Writing blog posts that are both nice and easy to read as well as SEO-friendly can be daunting. For some people, SEO-friendly content and high-quality content even seem contradictory. In this post, I’ll explain the three important steps you need to take to write excellent and SEO-friendly content.
Holistic SEO
At Yoast, we do not believe in over optimizing your content or keyword stuffing. SEO should never be a trick; it should be a long-term strategy. We believe in holistic SEO. We think you should focus on every aspect of website optimization to earn your place in Google’s rankings. You simply have to be the best result. In a holistic SEO strategy, you should focus on various aspects of website optimization: great UX, flawless security, and of course technical excellence. Writing high-quality content is a critical aspect of a holistic SEO strategy.
Before you start writing: keyword research
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Before you can start writing, you have to do some keyword research. If you want to dominate the search results, you’ll just have to figure out which words your audience actually searches for. These are the words that you should use in your text.
Providing you’ve done your keyword research properly, you’ll need to make sure your content meets the following demands: your content should be original, your content should be readable, and your content should be findable.
1. Original content
The first pillar of high-quality and SEO-friendly content is to write original content. Your blog post or your article should be fresh, new and original. It should be different from all the other blog posts and articles that are already on the internet. It should be something that people will want to read.
Read more: ‘The importance of original content for SEO’ »
2. Readable content
After you have written a post with original content, you should make sure to write readable content. Your article should be easy to read. Readability is important for your audience. If your text is well structured and clearly written, people will understand the message of your text. Above that, readability is also important for SEO. People read your text, but Google reads texts too. If your text is easier to read, has a clear structure with subheadings and clear paragraphs, Google will be more likely to grasp the main message of your post. If the main message of your post is clearer to Google, it will be more likely that your post will rank in the search engines.
Keep reading: ‘5 tips to write readable blogposts’ »
3. Findable content
The final step while writing awesome and SEO-friendly content is to make sure your content is findable. Findability has to do with maximizing the likelihood Google picks up your content in the search engines. It is important that you take this final step after you’ve written an original and readable post. Findability should never compromise the originality of your idea nor the readability of your text. Yoast SEO can help you tweak your text just a little bit better.
Read on: ‘Use Yoast SEO to make your content findable’ »
Conclusion
SEO should be a long-term strategy. It should be something you invest in. To truly dominate the search results, your website should provide the best match for people searching for that specific term. Writing original and readable content will make sure to do just that. Making that content a little bit more easy to find for Google is just fine-tuning the hard work you already did.