SEO content is mainly quality text and is the foundation of any website.
If some time ago you could find SEO shortcuts through which you could fool Google to rank you higher, now, quality content is what you really need.
Google has adapted and improved its algorithms forcing brands to gain positions through quality, visitor-focused content, otherwise, they will incur penalties.
Imagine your website standing on the first page of Google searches. How it makes you feel?
It will become possible as soon as you perceive these rules for SEO content as your daily routine.
Quality over quantity
The first and most important rule in search engine optimization is to provide value. This will always be a subjective term because it relates to emotions and feelings.
To have a higher position in the search engine rankings, you need to provide clear signals that your pages are better than those of your competitors.
There are many strategies, tactics, and tips in this regard, but the most important thing you can do is to optimize your content and make sure it is simply excellent.
Also, keep in mind that search engines will prioritize the most important pages among the most relevant ones.
So, for a search query, they will initially select the most relevant pages, and the order of the display will be directly proportional to their importance and notoriety.
There are no strict rules about how to write great content, but it has to be great.
However, the layout must be designed in such a way that the user does not have to read each section of content to learn the basics. You should be able to effectively scan the page and easily extract the most important items.
In order to get there, you could experiment with subtitles, texts written in bold, internal contents, ordered or unordered lists of elements, all of which should help highlight the main ideas.
Start by focusing on the content’s value. Many writers fail to bring value because they maintain some SEO rules as the starting point. By doing this, you create content for scrapers and bots, not for real human beings. This will create a high bounce rate and you don't want that. You want the visitor to be mesmerized by your articles and, thus, attracted to what you sell on that website.
The first paragraph
The first paragraph is a key element that could capture attention. Formulate it carefully and think about potential visitors. What are their expectations? How can you persuade them to keep reading the text and not leave your website?
The first paragraph is the mirror of the whole content and a bridge between you and your visitors. For this reason, the unexpected phrases that contain relevant ideas are the ones that will capture the attention and win the sympathy of the users. It is obvious that people do not have time. The first words of your article or content must be very clear, concise, and logically structured so as not to scare the user and not complicate his experience.
Despite the desire to impress potential visitors using specific formulas, the first paragraph should remain extremely relevant and informative. Include a brief content plan and always insert the most important keywords.
Meta description
The meta description is the HTML attribute that provides a summary or a concise explanation of the content. It is used on search engine result pages (SERPs) to display relevant snippets for a particular page.
Even though it does not have a significant role in SEO, it is an important factor. That is why the meta description must be captivating, particularly informative, and attractive to visitors.
The user searches for what interests him, then analyzes the list of search results, examines URLs, titles, subtitles, meta descriptions, and only then he decides whether or not to visit your page.
At this point, things are getting really interesting.
It is important to remember that users will decide in 2 or 3 seconds whether or not a particular page provides them with the information they need. This interval is a critical one and all the information in front of the user must be modeled and optimized to facilitate his decision. Otherwise, he will never get to see that awesome content you have prepared for him.
Keyword family
The page needs to be optimized around the main keyword and all the associated keywords like variations and synonyms, which will be related to each other. This is the page you want to appear in search results on words from the same family, so you need enough text.
Relevance signals should only include keywords from the targeted family to avoid competition between pages of the same website, also known as keyword cannibalization.
Using keyword variations is an optimal option because it reduces the risk of being penalized for over-optimization. This method gives you the ability to cover more content from the same semantic field with multiple long-tail keywords.
It’s also good to know that shorter terms are superior to longer terms. Keywords help the site rank better if they appear everywhere. Given the above ideas, it is important to note that the choice and use of keywords is based on an analysis of the estimated volume of search keywords.
Conclusion
When you want to start SEO, the Internet is at your disposal. Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing! You are bombarded with tens, hundreds, even thousands of different opinions and articles, often contradictory.
The biggest risk is you can completely ignore the basics and the most important rules for SEO Content. If you do this, you will lose a lot of time and most likely you will not get results. A simple solution is to start solving the On-Page SEO part. This is handy because unlike Off-Page SEO, you have total control over it. You can make changes at any time, without any barriers.
About the author
*Helen Bold: Writer since she learned to write. Freelancer since she was born. Thinker since her past life. You can get in touch with her on her blog, Facebook or Medium.
