Creating some fresh new content for your users? You should optimize it for SEO and usability purposes. Beyond adding a keyword or two into your copy, there are a handful of essentials that everyone should do to their content, every time. Here’s our version of a quick and dirty article optimization guide.
Length
Make your content at least 300 words (at the very minimum). Ideally, articles should be 500-700 words. Longer than that is great too.
Create an introduction and conclusion
Introduce your audience to what you’re talking about, and then reiterate what you just talked about. Your intro and conclusion are great places to add in keywords and CTAs.
Use Headings (Like H2s & H3s)
Reading a solid block of text is a nightmare. Format your content using headings, lists, and bolded sections wherever possible.
Link back to your products/services
Each blog post should include an internal link to your most relevant service (<<like that). It helps users travel down the funnel. Plus, it’s good for SEO.
If you source something, link to it
What if I told you that the average bounce rate for websites is 66%, but didn’t provide a source? Would you believe me? Probably not.
Add the right kind of images
Content should be visual, so add at least one image. But make sure it’s the right type—either PNG, JPG, or SVG. And then compress it so it doesn’t take forever to load.
Here’s a JPG compressor. Here’s a PNG compressor.
Add a title tag & meta description
This is SEO 101. Your title tag should be a perfect duplication of your post title/H1. Your meta description should be a quick teaser and encourage users to click into your post.
Use your keywords 2-3 times
Use the exact keyword and use variations (for example, plural vs. singular). This will make sure you have a chance at ranking for your given keyword.
Throw it into Grammarly
This tool will catch spelling errors, make sure you didn’t use the wrong effect vs affect, and generally make you sound more polished.
Share it once posted
Once it’s up, get some eyeballs on it by sharing it internally, to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, in your email newsletter, etc. This will also help it get indexed faster.
There are a handful more things you can do to really make sure your content is optimized for the web. However, this list is a great starting point especially if you’re just creating content for organic traffic growth.
If you need somebody to take care of the editing and SEO optimization of your content, feel free to reach out to Zenman Digital Marketing Agency.
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