How to write an SEO-friendly article? 10 tips

Some believe that so-called writing 'under SEO' and writing to attract readers' attention are mutually exclusive. This is not true! Of course, the phrases you want to appear in search results should be in your text to make it SEO-friendly. However, overusing them, seriously hinders the readability of the text for a real audience. This is something you definitely do not want to do. What's more, too high a density of key phrases can be a signal to Google that you're using keyword stuffing - a tactic from the black hat SEO. This, in turn, can negatively affect your ranking position. What you need to realise is that search engines want to provide users with the most relevant and highest quality content. Therefore, writing for search engines, should actually be properly optimised... writing for readers. Read tips for writing blog articles that are SEO-friendly and easy to read. These two goals should always go hand in hand, as writing in clear language will attract more visitors and keep them on your site.

Before you start: remember your keyword research!

Before you start hitting the keyboard, you need to carry out keyword research. It's safe to say that this is one of the most important steps in creating the content that will be published online. If you want to gain high rankings in search results, you need to find out what words your audience is actually searching for. Based on this, choose the topics you should write about and the keywords you should use in your text.

When researching, you will need to use tools, but you do not have to invest in them at all at the beginning. In the first instance, simply go to... Google. Start typing your search term in the bar and the search engine will suggest the most popular queries. Other free tools you can use include. Google Keyword Planner, Answer The Public i Keyword Sheeter. 

Once you have a list of keywords, it's time to get on with the writing. Let's go over 10 tips to help you create an amazing blog post!

Writing search engine friendly articles - 10 tips

Give yourself time to think about the content

At the very beginning, think about what you want the message of the article to be, its key ideas, its thesis. What do you want to say to your audience or present an answer to? What will be the purpose of your article and what do you want readers to do after reading it? It is useful to write down this information in one place, and also to determine the intent of people who search for a phrase related to your content. Intent is simply the reason behind a particular web search. The basic, most common intentions are: informational, transactional, navigational. 

Develop the structure of the article

To write a blog post that is user and SEO-friendly, you need to plan a clear structure. This means that each post should have admission (in which you present your topic); body (main content); summary (where you will recall key information or present conclusions).

You may think this sounds like a plan for a school dissertation. But the truth is that without a clear structure, your text will discourage readers and also not be well received by robots. Therefore, once you have a topic, a list of keywords, and you know why and to whom you are writing - plan in a few sentences what you want to include in these three basic sections. This will help you create a structured article. Well done! Now the real writing can really begin.

Use paragraphs and headings

Everyone uses paragraphs, but not everyone does it in an optimal way. Don't start a new sentence with a new line just because it looks good. Ask yourself what is the main idea/thought of each paragraph. You should be able to summarise it in one sentence. Also, try not to make your paragraphs too long, as large blocks of text make the reader's eyes grow tired quickly. 

Headlines are also an important element, as they help readers understand what a particular section of text is about and scan for content of interest. Headlines should not only be taken care of for readability reasons. They are also crucial for on-page SEO. In order for Google to understand what keywords you want to rank for, you need to include them in your H2 headings, and if you content has more levels, then also H3, H4 and so on.

Use linking words

Linking words also give structure to the content, help the audience scan the text and understand the the relationship between individual sentences and paragraphs. For example, suppose there are three reasons why people buy your product. You should use phrases that signal this such as: "firstly"; "secondly" and "finally" / "thirdly". We use linking words naturally in our communication, but pay particular attention when writing an article to make sure there are not too few.

Linking words can be divided according to their meaning and use. Among others, we distinguish those that indicate:

• cause (e.g. because, therefore, due to)

• comparison or contrast (e.g. like to, unlike to)

• conclusion (e.g. concluding, at the end)

• emphasis (e.g. certainly, above all)

Use related keywords

You need to know what phrases potential customers are searching for in your content, but it is a mistake to focus on just one general phrase in an article. Clogging up your article with a single keyword makes it less appealing to read and can also hurt rankings. That's because Google's robots are getting smarter and the search engine wants you to write content that users will love. It doesn't want you to use a keyword in every other sentence. It has other ways of analysing what the text is about. One of them is to recognise synonyms and related phrases.

Pay attention to the length of the content

Make sure your blog posts are at least 800 words long, but don't 'stretch' them by, as they say, pouring water on them. It's true that Google likes long articles, but if your article is too long, it can put users off.

Link to existing content

Internal linking is a technique that both your readers and search engine will thank you for using. It will make both your new blog post and your existing ones stronger because you will build authority in a particular area, topic. Don't forget that linking to other content is great from the readers' point of view, as they may be interested in reading related posts, and links help them navigate the site. In addition, internal linking is important for SEO. Google relies on it, among other things, to identify which content on a page is most important. It must therefore be simple, logical and clear. 

Ask someone you trust to read the article

Before you publish your post, make sure someone else reads it. Ask if they understand the main idea of the article and ask them to correct typos or grammatical errors. Giving your text to someone else to read and evaluate will provide you with an objective view of its readability and attractiveness.

Use the SEO plug-in

The most popular is Yoast SEO. Install it on your site, turn it on and then start adding a new post. Scroll down to the bottom of the content editor to the plugin window and enter the keyword phrase under which you want people to find this particular post. Once you've added it, the plugin will check whether your article is optimised or needs tweaking. Importantly, the plugin not only allows you to optimise your texts for the indicated phrase, but also allows you to conveniently set metadata, which plays an important role in the SEO success of your website, and check the readability of your content. You can use the free version Yoast SEOwhich is perfectly adequate for most site owners.

Remember to be regular

The text is already written, optimised and published. Bravo! Now it's time to... repeat the whole process. Yes, regularity and consistency are the cornerstones of effective content marketing. Regularly adding new blog posts tells Google that your site is alive. This is important because if your site is not active, Google will index it less often, which can negatively affect your search positions. However, don't publish just for the sake of publishing! Make sure that all the content you publish presents high quality, provides readers with useful information and matches their search intent.

A king who will not be dethroned any time soon - content

The times when all it took was a few (not entirely honest) SEO tricks for a website to rank well in Google are long gone. Now, to the satisfaction of web users, high quality content is paramount. This in turn naturally leads to more external links, shares and returning visitors. Of course, there are more techniques you can use to create SEO-friendly content, but the ones listed above will yield some results!