Being highly ranked on Google is one of the best things that could happen to any business you do online. Your article showing up on the first page means a lot to anything you are involved in. You can count on that for a constant flow of income, among other things. The journey is not easy, but you can do something about it. One strategy that stands out is creating SEO-friendly content. This means that you will have capitalized on the number of people that visit your website and that Google search engine will rank you highly in its search results. However, merely talking about it is not enough if you do not know how to do it. In this article, join us as we take you through a systematic process in creating SEO-Friendly Content. Some of the tips are as below:

• Know what your readers need and give it to them
• Research your audience
• Write value-packed articles
• Do a rigorous keyword research
• Work on adding visuals to your content

How to Know What Your Readers Are Looking For and Give It to Them

One rule is common in SEO. You need to give your audience high-quality content. Start with your homepage, for instance. If the homepage has incredible content, then your audience will feel welcome to read other content on your website. So how do you ensure that your reader gets high-quality content?

Ensure you offer helpful content

If you are the person that takes less time to put together an article for a blog, it is a useful skill. However, it reflects poor quality and little value for the readers. A survey by OrbitMedia tries to justify the gradual increase in time spent in writing a blog post. As per the numbers say, it took 3 hours 28 minutes to write an article in 2018 when it took 2 hours 24 minutes for the same article in 2014. Most of the time is spent ascertaining whether you are giving the reader the correct information. The OrbitMedia survey reveals that 13 percent of bloggers spend more than 6 hours to tackle a standard blog post. Checking the effectiveness reveals that those that spent more time on their articles offer stronger results than those that spent less time. Expert writers at TrustMyPaper suggest that every content creator must try to add informational value to readers.

Ensure content is original

The question is, “How often do you engage in any real research?” Most internet users would love to read the content they have not read somewhere else. You need to start creating your content giving it a unique perspective that interests your target audience. If you are not good at online research, you need to consider content creation pages to help you generate new and original content.

You now realize that to improve the quality of your SEO content, you need to invest some time and effort. The result is better content, more readers, and better content performance.

Research Your Audience

You need to know the reader of your content. Do this by finding out their needs and interests. Some of the ways to understand audience needs and interests include social media listening, web analytics, and keyword research. You can also do database research, track customer panels and forums, as well as AI- power audience analyses. Once you know how to use any of this, it should be easy to create content that resonates with the audience’s needs and interests.

Write Value-Packed Articles

The need for more detailed explanations of issues continues to increase each day. The most recommended length for SEO- friendly blog articles is about 1,100 words. This does not guarantee that you write fluff. Each paragraph and line needs to contribute to the main point of your article.

Moreover, it should give value and significant advice to readers. A good 1000+ article should offer strong search engine results. This does not stop here. When you get used to 1000+, why not move to longer-form content and offer even better value to readers.

Do a rigorous keyword research

This is the masterstroke in search engine optimization. Keywords are words frequently searched by internet users. To find these words, below are some things you can do.

Ask Google

Asking Google is the easiest of them all. Google is the world’s most used search engine; therefore, the best place to start when looking for high-value keywords for your blog article. Pay attention to the search bar at the top as well as the “Related Searches” section at the bottom. Google will suggest to you some of the most searched keywords with the press of the first button.

Use the Untapped Long Tail Keyword Research Method

When you open Google above, you will see something like a drop-down or a feed of words streaming from the search box. They are usually long in form and are excellent options to use within your article. As you play with keywords, more combinations will come. Another section is the Related Searches at the bottom of Google. The keywords here can help contribute in coming up with exciting ideas for your content.

Use Buzzsumo to Research for the Most Popular Content

Another method of researching keywords and viable content ideas is using a content discovery tool. What happens is that you provide a head keyword, and it offers a list of well-performing content based on social media engagements. The result is that you get keywords used by competitors. Moreover, you get to assess the effectiveness of the keywords you researched. One content discovery tool you need to use is Buzzsumo. Buzzsumo also gives you popular articles in other languages as you search for content. You can also translate your blog post to reach more people. This means you might have to seek the translation services of a professional translator for more cohesive articles.

