Some marketers try to trick and go on routes to maneuver Google’s algorithm, thinking it would give them the fastest results. However, to be successful with SEO, it’s about making friends with the algorithm and understanding how it actually works. The result may be a little slow, but it’s going to give a real boost.
There is no single definite approach to successful SEO but there are important steps that you should not forget.
Here are 9 steps to creating SEO-friendly content to boost your website search rankings;
Step 1: Always start with keyword research
Your content should always have a keyword to target with 1 primary keyword and 8-10 additional keywords.
To identify what keywords to target, you have to understand what your target audience is searching online, what questions do they ask and what words do they use when searching. This will help you identify the keywords that you can rank for because you want to make sure that you get the exact words and phrases that your target audience use online.
Step 2: Identify search intent and format
You must identify the search intents of your target audience and how they format them.
Search intents can be identified using clues;
- Informational intent (how, tutorials, checklist, tips)
- Commercial intent (review, best, cheapest)
- Navigational intent (name of the brand, company or services, location)
- Transactional intent (discount, sale, coupon, buy)
And then, what you do is look through the top 10 results and study their content format. The words they use, the title, the keywords and if they use CTA, what CTA’s they use, etc.
You want to get ideas on what content format is best for you to use.
Step 3: Optimise your meta title
Your meta title is what people see first thing on the results page.
So, you want to make that it;
- Includes keywords
- Address user’s intent
- Has at least 60 characters
- Catches the attention of readers
- May include a CTA
Optimizing your meta title is very important as you want to make that first impression to users so they are motivated to click on it and visit your website.
Step 4: Optimize your meta description
Along with your meta title, users get to see a maximum of 165 characters below it which you can optimize more people to click to your website.
Some people read the meta description first before they decide to click for more. That is why, you want to make sure that your meta description, supports your meta title.
Don’t forget to add your keywords to your description too and include a CTA.
Step 5: Optimize your H1 tag
If you think H1 tags don’t make any difference, well, it does!
The H1 tag is the one that introduces your content to your readers. It’s what they first see when they click on the link from the result page. Plus, H1 tags are very important for search engines too.
One of the most complex tasks of search engines is to interpret the meaning of a page. To do that most efficiently and fast, they use data from different signals and one of those signals is the page title and the H1 tag.
That is why you must optimize your H1 tag too.
Step 6: Format your content
To make your readers stay on your content and read it from top to bottom, you have to make sure that your content is well structured and formatted.
Formatting tips:
- Use heading tags
- Use bullet points and numbered list
- Use bold and italicization to emphasize words or phrases
- One paragraph = one idea
Step 7: Add visuals and optimize them
Adding visuals such as videos, images, and infographics makes your content more appealing. Plus, they help explain your content even more.
However, you want to make sure that you optimize your visuals.
- Optimize the size to load it faster
- Optimize visual names
- Optimize alt tags
Step 8: Optimize your URL
Don’t forget to optimize your URLs for SEO. URLs are one of the signals that the algorithm reads to understand your page content.
- Make it descriptive
- Make it easy to read by using small caps
- Include your target keywords
- Use hyphens instead of underscores
Step 9: Add relevant links
The last step is to add relevant links to your content. You have to identify which internal and external links you can add to your content but remember that they should only be highly relevant to your current content.
Make sure to follow these steps to make sure you create SEO-friendly content for your website all the time. With consistent efforts on your content, you will definitely be improving your search result ranking.