Top 11 Tips on How to Write Quality Content and Rank Well for SEO

Writing content is one thing and optimizing it to rank well on search engine results pages is another thing that requires effort and knowledge. Businesses are constantly competing online, and one way to increase your competitive advantage is by producing informational content that ranks well for search engine optimization (SEO). To help you achieve this result, read through the following tips and apply them.

Organize Your Content

One thing you want to avoid is presenting clattered or overcrowded content to your reader. Imagine reading from a page with a single title and content all through. Structure your content by adding headlines and short paragraphs illustrating the headline while ensuring that you stick to the objective of the content.

For instance, if your meta title reads, ‘ten reasons you should read every day,’ it’s irrelevant to have one of your headlines as, ‘take eight glasses of water daily.’ Organizing your content makes it easy to read and engaging.

Incorporate Images

Incorporating visuals such as images into your content will hook your readers. As a result, they are likely to stay longer on your page to consume more content. Add alt texts describing your images to increase your chances of appearing and ranking well on search engines results pages (SERPs).

Additionally, images make your content inclusive since people with learning disorders such as dyslexia can easily interact well with your site. Visuals could help you generate traffic on your blog. Keep image file sizes as small as 250 KB to avoid slowing down your page’s speed.

Use Catchy Headlines with Relevant Keywords

Titles make the first impression of your piece. It’s like that pitch you make to a CEO in an elevator. If you convince that person, then you could land a killer contract.

Similarly, a catchy title that appeals to the readers’ emotions, shows impact or creates curiosity will likely spark their interest and drag them to your site. Ensure your title is powerful, authoritative, and curious. Use Schedule Headline Analyzer to help you design a title that will rank well for SEO.

Add Backlinks to Your Content

Backlinks are links in your website directing your audience to other sites where they can get the information or from other sites to yours. Backlinks show authority, trust and can build traffic on your page.

Remember the link on tip number three above? That’s a backlink. Additionally, make use of internal links. These links refer your audience to another page within your website for more relevant content. Apart from generating traffic, it increases your chances of ranking well for SEO.

Create Readable Content

As an SEO content creator, it is satisfying to see your audience spend as much time as possible consuming your content. High bounce rate on your page could mean that your content is unreadable. To enhance readability, keep your content simple, clear, organized, and logical. Focus on maximizing reader experience.

Write Quality, Original, And Detailed Content

Digging deeper doesn’t mean you should be wordy. It means getting information from reputable sites, publications and investing in long-form content of about 2,000 words. When your content is detailed and of high quality, there is a likelihood of massive sharing on social media and backlinking.

With that, voila! You have traffic and an ROI. Also, the phrase ‘old is gold’ probably doesn’t apply here. Feed your audience what’s new. It will double the dwell time of your readers and probably make it their go-to page when they need such information.

Make Use of Snippets

Snippets are getting more popular on SERPs. They are the content’s spotlight. Simply put, snippets are brief pieces of information that pop up in an outline when a user asks a question on the search engine.

You might have noticed that pages that rank top on SERPs have featured snippets if you are keen. They are an excellent way to catch a reader’s attention. To leverage your chances of ranking well for SEO, invest in snippets by using numbers, bullet lists, data and creating well-structured content.

Research Keywords

To make it to the first page on SERPs, you must use the right keywords. These are terms or phrases that people use on search engines to search for information to satisfy their needs.

Researching on keywords is essential since it gives you an idea and understanding of what your audience needs. It will enable you to make informed decisions when designing a content strategy for search engine optimization.

Determine your target audience

The ‘who’ in your content is everything. These are people who interact with your content. To ensure you are solving the right problem for the right audience, carry out research.

Do some journey mapping and understand where the audience lives, what they do, where they spend most of their time, their daily habits, and what they prefer. Engage them through surveys and interviews.

Finalize Your Content with A Call to Action

After writing your well-organized, quality, detailed, and up-to-date content, what next? Invite a reader to act.

It could be asking them to subscribe to a newsletter, read another blog post, buy a product, follow you on social media, sign up, or something more interesting. Whatever CTA you choose, make it relevant and enticing.

Ensure to optimize your meta description

A meta description is brief information that informs the reader on what to expect from the content. It is the next thing an audience will see after the meta title. It comprises 300 characters, and it can either give readers insights into reading more on your site or drive them away. Therefore, your meta description should be compelling, relevant, and includes the right keywords.

Conclusion

It’s exciting to see your page make it to the first pages on SERPs. But you must put in the work. Don’t rush to publish content that won’t bear you any fruits. Before hitting that ‘publish’ button, ensure that you understand your audience and serve their needs.

Organize your work to make it readable and user-friendly. Create catchy headlines to capture your audience’s attention. Use the right keywords while ensuring they are evenly spread in your content.