Use UberSuggest

Renowned digital marketer Neil Patel developed UberSuggest. This keyword research tool offers useful analytics at no cost. The analytic result you can expect include

• Keywords
• Keyword ideas
• Keyword search volume
• SEO difficulty
• Paid difficulty
• Cost per Click (CPC)
• Content ideas
• Site audit

UberSuggest has a section that offers the data related to keyword combinations. This is precisely what you need for more keyword and content ideas. The tool also allows you to create a content marketing strategy. If well used, then you are on your way to Google search results’ first page. As much as you can avoid cliché headings and content, know what quality looks like to readers and provide it.

Add visuals to your content

Most readers will be fixated to visual content such as images, videos, screenshots, and infographics. Visual content is in the group of content that brings more traffic to your website. Some readers find more value in visual content. Invest in some visual content and complement your textual content to enhance your content marketing and experience a better Return on Investment.

There are exciting stats that can back this up as below:

• Foremost, when a person hears something, he or she remembers about 10 percent of it three days later. When this person sees a picture, they recall 65 percent of it. The conclusion is that visuals like infographics summarize important information or break down complex content that is difficult to understand.
• Another statistic is that content marketers are increasingly adding visual content to their textual content. OrbitMedia survey reveals that 54 percent of bloggers used more than one image in their article, whereas 19 percent used videos.

Visual content adds more appeal to your content. Remember that you also need to optimize your visuals as well. Below are some of the ways to optimize your visuals:

Do a keyword search

The same way you optimize your text with the right keywords, you need to get the right keywords to rank your image high on Google images. One helpful tool is Kparser.

Change the image file name to something descriptive

There are many images online thanks to Google images, among other online image galleries. Rename image filename from YYY.jpg to a more descriptive file name makes it stand out among others. Moreover, a descriptive filename increases an image’s click-through rate to your website. You can count on optimized images in case you are selling a visual product or service.

Read Also: Image Optimization

Use ALT attribute tags

Search engines cannot see your images. The ALT tag text allows the search engine to decipher your image and rank it. ALT tag text is usually less than 125 characters. Make the ALT tag text descriptive and include target keywords. Avoid flooding the ALT tag with keywords. The description should be in a form that helps your audience to understand your image. ALT tag improves the indexation of images and compresses them with certain tools to avoid overloading or and reducing the speed of your site. Remember that the speed of your website is also vital in ranking it. This feature is vital for the role it plays for visually impaired consumers who cannot see the image. Your ALT tag text needs to have some context in them. This allows the assistive devices of a visually impaired person to demonstrate a vivid picture of what the images are about.

Image placement

Once your content is ready, all you need is to upload your images at the various points of your page. Usually, it is appropriate to have one in between every 350 words. However, this does not guarantee anything if your image does not offer any user experience. Moreover, ask yourself whether the photos enhance your message and help the reader.

Image size and page load speed

Images are popular for slow page loading. You can, however, do something about it. One tip that is significant for such a case is image sizing and compression. Doing this can help improve page speed. Google revealed that 40 percent of consumers leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load. Google adds that 79 percent of shoppers dissatisfied with a site’s performance are less likely to come back. When users wait too long to reach your page, you will notice a higher bounce rate. This affects your page rank.

Image sizing and compression allows you to establish the ideal size without losing image quality. As you resize and compress the image, ensure it does not lose pixels or become distorted. One tool that can help with that is Adobe Photoshop’s “Save for Web” tool. Within it, you can resize the image and make the file size appropriate for user experience. Photoshop has the ability to preset image quality. This ranges from 1.38MB to 86k.

In conclusion, optimizing your content is good for your business website. The above tips and techniques can improve the performance of your content and achieve outstanding results. Remember that it is not all about optimizing the textual content but also the images. All the best as you make your content SEO-friendly.