There is a lot of talk out there about how to optimize your page for the search engines. And with good reason, as rating well on SEO will bring you thousands of visitors, all looking exactly for what you can offer them.
Despite all the theory, what is harder to find, however, is a step-by-step guide as to how to actually optimize your content on your site. We thought we would help you in that regard. Find below the SEO tips for quality content creation.
1. The title
The first place where you want to make sure your optimized is in the title, as Google and the other search engines, rate this as very important. Naturally, you want to include the keywords you are using in the title of your piece. You probably already knew that.
What is also important, however, is where in the title your keywords are to be found. The closer to the beginning they are, the more important Google and the other search engines are going to think they are.
Do not just stop there. Realize that while you might have an idea about what your keywords should be, the search engines will make up their own mind. This means that you can actually rank for several keywords at the same time.
Why is this important? Well, you can expand your keyword range by adding a couple of clever additions to your title. For example, including the year in the title is a great idea, as this is something people will often put into a search to get more up to date information. Another word’s to consider are ‘review’, ‘guide’ or ‘101’.
1. URLs
Do not just include your keywords in the title, either. Make sure they also go into your URL. Also, focus on making your URL short and free of jargon, as this will both make google rank it better and will boost the chance that people will look at your site. After all, they are not just going to read the title, but will often also scan the URL.
This means that you do not want something like: ‘yoursite/subpart/category/your keyword plus some numbers’. Instead, if possible aim at ‘yoursite/keywords’.
2. H1
Make sure that whatever template you are using your title gets the H1 tag associated with it. Now, most templates do this automatically, but some do not. Check your code to make certain that yours does, otherwise, it does not matter how much work you are putting into your title. Google simply will not pick it up.
Instead, the search engine will simply assume it is part of the basic text. And that is a big lost opportunity. If it does not, then you are going to have to rejig your template.
3. Reduce bounce rate
Next up is reducing the bounce rate. Google cares a great deal about this, so you have to find ways to reduce the chance that people will not engage with your content. Some easy ways to do this is to have engaging graphics and videos with which they can interact, as the moment they do that they are no longer considered bouncers.
This is of course not the only way to reduce the bounce rate. Having high-quality content that directly relates to your keywords is also going to help a lot. For that reason, consider getting professional writers involved. If you do not know where to find those, take a look at essay republic. Still, text alone will not cut it. Nowadays, people expect more than that.
4. H2
Make sure your sub-headings are marked with the H2 tag. What’s more, include your keywords – as well as semantically related words – are in these tags as well, as Google now cares about this kind of thing.
The way to find out what Google considered the semantically related keywords are is to do a search on your keyword and then scroll down to the bottom of the page for suggested searches. Google things these are related. Including them will, therefore, boost your SEO.
5. Put your keyword in the first 100 words
This will re-emphasize to Google that you are in fact talking about what you are supposed to be talking about. So make certain that where possible, your keyword is included in the first 100 words of your post.
6. Outbound links
Google assumes that good articles about keywords will have links to other sites to support their case. So make certain that you include outbound links, as these will have you rate better.
Note that it is important that these links actually relate to your keywords. Otherwise, it will not make much of a difference.
7. Internal links
Do not just focus on outbound links either, but also put in links to your own content, as this will both serve to reduce your bounce rate that bit further and boost the status of those other articles.
While you are at it, try to make certain that those links include the keywords that you are trying to rank those articles for, as this will again help make certain that Google understand that is what that article is about.
8. Social sharing buttons
Though they might not directly boost your SEO, they will make certain that more people end up seeing your post (as they can boost your social sharing by 700%), which in turn creates more opportunities for backlinks.
And as that is the real currency of SEO, it is vital that you create as many opportunities as possible to create those.
9. Post long content
This is important for two reasons.
- First of all, Google directly cares about how long your content is, assuming that all other things being equal, longer articles are better articles.
- Secondly, the longer the article, the longer the ‘dwell time’ or a number of time people have a page open. This is another metric Google uses to decide if your content is any good.
For that reason, make sure your content is long and of high quality.
10. Make sure your content is mobile compatible
Finally, make sure that your content is mobile compatible and can easily be viewed across different devices. If it can’t you’re not just going to miss out on over half your audience, but you’re also going to get penalized by Google directly.
In other words, all your hard work can be undone if you are not mobile compatible. So take the time to fix that. Only then do you have a good chance of ranking well for SEO?
