At a time when the majority of companies have realized that the content they produced for the web should allow valuing their brand (s), many are now looking for ways to optimize their content marketing strategy.
To do this, they can use surveys. Read more
Writing an SEO article perfectly optimized is now essential to approach the top 3 positions of the search engine results. You will see that SEO is not just the keywords that do the job. It is a unique set of rules to follow that we are going to present here:
Writing an SEO article for Google is certainly a good point, but optimizing it is something else. In order to help it rank well on Google, it is absolutely necessary to take the time to properly write your article and make every effort to make it perfectly optimized.
Perfect optimization of your content will allow you to appear in the first results of Google searches. In this article, we invite you to discover some rules and tips on writing an SEO article and thus optimize it for Google.
SEO also is known as search engine optimization, it is a technique that will allow you to optimize your articles to make your page be positioned better in search engine results and more particularly Google. The top positions on Google being awarded are the Top 3.
You should, however, know that SEO is not an exact science because it involves many factors. It is not always possible to gather them all together, but respecting the rules to put all the odds on one’s side is already more simple. A legitimate website for 10 years on a subject, cannot be overtaken overnight if it follows SEO rules to position its content.
By implementing an SEO strategy, this will allow you to gain visibility while ahead at the same time with some of your competitors (as far as possible). You will have more chances to increase traffic to your website and at the same time your sales if you have an e-commerce site.
To put in place a good SEO, it is necessary to follow Google’s guidelines, that is to say, the rules that will allow you to better optimize your content at the SEO level, the loading time of your web pages, as well as several points to apply at the level of your website structure.
We will focus on the rules for writing an SEO article that is relevant to our site.
Writing an SEO article means that you write your content following rules that will allow it to be positioned at best on search engines … especially Google.
The first rule to follow in SEO is to be natural in your content writing while seeking to offer the most relevant content possible to your audience.
None of the rules applied should alter the essence of your article if you respect them. There is no question of repeating a keyword 50 times, but knowing how to use its lexical field by addressing synonyms, words related to the main treated keyword. The goal is that Google can correctly interpret your content as being directly related to the word of your target main keyword.
You could write the definition of a word without notifying it and Google could then guess it (interpret it) because it is not a human but a smart bot that will know what you are talking about.
So writing an SEO article aims to offer the maximum of elements related to a word so that Google can correctly interpret it. In the end for a web editor, this is to be relevant and provide added value to the content.
Now let’s look at these different SEO rules to follow:
Like many people, you have probably heard about keywords without actually knowing what it means or what it is for. You should know that optimizing your content starts with choosing your keywords, including finding the right ones.
Writing an SEO article already revolves around the main keyword or keyword phrase.
If you choose a keyword too ‘classic’, the latter may be too competitive, and you will have very little chance of being well referenced. For that, it will be more judicious to opt for keywords with a long tail which will allow you to be better (more easily) positioned. The long tail is a key phrase revolving around your main keyword.
Example:
Be aware that some tools allow you to find the keywords to be naturally visible on Google. We can mention ‘Google Keyword Planners’ that will allow you to find these keywords for free.
Other tools are available, but they are generally paid. Once you’ve completed your long-tail keywords research, you can then start writing your article.
The title of your article must contain a keyword and usually at the beginning according to the topic. This title should also be attractive and not too long because it is partly through it that your article will be read and/or shared. Numbers are often used in titles and it really works.
For example, instead of saying ‘clothing trends’, write instead ‘3 outfits trends’.
The SEO title and the meta description that will be seen below, are the 2 elements to treat to increase your Click Through Rate (CTR) in order to gain traffic and raise your content to the nearest of the top 3 Google.
Writing an SEO article with an expressive title will increase your chances to be read, but be careful not to over-sell your article by putting a title too catchy! Find the right balance.
The introduction is often sloppy by the editor, but it has its importance. Indeed, this introduction will allow you to introduce once again your keyword for your SEO. Be aware that this keyword should appear preferably once in the first 100 words of your article.
Thus, the Google robot will be able to quickly find this keyword and index your content based on the keyword if all of your content is well optimized.
Humanly speaking, your content article introduction represents the first lines of reading through which you will have to capture your audience. It may, from time to time, be repeated as a meta description tag if it is relevant and not too long.
As the years’ pass, it becomes more difficult to position oneself on competitive queries. Furthermore, it is also difficult to maintain the first position on Google if SEO articles are not sometimes reviewed and updated.
