SEO Article: The Keys to Writing an Article Optimized for Search Engines

Writing a successful blog post requires very specific skills. You have to know how to capture (and keep) the attention of the Internet user, make him want to go to the end of his reading and answer the questions he asks himself. But it is also necessary to stick to the requirements of the Google algorithm, and for that to adapt its writing to the requirements of natural referencing. This is for gaining places in the SERP and generating more traffic, without ever forgetting to bring added value to the reader.

In this blog, we are going to give you the main keys to writing an SEO-friendly article, that is to say, one that is optimized for Google And calibrated to respond to the problems of Internet users — because these two objectives are inseparable.

Why write articles optimized for Google?

An SEO article is content optimized for natural referencing. Understand: that meets the algorithm requirements of search engine optimization(in this case, the most popular of them — Google). In fact, the editor adopts a certain number of good SEO practices in order to calibrate his text to ensure that it is placed at the top of the SERP (the results page).

Problem: content abounds on the Web. An estimated 4.4 million blog posts are published every day worldwide! This astronomical number gives you an idea of ​​the challenge: for content to be read, it must first be made visible to Internet users. With this in mind, it must appear in the first results of Google — because Internet users click mainly on the best-positioned organic links: 70% of clicks are concentrated on the first five organic results.

Another challenge is that even a high ranking in the SERP does not guarantee a sustainable volume of traffic and position, because it is also the quality that counts. If the content does not meet the expectations of Internet users, if it does not take their search intentions into account, it is very likely to disappear from the radar fairly quickly… Even if it has been rigorously optimized.

In short, the interest of an SEO article is twofold: it is optimized for Google and is of sufficient quality to satisfy users.

How does Google work?

Before revealing the secrets of an SEO article, it is important to understand how Google works. The purpose of search engine results is to organize information (all the information available!) to return it to Internet users and provide them with the most relevant answers possible.

For this, the engine must decide which content to promote. How is it? It’s simple: the algorithm “scans” the pages put online in order to index them and assess their degree of relevance with regard to searches carried out by users. Of course, this content is not served immediately after it is put online: it is “held” for a time in the database until Google is sure of its ability to offer a quality experience. (By the way, this is why it is often said that SEO strategies take time to show results!)

Writing an SEO article comes down to identifying the criteria used by Google to choose the content put forward during a search. However, these criteria are not explicit. The engine does give some generic instructions relating to the production of content (make your site interesting, understand what readers want, indicate your sources, adapt the length to the subject treated, etc.) but, in absolute terms, Google keeps its secrets for him. The role of SEOs is to control these parameters and identify the levers to activate for an article to position itself at the top of the SERP.

What are these levers? This is what we are going to discover now.

How to write an SEO article?

An SEO article meets two complementary objectives (and not contradictory, as one might think at first sight): to address both Google robots, which crawl the pages to be indexed, and Internet users, who are looking for answers to their questions. The complementarity of these two objectives can be explained simply: content must be optimized to be visible, and at the same time satisfy users to be considered, by Google, as relevant — which will further improve its positioning, therefore its visibility, therefore traffic volume, etc.

Here are the steps to follow to write an effective and relevant SEO article.

1. Identify a keyword to work on

Before you start writing, you need to define a theme (related to your industry) and a subject, then identify the main keyword to work on in your SEO article. (Note that topics can also be defined later, based on identified keywords.)

The object of the game here is to determine what terms are used by your target audiences to perform their searches. For example, on the subject of car insurance, Internet users type expressions such as “cheap car insurance”, “online car insurance”, “young driver car insurance”, etc. These requests are as many subjects as it is possible to deal with through a succession of content: an SEO article to find insurance coverage at a low price, another to help prospects understand how an online subscription works, etc.

The choice of the main term to use is not random. It is important to analyze the positioning of the different keywords and select the most relevant to your strategy: popular terms (backed by a large search volume), but not too competitive either (to have a chance of standing on it).

In this sense, it can be profitable to swap overly generic keywords for “long tail” expressions, which are less sought after but have higher conversion potential. For example, avoid “e-commerce development”, for which it is very difficult to obtain results, and prefer a related query such as “e-commerce development company”, which is highly sought after without being too competitive, but which promises to position your content as the end of the conversion funnel.

2. Define the objective of the SEO article

You have a subject and a keyword to work on. Now think about what purpose your SEO article should serve. What are you trying to tell your readers? What questions do you aim to answer? What added value will you bring them?

With this in mind, it is essential to understand the search intent behind the chosen query. If we take the example of “how to hire magento developer”, the intention is quite clear: the Internet user wishes to obtain concrete information as to the steps to follow to close his contract — this is therefore precisely what you must offer it in your content, taking into account the variety of possible situations (terminate in the event of the sale of the vehicle, terminate to change insurer, etc.).

