Drawing more traffic to your website isn’t always easy, at least not if you don’t grasp the importance of optimal site optimization techniques. Search engine optimized platforms with a good backlink and solid authority benefit from a higher rank in Google. Choosing the right SEO strategies will provide you with a powerful online presence, increasing the likelihood of having your site show up on the main page, get more shares, likes and clicks.
Updating site content is essential to maintain yourself relevant, draw more visitors and keep them coming back. However, even if you believe your written content is qualitative, if it’s not SEO-friendly, its reach will be limited.
How can you improve your content and excel your site’s SEO? Here are some guidelines you need to follow:
1) Start with research – keywords to target
Before you actually start writing and optimizing your content, you need to do your homework on the subject. Identify the most appealing and SEO-friendly keywords to incorporate in the text. The keywords you use will allow you to reach the right audience, the group of people who are actually interested in what you have to say.
Targeted keywords are those key phrases and terms your audience is actively searching on Google. Be aware of the following things:
- Who your audience is
- What type of info they need
- Which keywords they are currently using to find it
Identifying the audience segment you think is interested in what you have to offer can be done through research. From surveys to forum browsing, spend some time figuring out preferences, demographics and checking stats.
- For keyword research efficiency you should:
- Use Google and YouTube suggest
- Check out Google’s “Searches Related to” section
Use a reliable keyword research tool (The Google Keyword Planner is a powerful example here, possibly the most reliable keyword information source online)
2) Choose the right type of content
Perhaps you already have a target keyword in mind, you now need a topic that is relevant to that specific term or phrase. This step will help you figure out what kind of articles search engines think work best for that said keyword. Certain queries will only show listicles for example, so a quick Google search can guide you in one direction or another, in terms of a content type.
3) Article length
One aspect many writers with limited SEO knowledge tend to neglect is article length. Depending on the target keyword, there is a common length raking higher. Having a clear idea from the start on long your articles ghoul be will help you maintain your content SEO-friendly.
4) Post title and meta title
Any block of text on your site should come with a post title and a meta title. There is a difference between these two. The post title is the actual title users see when checking out your article. The meta title is how Google or other search engines show your post in users’ search results.
Without specifying your meta title when optimizing the content, Google will treat the main, post title as a meta version as well.
Because the meta title is the one targeted by search engines, it should be SEO-optimized, and that means incorporating your main keyword or key phrase in it.
5) Meta description
Considering WordPress is the most popular website creation tool, this is probably the open-source management tool you’ve used yourself. Regardless of your chosen WP SEO plugin, you have the possibility to add a meta description. These descriptions can help you rank higher on search engines.
View the meta description as an “advertising” summary phrase for your content. It needs to be short, concise, engaging and most of all, it should contain the necessary keywords.
Through meta descriptions, you are improving your post’s potential to drive the highest amount of traffic to your platform.
6) Use headlines and sub-headers
Readability is one of the key characteristics of great content. When your posts are skimmable they are likely to be shared more. This is why you need to make use of headlines and sub-headers.
Fragmenting your content correctly is relevant not only for readability but for SEO purposes as well. Search engine robots will recognize headlines and understand content better when your post is properly sectioned.
SEO optimized themes usually give the title of the article an H1 heading tag by default. What you need to do is incorporate sub-headings in the rest of the article: H2, H3 and so on. For better SEO results, use keywords in the heading tags.
7) Use images with the right Alt attributes
Readers find articles with images easier and more interesting to read. Attractive photos, relevant to the information posted will help you ensure engagement. According to Skyword research, articles incorporating great images benefit from up to 94% more views than articles without photos.
People are drawn to visuals, so you should use this to your advantage. However, because we’re talking about SEO-friendly characteristics here, make sure the search engines understand what your images are about by adding names.
Name each photo with a relevant keyword. When you are uploading pictures, add the right alt attributes. ALT tags will increase your visibility on Google and contribute to you’re the SEO efficiency of your website.
8) Interlink and anchor text
Linking back to your old blog posts is another advised idea here. What this does is determine readers to spend more time on your site. Also, interlinking will have search engines recrawl old content. When you are interlinking, you can opt for the anchor text method (it points out to the most important article keywords).
Besides internal links, add a few external ones as well, from high-authority sources. A few examples of great high-authority sites are Huffington Post, The Guardian or Telegraph. These will increase the validity of your online platform, and make your site seem like a more trustworthy source for readers. The better the links are, the higher your search engine ranks will be.
9) Make it shareable
So now you have interesting, engaging content posted on your site. The keywords are there, your headlines are on-point and you’ve added meta descriptions and titles. The next step is giving your audience the possibility to actually share your article. Add social media buttons to your site, so visitors can easily share your post with others. This will naturally lead to a traffic increase.
10) Use content optimization tools
If you are having trouble handling everything on your own, you should know you have a wide variety of useful tools you can use to improve the quality of your content. Hemingway Editor, Grammarly, Read-able, Keyword Density Checker are a few examples of resources and services that help you optimize and maintain content quality to high standards.
To sum up, your website’s success depends quite a lot on the content you post. With so much competition in the online environment, your SEO strategy is critical to remain relevant and benefit from high daily traffic. Make our posts more SEO-friendly by following each one of the guidelines highlighted above. From meta title and meta descriptions to article length, each one of these pointers is equally important.