Today it is easier to position oneself on long articles than on short articles. Writing an SEO article, therefore, requires time if you want to position yourself effectively in the top position on Google. For the length, we will aim at an average 2000 words.
It’s a lot of words to get up to 2000! Yes, but it is better to take the lead where the field is still virgin or try to take the places of your competitors if they opted for short content. It does not mean that you will take their place overnight, but if you work to promote your posts on your social networks and if you do link building, it will pay off faster.
Think about the different angles of a subject to bring material to your content and do not think that you need to make an unnecessary filling.
Writing an SEO article in one go will not make people want to read it, especially if it is close to or more than 1500/2000 words. To do so, you will need to cut it into sections (headings and subheadings) like this article and treat your content point by point.
The H1 tag is reserved for the SEO title of your article. It should be used only once within the content. WordPress theme normally interprets the SEO title as an H1 tag. It will, therefore, start with the H2 tags (or title 2 in the WordPress drop-down menu)
Define a central frame and the different topics and subtopics that you will have to deal with. Each of these headings will be the subject of a title linked to an H2 tag. Use then H3 tag for the sub-headings. Beyond that, we can have H4 tags which would align points under the subheadings. H5 and H6 tags are rare.
Topics and sub-topics have the advantage of being able to slip in your keywords but especially to streamline the reading of your SEO article. Writing an optimized SEO article using the H tags to segment it, also allows you to drag photos within topics to illustrate the points addressed.
Whether it’s internal links or outbound links, they all matter when writing an SEO article. Internal links connect your articles to each other. The outgoing links allow them to bring additional information to your content.
Internal links: These links will allow you to refer to other pages within your site. They allow for different links from your website, to do what is called an internal linking.
This will increase the SEO of all your pages. In addition, be aware that internal links are a great idea to encourage the bounce rate (by lowering it) and make the reader want to read other pages (articles) of your website. The lower your bounce rate, the more your audience will browse your articles, instead of going out directly after reading or browsing the article your reader has arrived at.
Outgoing links: They will redirect the reader to another website or page. This will allow the reader to discover more about the subject, and this will add additional value to your content. Google Search engines highly value outbound links.
Internal and external links are therefore of great importance so that you can easily improve your SEO.
We remain in relationship with backlinks, which unlike your outgoing link is a link from your website but shared from another site. For the site that shares it is, therefore, an outgoing link and for you, it is a backlink, a link that ensures a return to your site. In this case, it is you who benefit from the traffic generated from a website to yours.
Backlinks are highly sought after by website owners and bloggers. They significantly contribute to the popularity of a site and its positioning on search engines like Google. When it comes to SEO, SEO agencies or experts are usually used to work on a link building strategy to gain positions and authority.
Agencies and SEO experts usually have a portfolio of bloggers and important media. Some of them manage the link building part by buying links. They get sites with a higher DA to ensure a better positioning of the content or site in itself.
The backlink has a real importance to go up in google position rankings. To earn them, it is better to outreach for an influencer high authority blog site with an optimized SEO article that can sometimes accept to post it according to your content topic.
As a web editor, you often tend to overlook images, but know that they are very important for optimizing your article. Indeed, it is necessary to optimize your images so that they do not slow down your website.
This is one of the first things to do in order to meet the requirements of Google. It is an important ranking factor, especially for Mobile-friendly sites. It is a priority if you want to have a site and pages that load quickly on mobile devices. Google appreciates sites that are fast and it will tend to favor them.
Finally, know that you can (must) add an alternative text or alt tag on your images, so you can place your keyword again by indirectly associating your images to your content and therefore your website. This is a good strategy because Google’s robot will be able to reference your image based on this alternative text. You should include in it the keyword that you are interested in.
Do not neglect to reduce the size of your images and filling the alt tag. There are plenty of plugins to help you do it. Find a software that can also help you do it manually. Start by looking for a small software that compresses images for the web, if you do not have Photoshop.
For the filling of the alt tag, look at the screen below. You will fill your alt tag when uploading your image to one (you can return to it if necessary) For the images within your article, click on the image and select the small pencil to edit the information.
The meta-description is essential for your SEO. It is an integral part of your article writing, so do not make it a dilemma. This meta-description is a kind of a summary of your content article. Focus your strategy to attract the reader’s attention to want to read your content.
