For anyone seeking to improve their website’s search rankings, writing good SEO content is key. While a few years ago that might have meant stilted prose and awkwardly high keyword saturation, that is not the case today. Rather than focusing on catching a robot’s eye, write something that will pique the interest of your reader. At the same time, it also pays to ensure that a search engine like Google can still easily read and understand your content. Below, I’ll discuss a few things that can help you find a balance—creating rich, readable content that will find you viewers all while improve your search ranking.
Quality over Quantity
I know it seems simple, but it bears repeating: writing good content at a more methodical pace will always beat dumping large loads of poor-quality content on your page. High-quality, well-written content that appears regularly and stays live will produce positive results in Google and other search engines. Plus, all of the things that are beyond your control, like links from outside pages of high rank, will only come if you have something worth linking to. This is one of the happy cases where the solution that feels good, i.e. doing good work, is empirically your best bet over the long term.
Choose Your Keywords Wisely
Keywords are, and always have been, a central piece for any one seeking to do search engine optimization (SEO) work. Unlike in years past, however, spending too much time on keywords, or giving over too high a percentage of your content to them, can lead to trouble. Keyword density, if it is too high, can be classified as “keyword stuffing,” a rather self-explanatory term, which will in turn lead to penalties in Google or other search engines. By ensuring that you are using a quality keyword, and that you are doing so organically, you can avoid the pitfalls that, in the past, might have reaped rewards.
Take Care with Commas
…and spelling, and other aspects of proof reading. Carefully selecting your keywords will not help much if you misspell them. Plus, a major piece in the process of making sure that your content is of a high enough caliber to be read, and linked to, by other sites, is ensuring that there aren’t obvious errors in your text. What is more, these problems are easily corrected, so don’t let a grammatical blunder hurt your rankings. Some straightforward tips:
- Take a bit of time between the last draft you write and your final edits.
- Read your piece aloud. You will catch errors with your ears that your eyes might have missed.
- Remember that an outside eye is always valuable. Even if you don’t take all the advice you receive, asking a friend or colleague to give your piece a once-over can be a big help.
Final Thoughts
These tips are just a few of the many things to think about when creating SEO friendly writing. Rather than getting bogged down in particulars, though, it pays to keep in mind the simple fact that good content will get you better results. Everything else follows from there.