5 Things Content Writers Should Know About SEO

Content plays a very pivotal role in search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines are always trying to identify pages and websites that contain relevant and informative content that can interest online visitors. They reward such sites or pages by providing them higher rankings in search results resulting in greater visibility and traffic.

Content writers therefore must understand the importance of good content in making SEO more effective and productive for the clients. In fact, some of the best SEO companies conduct proper orientation sessions for their content writers who have come on board.

Content writers who are interested in making a career in SEO need to keep several aspects in mind before they jump on board. The next few sections provide an account of five crucial things that every content writer must know about SEO:

#1. Content is the King in SEO

Content writers always write for their audience. However, when it comes to SEO, content is truly a king as good content means good business. This is the biggest tool in the hands of the best SEO companies to attract the attention of the audience and make them stay on a page for a longer timeframe. When the audience likes a piece of content, they are more likely to post comments and share it across various platforms including social media. This in turn signals search engines about the relevance of the content. Such pages and sites are always given utmost importance in search engine rankings.

So, content writers must follow a few simple tips to impress online visitors with their content:-

• Create relevant, crisp and catchy headlines or topics to instantly grab readers’ attention.
• If possible, try to include attention-grabbing phrases and statistics in headlines.
• Write with a purpose; share facts, discuss latest trends in the industry; address people’s queries or concerns.
• The primary purpose of SEO content is to generate traffic; so write in-depth, thoughtful and insightful content after thorough research on the given subject.
• Avoid writing short, superficial and shallow content as it can neither impress audience nor search engines.

#2. Optimal keyword use is important for effective SEO content

Keywords have always served as a parameter for search engines to rank content pages and sites. In order to prevent unnecessary keyword stuffing and provide users with more relevant and authentic content, search engines are continuously fine-tuning their algorithms. Today, the focus has shifted from keyword density to optimal keywords use wherein content follows a natural flow with relevant keywords and phrases being placed organically wherever applicable.

Search engines have also started identifying and acknowledging the use of related keywords, synonyms or grammatical variations in keywords in a content piece. Such a practice helps in eliminating the monotony of using the same set of keywords multiple times and thus makes the content more interesting and relevant. Search engines notice such content and also reward them.

#3. Easy readability is a must in SEO

Long articles and posts with insightful content are always rewarded in SEO. But, this happens only when the content is presented in a way to ensure easy readability. A good, interesting content may fail to attract traffic if not easily readable. Remember, every web page or content just has a couple of seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. During this time, users try to scan through the content to ascertain whether it makes for an interesting read. If presented well, they will get a glimpse of the whole content and can immediately get an idea about the relevance of the content. This in turn will help them decide whether or not to stay on the page or move on.

Easy readability can be ensured through following:

• Keep your paragraphs short and crisp; long paragraphs often intimidate readers
• Try to include interesting sub-headings
• Use bulleted lists wherever applicable
• Highlight important phrases or words in bold or italics

#4. Versatile content gets more attention in SEO

With the advent of online marketing and SEO, there is a bombardment of content in the digital space. Every business, whether big or small, is trying to win more traffic by providing interesting relevant content to users. Online users have only few seconds to decide what and what not to read. Even search engines are trying different parameters to locate the most relevant content pages. In this crowd, if a piece of content wants to stand out, there must be some versatile elements in it. This is typically ensured by including images or photos as part of the content.

Inclusion of images, graphics, charts, diagrams or graphs makes a content piece visually appealing, purposeful and informative, and gets it noticed by both search engines and users. However, it is important to remember that unlike human users, search engines cannot interpret or comprehend an image. So, images or pictures or any visual depiction in the content must be accompanied by alt-text.

#5. Content plagiarism is heavily penalized in SEO

Google and other search engines penalize pages and sites that contain duplicate or plagiarized content. The effectiveness of SEO campaigns rely to a great extent on the originality and freshness of the content. If any page or post contains content copied from elsewhere, search engines are able to trace such content and immediately flag it.

For example, Google’s Panda Algorithm updates target sites and pages containing duplicate, poorly written, irrelevant and shallow content. Sometimes, an entire site may also get penalized due to poor or plagiarized content. As a result of such penalties, a site may lose all its rankings and traffic thus negating months’ long SEO efforts. Some of the best SEO companies make use of different plagiarism software during quality check process for SEO content.

SEO involves several techniques, strategies and tactics. But, there is no replacement for good content in SEO. The above listed things provide content writers with an idea of how good content is defined in SEO. Each of these aspects must be kept in mind while writing content for SEO in order to effectively achieve the desired results – improved search engine result page rankings, higher traffic and more business.

Images: ” Author’s Own“

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