When a reader types a query on Google search and your content appears, he will read the meta description and click if it is relevant. This principle helps to increase your CTR (click through rate) or rate of clicks and participates in the SEO of your article. When your article appears as a result of a query and the user doesn’t click on your article, it lowers your CTR. If your CTR is low on one or more of your articles, you will have to rework your articles.
It will notably be visible on the search engines and therefore on google results. Automatically, it will contain the first 140 characters of your article, but this is not the goal. You must write it in a strategic way and of course include, again, your keyword.
Finally, consider installing Google Analytics to measure the results of your work and analyze all the information about your related content. The number of readings, the CTR, the origin of your audience etc …
You will have a code to place on your website (within the theme) to activate it. It is essential to monitor the evolution of your traffic and your website as a whole.
Also consider other paid tools that will help you as SEMRush, Majestic SEO, Moz explorer etc …
One of the strong trends considered in 2017 is voice search. It is probably one of the next challenges in SEO. The use of voice search is growing day by day. In a study commissioned by Google, 41% of adult Americans are using this feature. Also, the rise of more than half of teens is using this feature on a daily basis. Seeing this heavy trend, optimization for voice search will now be a major key for companies specializing in SEO.
It will be wise to quickly get up to date with all the voice assistants who arrive in homes, in addition to those who equip our mobile devices such as Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana.
You do not type a Google query on your computer or mobile as you speak. When speaking to a voice assistant, we build more explicit sentences such as: ‘How do you write an SEO article? Instead of ‘SEO Article’ usually typed on Google.
Writing an SEO article should not be done for the sole purpose of responding to a direct keyword. You should focus on answering one or more questions about a key topic. You do not need to put a question as an article title. The Google bots are now smart enough to detect content that meets a problem or a question.
Simply think about it when writing your article. You will get better success when answering as best you can to one or more questions about a topic.
The process of writing an SEO article for Google may seem complicated at first glance. However, with practice, it will grow over the months and becomes almost a game for you. Learn these steps and follow the progress of your site.
They say that Content is King and Content quality is Queen…You say nothing new under the Sun.
It is nevertheless your best ally for any web marketing plan! To get there, nothing is easier. Just put in place an effective content strategy, otherwise called brand content for the most hype of us. Yes, but what exactly is it? It’s about creating content that’s right for your target audience, highlighting your strengths, products, and services.
These content broadcast on the web are imperative in terms of SEO! You can position yourself on certain keywords or improve your long tail. The whole thing is to gain positions in SEO. It is also the best way to control your brand since it is you who speak by carefully choosing your elements. By distributing it in the right places you will be able to develop your image, boost your fame, demonstrate your expertise and gain legitimacy.
A little fuzzy? Do not panic, I suggest you follow a simple methodology with 5 essential pillars to create an effective content strategy!
This is the first key step in your content strategy! You cannot (should not) neglect it! To ask the right questions in advance is to know why you write. Identifying the right goals is the best way to initiate a good strategy! (By the way, it is also valid for any type of strategy).
I propose a list of objectives, which is obviously not exhaustive:
You can define one or more goals, and then prioritize them with a primary goal and secondary ones. The key issue of your strategy is to convert and sell!
Writing and talking about yourself provoke sometimes anxiety. We’ve often been told that we have nothing to say or say…! We all have something to tell!
Companies, brands, people, each entity has an experience, a history, assets. You just have to find the art and how to tell it well. And to talk about oneself, one must know oneself well. The idea is to define who we are, it’s positioning, what differentiates us from our competitors, which is our strength, our values, our mission.
To finish this step, it is obviously necessary to have a global vision of all the offers, products, and services that we sell.
The challenge of an effective brand content strategy is to know who is talking so that our content is read. The more you know about your audience, the more relevant you will be, the more you will interest your targets and the more your content will be read. Who do we target (general public, BtoB, …), what are their needs, their purchasing process, …? To go further and be closer to expectations, do not hesitate to think about your personas! (imaginary characters representing each of your targets).
Unique, tailor-made content and adapted to your targets can strengthen your brand image and add value to your business. It is also the best way to interest your customers and your prospects since you will stick close to their expectations.
Editorial line, an expression that can be scary! Still, if you followed the previous steps it should be a child’s play. To put these few lines is to define a course, a guideline for your content taking into account your objectives, who you are and your targets.
