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As a content professional, you know that you need to go a step beyond creating great content to stand out.
Every piece needs to reach and resonate with your target audience and be fully optimized for the search engines.
Content SEO makes that possible.
With content SEO, you structure, write, and polish your content to improve its visibility in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
At the same time, it’s not just about formatting your headings the right way or getting backlinks. Content SEO encompasses everything from keyword research to user engagement, on-page optimization, and more.
When done right, these SEO strategies can have a significant impact on your rankings while helping to drive more organic traffic.
With this guide, we’ll explore eight content SEO best practices so that you can create impactful, high-quality articles that are search-friendly.
Google recently updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines and noted that if the main content of a page is almost (or completely) created by generative AI and doesn’t add unique value insight, they should mark it as the lowest quality.
Further, Google may penalize AI content that doesn’t comply with spam policies.
That means that checking for AI content is an SEO best practice in the age of AI.
How do you identify AI content? Studies have found that humans struggle to identify AI. So, to review potential instances of AI writing in your content, use the Originality.ai AI Checker or Site Scan.
The next step of any good content SEO strategy is to know what keywords you’re targeting.
You can use keyword research tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find high-traffic, low-competition keywords.
Once you start narrowing down the list, you’ll want to concentrate on specific keywords and phrases to boost your organic traffic.
So, which keywords are the “best keywords” to increase your search engine ranking?
You’ll want to concentrate on long-tail keywords (such as “best SEO practices for beginners”) rather than a broader, more competitive term like just “SEO”.
This not only helps you better target your audience (for example, in the long-tail title above, we don’t want everyone interested in SEO best practices, just beginners), but it also increases the chances that you’ll rank for what people are actually searching for.
Content SEO best practices aren’t just about selecting the right keywords, but also about how and where you use them.
For example, you’ll want to use the primary keyword naturally in your title tag, but use it more strategically in your headings and in the first 100 words of your content.
Additionally, you’ll want to make sure to avoid keyword stuffing.
For best results, use the Originality.ai Content Optimizer, which is resistant to manipulation tactics like keyword stuffing and rewards genuine content improvements.
Creating content that converts is at the foundation of a solid content SEO strategy, but did you know that Google isn’t looking for just any content?
To rank well and resonate with your audience, you should prioritize people-first content.
Google’s own guidelines of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authenticity and Trustworthiness) are at the heart of how it ranks pages organically. That means you’ll want to craft content that’s original, well-researched, and goes in-depth on a topic.
Going back to our earlier example of “Best SEO Practices for Beginners,” you might include information on how search engines work, what a search algorithm is, how to optimize title tags and descriptions, and how to craft content that’s helpful and interesting.
Your content doesn’t just have to be informative, it also has to flow easily. That means making readability a top focus.
Quality matters over word count; however, your articles should be long enough to cover a topic in-depth, so that they stand out to readers and Google.
Don’t forget to conduct research with reputable sources and cite sources correctly to help increase your credibility as an author and content publisher.
There are a few important things you can do on your actual pages to optimize them to rank well organically.
Let’s take a closer look at some on-page seo tips:
Your URLs should be short and descriptive. So instead of using the default publishing URL which often looks something like “/post-12345,” you’ll want to change it to, for example, “/content-seo-guide.”
Interlinking your content helps make it easier for your visitors to find even more of your content. Be sure to use descriptive terms like “learn content SEO best practices” instead of just “click here”.
For external (outbound) links, be sure you’re linking out to authority sources, including official studies or well-known industry blogs, and make sure that these links open in a new tab.
Your images are a valuable part of your content SEO as well. Use descriptive file names (for example, seo-best-practices.png instead of image_37482372.png) and add in alt text for accessibility. Then, take the time to run your images through compression tools to help decrease loading time and improve your page speed.
Knowing a few of the finer technical points can go a long way to help your site rank as well as possible.
Make sure your site loads quickly and looks great on mobile devices. If you’re using a template, make sure it’s responsive, meaning that it automatically resizes to fit the screen size of the device that’s viewing your page.
Google’s Page Speed Insights can tell you if anything’s loading sluggishly on your site, so that you can address them and create a better overall user experience.
Improve your site’s visibility in the search engines by using structured data. In particular, the “How-to” Schema and “FAQ” Schema are valuable for users.
Make sure you’re using https:// (Google prefers secure sites) and make sure that both your sitemaps are tuned for Google and other search engines to crawl and index pages.
How do you know if your content SEO is paying off? Through user engagement and click-through rate (CTR), among other things. Social signals can also indicate how well your optimized content is performing.
Make sure the headlines you use are engaging and clearly indicate what an article is about (such as 8 Content SEO Best Practices). If you incorporate dates in the title, make sure to update them when you refresh your content with new information to increase clicks and content relevancy.
Dwell time is an important metric to measure as you learn how long users are typically spending on a page. Videos, images and other interactive elements can keep users engaged with the site while clear call-to-action buttons help lead them to another article or tool where they can find out more.
Link building is a great way to increase the Authoritativeness part of Google’s E-E-A-T algorithm. Getting backlinks from authoritative sites is a great way to do that, but like any optimization task, it needs to be done with care.
The most important step in earning backlinks is writing the kind of content that people want to link to.
That means doing the research if no one else has done it to provide unique insights and data to your audience.
Sharing your insights with the media, whether through sites like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) or digital PR, can also help get your hard work noticed. Then, share your content via social platforms as well, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
It’s also a good idea to stay up to date on Google’s link policies.
Content SEO, like many other optimization steps, is not something you can do in a single day and check off your list. It’s an ongoing process.
Track the performance of your content over time using free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Monitor things like:
Split testing or A/B testing for SEO involves experimenting with different titles, meta descriptions, and layouts to see which combination performs best.
Don’t forget to regularly go back, update, and optimize your old content. Refresh outdated stats and trends (and make a note in the site’s title that it was updated this year!) You may need to add additional sections or check readability to make sure the piece can still be easily understood.
Optimizing content for SEO by following SEO best practices is an ongoing process.
By implementing on-page SEO, technical SEO, conducting keyword research, and publishing high-quality content, you’ll be on track to creating content that Google and your audience appreciates.
Get a best-in-class suite of tools to streamline your content marketing workflow with the Originality.ai Content Optimizer, AI Checker, and Grammar Checker.
Then, learn more content marketing best practices in our top guides:
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