How to Optimise Your Website Content for SEO

Technical optimization is the door to a better website ranking. Content optimization is the key to unlock it.

In a digitally advanced world, SEO content writing has become an essential part of the Marketing strategy for corporate websites.

The demand for quality content has risen through the roof in recent years, as companies started taking their services and operations online.

With the rise of awareness that the future is digital, there has been a significant online competition in all business sectors.

The “organic battle” for the first page top results on Google is more intense than ever. It’s leading to huge corporate investments in Digital marketing – especially in SEO and content creation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s performance by making it organically accessible on search engines. And content is a piece of information on the web that provides certain value to the users who need and look for it.

SEO Content is any content specifically altered, updated and optimised according to SEO requirements. It consists of all the small enhancements that need to be implemented on a website through text or graphic features, to improve your search engine ranking.

SEO content optimisation is essential because search engines like Google are constantly reading the sites on the web.

Depending on the relevance of the published written and graphic content, Google can determine a website’s ranking and even decide whether to show it in the result pages or not.

Even if you cover all the technical recommendations to be prioritised on Google results (e.g. smooth design, fast site speed, etc.), without sufficient website content – the site would hardly hold any top positions.

When it comes to content, there are a few steps you need to take in order to successfully optimise your website for SEO. As a start, make sure you form your Content Strategy around SEO, always considering your business goals and target audience.

1) Website Structure

The logical organisation of a website’s content is a good SEO sign that also improves the user experience. A Pyramid structured site is often considered as the best option (on top is the Home page; underneath are links to different Pages; with Categories links under the Pages.).

When you provide a well-structured site to the public, visitors are able to navigate themselves more easily. Therefore, they would be more likely to spend more time on your website, naturally increasing traffic.

2) Keyword Research

Before you start writing SEO optimised content for your site, you have to do proper keyword research in order to generate organic traffic. There are tools that would be able to help you identify the most relevant keywords for your topic.

Google search runs on keywords so if you want to be found by your target users, you have to know what they are looking for. Create your content around their area of interest to engage them naturally. Avoid keywords far from the niche of your business.

3) LSI Words Implementation

LSI (latent semantic indexing) words are a specific type of basic keywords that are related to the theme and business area of your website. LSI is basically an indicator for Google for what a certain page is about. Make sure to include LSI words into your titles, meta tags, page descriptions, image alternations, and on-page content.

4) Content Structure And Readability Of Texts

Quality SEO content optimisation always requires extra hard work when it comes to written content. An optimised content should be really well-structured and easy to read so that the reader does not lose interest.

There are a few simple rules that are valid for any SEO content article or text:

• Create a catchy title that includes your main keywords;
• Fill in and optimise your meta description and add page tags;
• Make the first paragraph a summary of the article;
• Always mark Headers and Subheaders and Paragraphs with relevant font sizes (bigger for headers, smaller for subheaders, regular font for paragraphs, etc);
• Have a maximum of 300 words under a subheading;
• Have a maximum of 100 words per paragraph;
• Use short sentences and simple words;
• Sentences containing more than 20 words should be no more than 25%;
• Use transition words;
• Avoid repetitive paragraph beginnings;
• Don’t stuff keywords;
• Mark text in bold, italic or underline to emphasise important information;
• Include lists with numbers or bullet points;
• Use images between every 2-3 paragraphs (Make sure image titles are descriptive);
• Add internal and external hyperlinks to relevant content;
• Write in a conversational tone, avoid passive voice;
• Always check your text for spelling and grammatical errors before publishing.

My personal favorite measure for the readability score is the Flesch Reading Ease test. It includes a total scoring of 0-100 that could determine how easy it is to read any text (e.g. 90 – easy / 10 – hard).

Some of the SEO optimisation tools that work with Flesch scoring are YoastSEO and WebFX.

 

5) Link Building

Link building stands for a system of hyperlinks you manually set throughout your on-site content. The hyperlinks you put on your site should always redirect the visitor to a page with relevant information, according to the story/idea of your original article.

There are two types of links:

• Internal link – Finding the most relevant keyword or phrase in a text and making it a link to another page with context-appropriate content on the same site;
• External link – Redirecting your online visitors to another site. It’s usually a partner, client or advertiser page or just a relevant informative website.

Such internal and external references to similar publications raise the ranking in search engines and improve SEO stats. But there is a catch.

You need to make sure that you are only connecting hyperlinks to safe, verified and highly ranked pages. If you decide to link your site with a suspicious web source, your position on Google results could drastically drop.

6) Social Media Sharing

Promote your services and products by sharing your website content on social media (videos, images, articles, etc.). It’s totally free and gives you access to an even bigger audience. Visitors redirected to your site from your social posts are increasing your online traffic, and that’s how Google gets an indication of quality on-site SEO content.

It’s a fact that efficient SEO content optimisation would not be possible without certain tools, verifying its quality. Such SEO software solutions are able to help us identify problems we did not know existed, and improve content for maximum optimisation.

Copywritely is the content’s best friend. This online software is very easy to use for content management because it has different tools integrated on one platform. It has plagiarism, grammar, readability and SERP checker, as well as many other helpful tools. It can be used as a browser add-on. It is way cheaper compared to other similar tools.

Google Ads is offering access to advanced Keyword Planner for everyone who has an active Google Ads account. You may use this tool to find new or related potential keywords for your content.

MOZ is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market and it could measure exactly how competitive your keyword is. Even though it’s a paid tool, it would certainly improve your keyword research if you decide to invest in a Moz Pro.

YoastSEO is a WordPress Ad-on for content optimization, and my personal favorite. It has all the features needed to provide a perfect SEO check for any written text or article. There is a free demo version of the SEO content optimization tool for free on their website, with no limitation of usage.

Additional helpful tools for SEO content optimization and Management:

• WebFX
• SEO Writing Assistant by SEMrush
• Grammarly

As conclusion, build up your website content in correspondence with the current SEO goals, but always remember to write for the audience, not for the engine. A content writer knows that authenticity is always rewarded. Google loves authenticity.