The idea is that in one or two sentences, you recall the previous points: your positioning, the main mission of your product/ service/brand. It’s kinda your signature, brand content version!
This editorial line must always be present in mind because it will allow you to remain consistent during your various speaking engagements and differentiate yourself from your competitors. Then, you just have to pull the string by defining your tone, your style, the image you want to convey: a pedagogical or playful tone? Humor or rather institutional?
You must choose the key messages you want to share. This may be transparency, quality, a wide range, innovation, benefits, etc.
You now have to list all the topics that allow passing these messages. Gather them into categories to see if the package is well articulated and meets your original goals. Grouping your content is organizing information and facilitating its understanding with your target audience.
To help you create this segmentation of content and find complementary ideas, there are several solutions:
Conduct a keyword audit! Thanks to this semantic analysis carried out on your site and those of your competitors, you will be able to refine your topics;
Think imperatively about the structure of the site to make this content strategy a true ally of SEO;
Do monitoring on social networks: look at what is said, how, etc. ;
Use this site which allows you to properly map your content and find unique topics to treat.
After these 3 sources of ideas, the hard part will be to segment your content so that it is easily understandable for your targets!
Today there is a lot of possibilities to create content! Editorial, visual, video, you find what is best for your target. A small list of non-exhaustive ideas once again:
Above all, vary the formats so as not to bore your audience! But keep in mind your editorial line to stay consistent. You will also have to create a graphic chart for your visuals in order to be quickly recognized and remain consistent in your different speeches. If you do not master publishing software, do not panic! There are now practical online tools to realize your visuals. For this article, I realized, for example, the visuals with Canva.
Vary the types of contents, it is also adapting to the ways of consuming information today! The practices have evolved significantly, so we must create brand content that adapts to different contexts of the web ecosystem! Keep in mind that the smartphone is the first screen in our way of consuming the web today.
Writing for the web is also to ensure your content is well optimized. Whether your texts, your visuals, your videos, on your blog as on Youtube, Facebook or Pinterest, … Each type of content, streaming media requires optimization. However, be careful about finding the right balance between the quality of your content and optimization.
The idea is to work on your keyword strategy to position your site on the desired queries, it is using the right keywords on networks to allow as many people as possible to discover content in line with their interests. You must rely on the keyword audit previously performed. This is the best way for you to meet the needs of Internet users!
The more your content is shared, the better will be your reputation and your visibility. Yes, but where? Your main tool must belong to you, so I would say that your website and/or blog is the cornerstone of your device!
Then you will push your content on different social media, you determine in advance which network to publish first according to your objectives, your targets and your content!
Facebook ;
Twitter;
Linkedin;
Youtube ;
Instagram;
Pinterest;
Etc.
Warning! Each chosen social channel requires a different speaking tone. The same content can obviously be shared on several networks, but you must adapt it to each one, to each target. (a public tone for Facebook, a professional angle for Twitter and Linkedin, …). You will also need to adapt to the most relevant broadcast days and schedules that vary by network.
Challenging, in parallel or practical, do not hesitate to amplify the diffusion! Here are some ideas to go after:
Buying space ;
Blog guests;
Relations with influencers
Press releases ;
Etc.
At this stage, you now know what to say, how to say it and where!
You still have to plan to gain peace of mind in your daily life. The principle is to speak regularly to stay in the minds of your customers, your prospects. But you should not fall too in speaking too regularly at the risk of boring your targets or even to address all your topics too quickly and lose your momentum.
Create an editorial schedule where you will spread your words by varying your topics. All you have to do is animate your presence. However, anticipation and planning do not mean a lack of responsiveness! Keep in mind that you must be present on your various media to moderate and respond if necessary, as well as when it’s relevant, react to the news!
Test and learn, I’m sure you know this expression! This is one of the foundations of the digital worldwide web. Seen as this one evolves quickly, just like its users, which was true yesterday, it is not anymore today. So, test! But most importantly, measure every time!
From the objectives that you have defined, choose relevant KPIs of the order of quantity (Number of views, shares, …) or qualitative (traffic sources, typology of the fans, …). Besides, do not forget to carry out a marking plan for your website, to allow you to place in the right places the markers which will then go back to your analytical tool.
By analyzing the successes or failures of your strategy, you will adapt to the needs of your audience to offer them a better user experience closer to their needs/desires. You will be aware of the content that works best on your site, those on Facebook, what time it is better to publish, etc … A good way to refine your content strategy!
