3 Easy Tricks for SEO-Friendly Content Production

It’s one thing to produce content that you find interesting. It’s another thing to produce content that your audience will find interesting.

And it’s yet another thing to produce content that Google finds “interesting.”

While it’s top priority to write blog posts and website pages that are engaging and appealing, we also must remember the search engines. Producing SEO-friendly content is vital if you want your content to rank anywhere near the top of the results page.

And don’t for a second believe that SEO-optimized content can’t also be user-friendly. In fact, a key part of ranking in search engines is to produce high-quality content that’s well-optimized and crafted for your target audience.

Here are 3 easy tricks for producing SEO-friendly content.

3 Easy Tricks to Produce SEO-Friendly Content Marketing

When you’re trying to figure out how to make SEO-friendly content, it’s important to consider factors beyond simply, “How many people per month search this keyword?” Your content will suffer if you forget to:

• Conduct keyword research for volume, difficulty, and user intent
• Create a structure for your content
• Use optimal content length
  
  

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Yes, keywords play an important role in writing blog content for SEO. Using the right long-tail keywords will help you climb search results and reach your target audience.

But what are the right keywords for your content? That’s where research comes into play. By using a keyword tool such as SEMRush or Ahrefs, you can pinpoint the words or phrases you should be targeting the most.

While you’re researching your keywords, keep these things in mind:

• The volume of your keyword indicates the number of monthly searches it gets. Using a keyword with no search volume is a waste of your time.
• Your keyword difficulty will indicate how tough it will be to rank for a specific keyword. Try and avoid using keywords with a high difficulty (<70%).
• Think about the way your readers search for information. If you’re an OEM electronics company, it might sound swell to try to rank for “electronics repair.” But most people searching that just want the virus off their MacBook -- instead, try ranking for “electronics remanufacturing” or “PCB repair services.”

Once you’ve selected the keywords and phrases you’re going to use, make sure they appear in all the right places. This includes:

• The title
• The URL
• The meta description
• The content itself
• Alt text for images

Keep in mind that using your keywords too much (known as keyword stuffing) will make your content sound “spammy.” Try and use keywords naturally and at intervals that flow with the content, or else search engines may penalize you.

2. Create a Structure for Your Content

If this blog post had all been one thousand-word paragraph, would you have taken the time to read through it all? Probably not. That’s why it’s important to create a structure for your content.

Your title and intro should each set expectations for what the reader will get out of the article. If you use a clickbait-y title or an intro littered with keywords that are irrelevant to the content, Google won’t favor your page.

Identify the main body of your post. This is where the strength of your content exists. Further divide that into sections that make it easier for you to fill in. This makes it easier for you to organize your thoughts. It also helps break up the page so your readers don’t feel overwhelmed.

Beyond that, remember that each piece of content should have an introduction, main body, and conclusion. As long as you have these three sections, you can further break them up however you’d like.

Make sure your content structure lends itself to the topic at hand. If you’re creating a blog that covers an in-depth topic such as the process of refurbishing old technology, you’ll want to make sure you provide enough sections that help you break up the information.

3. Use Optimal Content Length

The length of your post also plays a big role in SEO content writing. Blog posts should almost always be at least 500 words. This is because Google prefers long content due to its tendency to draw more likes and mentions in social media. Also, the more you write, the more keywords you’re likely to include in an organic way.

The optimal blog length is set at around 2,000 words for many industries, although with niche topics this is often unrealistic. Just make sure you provide enough information to fully address your reader’s pain point. The information should all be relevant to the topic outlined in your title and intro, and it should not repeat itself for the sake of length.

With that being said, understand that producing three 500-word blogs with very little “meat” doesn’t improve your chances of ranking well. Instead, you’re better off combining these lean pieces of content into a longer, 1,500-word piece.

Patience Is Key

Remember that producing SEO-friendly content is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and patience to become successful, but the end result is well worth the wait. Not only does SEO optimization help you rank; it also helps you improve your brand awareness overall.

If you’re looking for more information modern SEO best practices for your specific needs, check out the free guide below: