SEO reflects on how well your PPC campaigns turn out. With a position on the landing result page and a spot among its first five slots, your audience would want to visit your site. This is because, appearing somewhere in this space can be translated to your site being relevant, mobile-friendly, and quick to load.
Bottom Line
Whatever your site niche is, the emotions and attention of your audience remain factors you would like to capture. Through good SEO efforts, you satisfy the two important groups on which your site depends; the search engine, and the audience. Although a well-driven strategy requires a lot of effort, the results of your SEO strategy are proportional to the effort you put in. In other words, the time, effort, and resources you put in determine the results of this long-term digital marketing approach. Considering the benefits of this strategy, it is worth the effort.