With these 5 pillars, you should now be able to create quality content, designed for your target audience and optimized for search engines. And what better than a video to explain how this content methodology is important?
A strategy of contents thought in advance and adapted to the different channels is your best online marketing ally in the service of commitment and performance!
If you are an entrepreneur, then you know the importance of having a professional website and acquiring regular traffic. Getting traffic is good but it’s only half the work. The real challenge at this point is to keep the visitor on the website for a long time to learn more about what you have to offer and, even better, to bring it back because you have attracted interest and want to know more.
So, what makes visitors come back to visit your website? What can you do to keep your visitors past the first few seconds?
When a visitor arrives on your site, is he able to clearly understand the nature of your website? Your visitors need to know very quickly if your website is relevant to their query. If they can not understand what you are doing, they will move quickly to a competitor’s site. Keep this in mind, if a visitor has landed on your website, it is very often for a very specific reason. He is looking for something that meets his needs or a solution to his problem. Your job is to help him find the information he needs as quickly and clearly as possible.
Everything about your website, from its graphics chart, its color code, the size of characters to its content and the editorial tone used, must speak to your target market. If your website tries to reach everyone, you will end up not interested in anyone. Do not be afraid to really zoom in and be specific about the ideal customer you want to serve. In fact, the more specific you are, the better.
Your website can offer an out-of-the-ordinary user experience, or offer animations or awesome features from a technology perspective, but if it does not engage your visitors and keep them off the first few seconds, you lose them forever.
Everything in this world is going very fast. People are very busy and getting their attention is difficult. Your website should load quickly otherwise you run the risk of seeing your visitors go elsewhere. No one has the patience to wait more than 3s for a web page to load, especially if it is open on a mobile device. Make a technically clean website to make sure nothing is slowing it down. If your site is slow and you do not understand why? You can get help from a professional.
Make sure the ‘look & feel’ of your website can bring credit, that your business appears trustworthy and not spam. Why not a site made by yourself as long as you respect the basic design rules and have an eye for aesthetics. Make your choice and evaluate the opportunities between investing in a professional website (think about the advice you can get) and making one yourself.
The problem with a tinkered site is that it feels like miles. Ultimately, why should your potential customers invest in your products and services if your website says loudly ‘I do not want to invest in my own business? ‘.
Naturally, independent contractors often have a tight budget at startup. However, a professional website, good photographs and flawless writing are some of the key investments you should not be saving money for.
Spelling mistakes and bad grammar send bad signals to your visitors. We are talking about trust here: if a potential customer has to spend money on your products and services, they need to be able to trust your business. Spelling errors and grammatical errors make your business seem less trustworthy.
Many studies show that potential buyers will tend not to use a company that presents content with obvious grammatical or spelling errors on their website. The argument is that they would not trust the company to provide quality service.
If the last article on your blog is a year old or older, if the latest news starts in 2012 then it’s time to dust off the content, hunt the cobwebs or your visitors will assume that your business is no longer very active. Make sure you keep your site up to date. Nobody wants to do business with a company that presents content that seems old and not brought up to date. Having recent content also tells search engines like Google that your website is still active.
Make sure that your website is easy to navigate and that your visitors can find the information they need quickly without having to analyze too many levels of information.
Use images and white space to provide an easy-to-read layout. Too much text will repel reading. Use text caps, titles, and subtitles to prioritize information by giving the possibility of a quick diagonal reading. Use the categories and hierarchy of your website to group the contents in a logical way. Make your visitors contact you easily.
If you have a blog that you want to profit from with advertising, be careful not to disturb the visitor with too much advertising display. This makes navigation on the site difficult. Ads that contain a lot of animation are particularly bad. Also, having too many ads on your site makes it slower to load. Monetizing your site is a good idea, but be attentive to the expectations of your visitors. Think about strategic locations for ads.
Do not assume that your visitors will automatically know what to do. You must tell them clearly. Want to subscribe to your newsletter? Tell them that so clearly with a call to action button. Think of an incentive to do so. Do you want to request a quote? Tell them where to go to fill out the form or display your telephone number clearly. You want that they organize a free consultation call? Provide the link to book a call with you.
Caring commitment of visitors is one of the most important things for you, website owners. Engaged visitors will be more likely to buy your products, buy your services and sign up for your mailing lists. They will also remember your business and return more easily to learn more