While Google Hummingbird is still veiled in mystery, it is widely considered as a reliable tool for measuring the quality of your content on the Internet. As a result, many industries have developed a ‘strategy’ that is focused on gaining the rankings to receive favourable placement. The fact is, more often than not, “black-hat” SEO tactics will not work. The real ‘strategy’ is creating quality content that is useful to your reader. Here are five simple tips for writing content that will do well in search engine rankings.
1. Keyword Balance
It is no secret that incorporating many relevant keywords within your content is one of the best SEO strategy. Implementing relevant key phrases within your writing is also important in creating SEO friendly content. However, while keyword use is important, it is also something that can be overused. When you use keywords within your writing, don’t abuse them to the point that the text reads in an unnatural way. This practice is widely known as keyword overloading, and it will actually have an inverse effect on your SERP. Spreading keywords strategically throughout your content and finding a healthy balance of keyword density is essential for promoting better SEO.
2. Meta Description
Meta description is a brief summary of your content. Search engines use meta description to give short information of the link to your page in search results. Of course, putting relevant keywords within meta descriptions can improve your rank within search engines, while at the same time allowing readers to quickly understand the content’s topic.
3. Page URLs
In a similar way where you incorporate relevant keywords in meta descriptions, doing so in page URLs also helps your SEO. Try to create page URLs that offer an indication to the page’s topic or focus allows search engine crawlers to gauge your page’s relevance. A URL that does a good job of reflecting a page’s content improves SEO, while an irrelevant or inaccurate URL has a negative impact. For instance, using the keyword “luxury hotels” in the URL for a page promoting discount motels is a lie. This type of “marketing lie” will cause search engines to discredit your content and rank it poorly.
4. Link to Relevant Sources
Linking to the sources you used in creating a piece of content will also have a positive impact on its SEO. Referencing accepted authorities in your industry, linking to articles offering further information and citing your sources are ways to take advantage of this SEO factor. Also, these links offer more information and value to your readers, increasing the likelihood that your content will be read and shared with other individuals.
5. Write Good Quality Content
Obviously. While the aforementioned tips represent important steps for “promoting SEO”, their impact relies on the quality of your content in the first place. Writing content that grabs your reader’s attention and offers additional value is the most powerful SEO tool you have in your arsenal as a writer.
While search engines take the details from the first four steps into consideration, the most important factor that will decide your content’s ranking is its relevance. Creating content that is well written based upon research and interesting to readers will prompt other sites to link to your page. Managing to have authoritative and well-respected websites link to your page is perhaps the most important factor in deciding whether or not a piece of content will rank highly. In order to encourage other sites to link to your page you must create content that is interesting, informative and relevant to its intended audience.
Writing SEO friendly content is a complex job. Although there are hundreds of tips and tricks for fixing the search engine rankings of your content, these tips offer a good foundation for improving your content, with a big hope for better SERP as well.