Today, if you want to get Google to like your site, you should optimize content for SEO. It means that you should edit every article, image, and video in the way it will fit the strict SEO rules.
If you are a newbie in this field, here is the ultimate guide for you. Don’t hesitate to use this article to avoid big mistakes.
Create value for visitors
First of all, you should remember that you create content for real people, not for machines. Your content should be informative, entertaining, and useful for the users. The trick is that if you satisfy the target audience’s needs with outstanding content, you will automatically optimize your content for Google.
To create value for your readers, you should conduct in-depth research on the topic and present brand new ideas. Another valid tactic is to check the content your competitors have on a given topic and to create a better version of it. ‘A better version’ means that you can provide readers with more details, add comments from industry experts, etc. Another great way to engage your visitors and rank higher on Google is to add unique media content on your page. It can be a video, an infographic or photos depending on the topic.
If you lack the experience in content creation, you should better get professional assistance. For instance, you can hire a freelance writer at Upwork or utilize a popular writing service.
Research keywords
Today, Google’s ranking system is very sophisticated. It’s based on more than 200 different ranking factors. However, the most important factor is all about appropriate keywords usage.
What is a “keyword”? It’s a word or a phrase, which people type into Google to find relevant content.
The rule of successful optimization for SEO is to find low competition and high traffic keywords. You can do it by using Ubersuggest and LSI Graph.
Improve readability
Textual content should be not only informative but also good-looking. Every article should have a very clear structure, and text should be readable. If you want to complete content optimization for SEO, you should do the following:
- Use subheadings to break down the long texts
- Start a new paragraph every two or three sentences
- Keep the length of the sentence within 20words limit
- Create bulleted lists to highlight the most important facts and statements
- Don’t write sentences in the passive voice. For instance, substitute phrase “the article was edited by Mr. Smith” with simpler alternative “Mr. Smith edited the article”
You can run a readability check with the help of online tools WebFX and Hemingway. These tools will help you to understand where you made mistakes and how to fix them.
Get rid of grammar mistakes
Modern young people tend not to follow grammar rules. Today it seems to be okay to make mistakes in text messages.
But keep in mind that when it comes to content optimization for SEO, you can’t afford to cross the grammar rules. If your texts contain lots of grammar mistakes, Google will penalize your website.
So, what can you do to get rid of the spelling and syntax errors? Here, you have three options:
- Proofread every text by yourself
- Utilize online grammar checker Grammarly
- Get help at one of the top academic writing websites where you can find professional proofreaders.
Optimize images and videos
Keep in mind that you should optimize not only textual content, but also visuals. You should compress photos and videos to boost the loading speed of your website.
You may use free image optimization tools such as TinyPNG and Toolur. It’s also important to name media files adequately. For instance, you should substitute names like IMG_8457.png with descriptive names. Next, you can optimize the image alt and title attributes. It will help images on your page rank higher in the Google results (and thus, give you an additional source of traffic from Google Images). Besides, this will also increase the relevancy of your page so add the targeted keywords to these attributes in a natural way.
Wrapping it up
If you want to complete basic content optimization for SEO, use this guide. It will help you to fix the major mistakes and get your website to the top of the Google search result page.