Creating great content is a skill everyone needs because you can’t positively impact your audience without it. Excellent content writing skills are useful in a wide range of jobs, including journalism, blogging, management, public relations, marketing, etc.
Good content draws in more traffic from search engines to your site and directly improves your conversion rates. Bad ones, however, do the direct opposite. It isn’t news that visitors don’t want to visit a site swarming with lousy content. And if by chance they do arrive at such a site, they aren’t going to stay long enough to convert. For this reason, you have got to pay attention to content that appears on your site.
If you want an increase in organic traffic, everything on your site has got to be great and meaningful for your audience. This article is going to explore SEO writing tips for creating great content for your site, whatever your niche is:
SEO Writing Tip #1: Identify Your Niche
The first step when seeking to create great content will be identifying your niche. Who are you making content for, and what kind of content do they resonate with the most?
I’ll tell you what. Not every content that performs on the internet is bad content. In fact, a lot of content that does not convert or does poorly is well-written content.
They perform poorly because they are not reaching the right audience.
No matter how good an umbrella is, it will most likely not sell in a desert. Take it to a tropical rain forest, and, boom, it sells just fine.
Map out your niche. Do this by paying attention to posts on your site that perform the most and gather the most conversions. Those posts are the most loved, and your site is going to be optimized better if you have more of them.
SEO Writing Tip #2: Consider Content-Length
When writing content, don’t overlook content length. The length of the stuff you post directly affects readability. Once, an internet user told me that he first scans to see how long it is before he reads anything on the internet. I smiled because I sometimes do this a lot too.
If a post is ridiculously long, I most likely won’t read it. Meaning you won’t be getting a conversion for me. Any content is expected to be one out of these three lengths: short, medium, and long.
Choosing the length you want for your content is going to depend on your niche. Some niches require longer content than others. For example, a website that publishes short stories would most likely be visited by avid readers who are fine with reading pretty long posts.
Observe your site. Do long posts perform pretty well? If they do, then you should consider posting long posts. If they don’t, then stick to medium and short post lengths.
SEO Writing Tip #3: Chose Crisp Titles
Have you ever picked up a book in a library because the title pulled you pretty much? I am guessing yes.
I am telling you, titles are everything. If you title your work properly, you can get double the traffic you used to get. Internet users are going to see your article and are going to say: “Wow, I am definitely going to read that.”
A good title passes as readable, short, intriguing, and inviting.
Readable means readers are supposed to be able to read it at a glance without pausing to contemplate whether the article is going to be worth it or not. The flow of the title should not be interrupted by a big, unknown word.
Titles ought to be short because short titles stick more. You know, an article is super amazing if the title sticks with the reader long after he has read it.
Short titles are also intriguing. At least most times. They make the reader want to dive in and figure out what it is all about.
A great tip for creating great content is to include keywords in your title. Keywords are words that are relevant to the search engine.
Search engine crawlers search across the internet for these words and rank websites based on how relevant they are.
Include at least one keyword in your title, and you are good to go. A short, intriguing title carrying a keyword is a force across the internet.
SEO Writing Tip #4: Visuals are a Yes
On your website, visuals are so important. Visual content includes videos and pictures. While some people love to read, others love seeing pictures and watching videos.
On average, websites with pictures and videos get more conversions than websites that do not have any visual content.
It is good practice for one to include visual content on his or her website, as this directly influences their ranking.
On your website, include high-quality pictures and videos that are directly related to your written content. The pictures can be anything. Cartoons. Flowcharts. Anything.
You should title every photo or video on your website and add alt attributes to all your images using relevant keywords. This is also going to help to rank too. Search engine crawlers, in addition to crawling the written part of the content, also crawl pictures.
Picture and video tags are going to help you rank.
SEO Writing Tip #5: Credible Content, Please
I talked about content length earlier. Now, I am going to talk about the credibility of the content.
You cannot avoid this tip when creating great content your audience will love. You cannot maneuver your way around it either; if you want your website to rank, you have got to be known for credible content. That is content that is factual and not plagiarized.
Plagiarism is going to cost your site more than you know. Google, and likewise other search engines, do not rank double content. That is, if your site is too similar to another site, containing the same words and phrases—at least a lot of them—then you are not going to be ranked properly.
Be sure your content is unique and that it is true.
Factual content is going to make you an authority in your niche. When users find that you only post-factual stuff, they will visit more and have no problems sharing your links and telling others about you.
You get more visitors, and voila, your site does well.
SEO Writing Tip #6: The Right Tone
Writing, like music, has tones. Writing can take on many tones. Some writings sound authoritative, and others sound a bit playful, etc.
The tone of your writing affects its readability and, thus, has a part to play in improving the performance. The tone you choose for your writing should depend on your niche.
If your website is a website that posts the latest fashion trends, then you want to sound funky. No one comes to a fashion site hoping to read posts that sound like thesis from a science project.
Remember, you create content for your readers and not for yourself. Using the right tone is a good step toward creating meaningful content.
SEO Writing Tip #7: Meta Description
Like the title of your posts, meta descriptions appear on search engines too. In fact, they appear just underneath the title. The title is the blue or purply line of writing on the search engine results page, and the meta description is the words beneath it.
Write unique meta descriptions for all your pages. The meta description is supposed to be short and intriguing and should carry at least one keyword. Remember, keywords help a site rank.
Your meta descriptions should be written in a way that they trigger an emotional response from your reader. You know, pull him to perform an action.
Do not plagiarize meta descriptions. Make sure they are your idea.
SEO Writing Tip #8: Other Headings
Often, your main title is not going to be the only heading that appears on your posts. There are going to be other headings and subheadings. These headings and subheadings affect how your site performs, and so you have got to pay attention to them.
Your subheadings should be engaging and readable.
You shouldn’t be using subheadings you get right out of a textbook. They should be yours, and you should not fear being creative when choosing them.
Subheadings should further pronounce the tone of your writing.
If you can, include a keyword or two in your headings. But be careful not to make the writing mechanical and uninteresting.
SEO Writing Tip #9: Amazing Quotes
It is a great SEO technique to include quotes on your web pages. Quotes are meant to be a sentence or two that appear on your content that you want to stress further.
Every content has such sentences.
Quotes should be artistic, of a different font from the rest of the content—fonts that are bold and aesthetic. Pick out the best, or at least what you consider the best sentences, and feature them as quotes.
It would be great to include one or two keywords in your quotes when creating great content.
Quotes can be images, too. You can upload an image containing words that appear in the body of your content.
SEO Writing Tip #10: The Bottom of the Content
Writing great content can thus benefit you in a variety of ways. It is good SEO practice to include the following within your content or at the end of your content:
- References: if your content contains information sourced from other sites, then it is proper for you to include references. References make your site appear credible.
- Related Articles: at the bottom of your pages, include a ‘read more related content’ option. If the content is well written, then readers will surely want to
With meaningful content, you can double your traffic and generate more leads.
