Writing for visitors & SEO need not be mutually exclusive (6 tips)
1. Write content that people are searching for
SEO is really just about knowing what questions your customers/ future customers are asking, and providing good answers to those questions. As long as you can explain something in a useful, simple, and actionable way, you can succeed with SEO.
Where most of us go wrong is when we create content that answers questions no one is asking.
Sure, there are a few content pieces that would work in other channels like social or email. That can be either due to the search volume or the search intent.
Search volume is a fairly simple metric that indicates the number of people searching about the topic. Whereas, Search intent is the objective behind a searcher’s query.
So before writing any content, it is extremely important to understand the search volume which in turn gives you an idea of the distribution channels that the content would work in.
2. Optimize for Search intent
Make sure that a blog/landing page fits the search intent of the searcher. If the query is informational, you don’t want to show them a product landing page. Instead, you would want to provide them with all the information that would eventually lead them to the product page.
If the query has a buying intent, do not serve them with long articles. Lead them to the page where they can make the purchase or sign-up.
Determining the search intent of a query can be a difficult task. Different users will have slightly different user intent, but might still end up landing on the same page. So it is important to design any webpage to make sure it is one click away from the buying/ sign-up page.
3. Write long-form content
The reason why SEOs prefer long-form content(2000–2500 words) is because it naturally gives you the ability to bring in all the closely related variations of a keyword. Longform content also enables you to capture all the longtail keyword which have negligible value when taken separately but when put together the volume is considerable.
For the user, comprehensive content answers all the answers he/she is looking for. And if the right audience lands on the pages, he would want to devour it top to bottom.
4. Use descriptive alt tags for images
Google still depends on the alt text to understand what the image is about. Alt texts are a great way to rank in Google image searches. Alt texts are also useful for the user when the image fails to load.
5. Use short but descriptive URLs
URLs are a great ranking factor and it is also 1 of the 3 things that would be visible in the SERP along with the title and meta description. So it is extremely important to make the URL descriptive and yet short.
It is better to avoid URLs like
website.com/blog/123
website.com/blog/3-tips-to-writing-an-amazing-cover-letter-for-your
website.com/cust-serv
The best alternatives would be
website.com/blog/*targeted keyword*
website.com/blog/cover-letter-tips
website.com/customer-service
6. Use your target keyword in the Title, Meta description, and Heading tags
This is something that would naturally happen. But it also pays to check if you are using the target keyword of close variations of the keywords in the Title, Meta description, and Heading tags.
Apart from the SEO benefits, a catchy title and good meta description help the user understand what to expect before the user clicks through to your page. The more people engage with your content on the search result, the more possibility of your page moving up in the SERP.
