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No matter what industry you are in or what type of content you offer, optimizing your website content for SEO is important.
SEO is not an exact science and many factors influence how your content will be ranked. Google’s algorithm is quite complex and it can sometimes be tricky to understand what factors robots rely on to rank one website higher than another. But rest assured, our experts are here to help. In this article, our SEO experts give you their best tips for writing SEO-friendly blog articles.
Deliver engaging content
While it may seem obvious that you need to deliver engaging content, sometimes a little reminder doesn’t hurt. The most important thing to remember is that you need to meet the expectations of your audience, which includes providing them with quality articles. Engaging content goes hand in hand with attention-grabbing content, which will make visitors want to click. Therefore, choosing the right topics for your articles is crucial.
If you are lacking inspiration, consider appealing directly to your followers or customers. If you find that a particular issue comes up frequently at client meetings or in comments under your posts, you can write about it. This will help you address topics that interest your readers. Furthermore, you can use your social networks to ask your audience about topics they want to see, through a poll, for example.
Also, consider analyzing how well your previous articles performed. This will show you which topics your visitors like the most, which gives you insight into what you can do next.
Many optimizations are necessary for SEO-friendly articles
Once you have chosen the topic of your article, many factors will be important for SEO when you sit down to write it.
Step one is to properly structure your articles
First, text structure will be crucial for your SEO-friendly article and this will involve a number of points. The goal is to make the reading as pleasant as possible, not only for your visitors, but also for Google. Consequently, you absolutely must organize your text in paragraphs, inserting headings and subheadings throughout the text. The same basic principle applies to your essays in secondary school, which were organized in several parts and sub-parts.
Not only does this make your content more digestible to your visitors, but it also allows Google’s algorithm to better understand how your page is structured. This is very important for SEO-friendly content. Google can detect how a text is organized, and the clearer it is, the more likely it is that the article will be ranked prominently.
Also remember to use a rich and diverse vocabulary in your writing. Google is currently able to detect the linguistic depth of an article and therefore notice if you are using the same terms over and over again. Repeating the exact same keywords and expressions is not a good idea, both for your SEO and your readers. So don’t hesitate to diversify your vocabulary and use synonyms.
Use heading tags to clarify your point
Heading tags are great tools to help you organize your articles and should always be used in your writing. Simply put, heading tags correspond to the titles of your sections and paragraphs. There are six heading tags, the most important of which is the H1 tag. This tag is the most often analyzed by search engines, so you should pay special attention to it and include an important keyword you want to rank on.
Heading tags help guide users through their reading and make it easy to find the answer to their question. If your reader already knows part of the answer you provide, heading tags will allow them to skip directly to the section of your article that interests them most, without being tempted to leave your page. This method is also much appreciated by search engines, which quickly analyze the way you have presented the information and highlight your content.
Pay attention to your title tag and meta description
Next, remember to write your title tag and, most importantly, your meta description. These two elements are the first things users will see on search engines, so you need to make them want to click immediately.
The title tag must always contain the main keyword of your article and should not be a copy-paste of your H1 tag. Although the two should be relatively close to each other to make it easier for Google to index your page, you should not repeat the exact same thing. Moreover, we recommend not exceeding 70 characters for this tag if you want to be SEO-friendly.
The meta description doesn’t fit directly into Google’s SEO ranking factors, but it is very important for your readers. This is because the click-through rate is an important factor that is taken into account by the search engine algorithm to rank your article, which means that you need to attract attention from the search results. A good meta description will certainly bring you new visitors and greatly contribute to increasing your website’s traffic.
Image optimization is also very important for SEO-friendly content
If you want to include images in your content (and we strongly recommend doing so), you will need to optimize them. Firstly, keep in mind the size of your photos: the heavier they are, the more they will impact the loading speed of your site, which is very important for your SEO. Google tends to favor fast websites and too slow a loading time could drastically increase your bounce rate.
Feel free to compress your images as much as possible, taking care not to reduce their quality. Also, at a time when mobile search is becoming more and more popular, it is vital to use a format adapted to all platforms. You don’t want your readers to be distracted by an image that doesn’t display properly.
Another point to consider in your writing will your image Alt tags. An Alt tag corresponds to an alternative text that describes a visual when it doesn’t appear on the screen. In other words, this means renaming your images, preferably using relevant keywords. This method will not only allow your readers to view your content, but also search engine robots to understand your images and index them. Adding a keyword to your image will help Google make the link between your image and your article, which will help your SEO.
Choose the right keywords for your articles
One of the main ranking factors for your content will be your choice of keywords. You should precisely define a set of terms you want to rank for and make sure they are relevant. This can be done by determining a main keyword, as well as other terms related to the subject of your article. These are called long tail keywords, i.e. a more detailed set of words that revolve around your main keyword. There are several tools available to conduct your keyword research, including Google Ads, so consider using them to help you.
Don’t hesitate to be precise when choosing your terms, as broader keywords are generally much more competitive, which means that you will probably have a harder time ranking on them. If you broaden the searches you want to be indexed on, you will be more likely to target a wider audience. Users tend to be quite specific on search engines to save time and access information more quickly. Choosing a set of relevant terms will ensure that you meet the expectations of your target audience.
Work on your internal linking
Finally, if you want to improve your SEO performance, internal links will be your friend. Simply put, internal linking allows you to link your pages together and organize your articles by including relevant links. The benefit here is twofold: your readers are redirected to other related articles and your website is even more optimized. Navigation will be more fluid, your bounce rate will tend to decrease and users will spend more time on your site.
All these elements will send a positive signal to search engines, which will take this into account when ranking your articles. This shows Google that your site is trustworthy and high-quality, which means that you deserve a higher ranking. In addition, internal linking is a good way to direct your visitors to less popular pages of your site by adding links to these pages in your content.
In short, there are many ways to optimize your articles and make them SEO-friendly, but don’t worry if you can’t get everything in place right away. SEO has plenty of rules and it is often quite tricky to follow them all to the letter. However, keep in mind these tips when writing your articles and remember that small changes can make a big difference to your ranking.
If you have any further questions on the topic or if you need help developing your online visibility, we invite you to contact us!
