How to write a SEO friendly article

Ask 100 people and you will probably get 100 different answers. The problem is that a lot of marketing experts are still stuck in the past when it comes to the best strategies for getting a post to the top of Google and this results in a lot of low-quality content and a lot of wasted time.

The best way to make an article SEO-friendly is actually quite simple, so read on and let’s dive into what you need to know!

Provide Value

To understand how to write the best SEO-friendly article, it pays to get inside the mindset of Google a little. What is Google trying to achieve?

The answer is simple: it wants to serve its users by linking them to the very highest quality and most relevant content that it can find.

Thus, any signals that you can send to Google to show that your content is high quality and relevant, will ultimately result in a boost to your SEO. The question is just how you go about doing that.

One example is to include outward bound links to other useful resources, relevant to the content of your site. This shows Google that you’re interested in providing as much information as possible to your readers, it aligns you with high-quality sites and it provides references to back up your claims (suggesting accuracy).

But what this shouldn’t mean is that every article needs at least two outward bound links. This is entirely missing the point as it will create a predictable pattern on your site that will look like manipulation. Link out when it is relevant and useful and don’t be cynical about it.

It’s also for this reason that Google likes to see long content of around 800 words+. While reports vary, it is generally thought that the ideal content length for SEO is approximately 1,800 words and this will improve your chances of being featured as News.

Keywords

It’s painful to see, but some SEO companies still think that a good SEO article is one that has the same keywords repeated over and over, to the detriment of the reading experience. This is one of the fastest ways to have your content flagged as spam, if not by Google, then by the human readers on your site.

Instead, keywords should be used very sparingly. A density of around 1-2% is recommended but only when that is appropriate and when it fits with the content naturally. This is one reason to write longer-form content though, as longer posts are going to have more space for repetitive keyword use.

It’s also important to recognize that synonyms and related terms are just as important, if not more so. Try to write around the subject and let related terms enter your content naturally. This is something you can expect to play a bigger and bigger role in future. If you want to know how to find keywords that are easy to rank have a look here.

Readability

Finally, space out your content and use lots of headings. Use large fonts and a narrative, user-friendly structure. This will help to keep people on your pages for longer and thatís one of the other things that Google looks for when ranking content.

When your average time on page is higher, Google tends to send more traffic to your site because your content seems useful. That means if you write articles for real users you write articles for the Google bots at the same time.

So keep your quality and your readability high and Google will reward that with lots of traffic!

As you can see it is not that hard to write SEO friendly articles. What has been your experiences? Would you add something? I would love to hear from you so leave a comment below 🙂