A good way to do this is to look at the search results associated with your chosen query, directly in your Keyword Tool. Open the relevant pages and see how the content that ranks best meets the search intent of Internet users, in order to inspire you with their approach.

3. Structure the SEO article

To write a perfectly optimized article, it is necessary to develop an explicit and relevant structure, which respects a certain number of prerequisites. Thus, this structure must include…

• An introduction (possibly written in the form of a lead) that presents the subject treated and lists the main questions which the SEO article must answer. Take the opportunity to use your main keyword and work on the semantic field.
• The body of the text is divided into approximately equal paragraphs, each of them devoted to an idea, adopting the form of the inverted pyramid (the most important idea comes first, the secondary ideas then).
• A main title (H1) and subtitles (H2, H3, etc.) introduce the different parts and give clear indications as to their content. Keep in mind that titles and subtitles are essential from an SEO point of view: by prioritizing the content, they allow robots to better understand what it is about. The title must also include the main keyword and/or its variations.
• A conclusion that summarizes the main ideas of the content and highlights the takeaways for readers.

4. Write a sufficiently long article

The question of the ideal length of an SEO article is still debated, but one thing is certain: optimized blog content must have a minimum of 300 words, and ideally be at least 500.

You should know that Google appreciates long articles: this finding comes from numerous studies showing that the best-positioned content in the SERP is around 2,000 words — although length is not THE sole criterion that explains this performance. According to a survey conducted by HubSpot on its own content, the model SEO article should be between 2,100 and 2,400 words.

Yes, that’s a lot. But the longer the content, the more likely it is that the subject will be treated in depth, with a maximum of keywords used, and a well-developed semantic field. Hence the interest of Google. Afterward, it all depends on the subject and the extent you want to give it: it is better to write an SEO article of 600 words with high added value than an undrinkable content of 5,000 words that no one will ever read.

5. Strategically place keywords in content

The integration of the main keyword must follow a certain logic. It is a question of finding a perfect balance between the need to inform the algorithm (by fitting enough occurrences) and the desire to offer readers an accessible, relevant, and pleasant text.

Indeed, a keyword that is too present risks making your SEO article unreadable, and this is not what Google wants. In addition, the engine has other means to understand what your content is about: it knows how to identify the variations of the main query, analyze the synonyms, and locate the semantic field corresponding to the subject. In doing so, a density of 1% (ie one keyword per hundred words) is considered to be largely sufficient, provided that you use co-occurrences and synonyms in large numbers.

Also, the keyword must be inserted…

• in HTML tags (H1 tag, title, alt for images…),
• in the intro,
• in the first paragraph following the first subtitle,
• in the conclusion.

Do not forget the meta description, which appears in the SERP under the title: even if its SEO weight remains low, this tag is used to inform Internet users and make them want to click.

6. Optimize the article for featured snippets

On Google, featured snippets are direct answers provided by the engine to questions asked by Internet users, displayed at the top or to the right of classic results. Only the “best” answers benefit from this choice positioning, which offers maximum visibility and encourages Internet users to go further by clicking on the link.

However, it is possible to optimize your SEO article so that it has a chance of being displayed, by Google, in the form of a featured snippet, for example, a Zero Position — a highly sought-after box because of the visibility that ‘he brings. To do this, a few simple rules must be applied, such as: answering the question succinctly (but completely), integrating the request as a query in the titles and subtitles, using bulleted lists, etc.

7. Link the article to other content on the site

Does your SEO article complete a series of monthly content plans around the same theme or subject, already published on your site? Remember to link these pages together using hypertext links. This is called internal linking, and it is an optimization lever that should not be overlooked.

This network of internal links helps to improve the popularity of the new article as well as that of existing content, by virtue of the authority thus conferred on them. Additionally, these bindings help crawlers understand the structure of your site and how pages co-exist. They also allow them to access the different pages of the site, in the same way that footbridges are used to go from one bank to the other.

Beyond the purely SEO interest, the mesh is useful for Internet users, who can find other content on the same subject, and thus continue their navigation on your site (which reduces the bounce rate).

Finally, also think about external links in your SEO article: refer your readers to resources independent of your website, enjoying strong authority (institutional sites, media, encyclopedias, etc.) in order to display your sources and build content. more solid, more convincing.

These good practices make it possible to write an article that is both optimized for Google and qualitative for Internet users. But, of course, that is not enough! You must then promote this content on the various communication channels frequented by your audiences, then follow the evolution of its position in the SERP.

Another important point: an SEO article is only one brick among others, and it takes many to build a coherent and solid building. To assess the relevance of a site, Google does not only take into account one or two contents, but all the available pages. In short, if you aim to achieve real SEO performance, your entire website must be qualitative and optimized.