Let’s start from the beginning with looking at what we mean when we say ‘SEO friendly’. SEO (search engine optimisation) in a very basic explanation is making your website and its content good in terms of search engines. It means that your website and pages will rank higher because when the search engines are analysing their worth, they are ticking all of the right boxes. Search engines are set up with users in mind, they want to make finding the most relevant content a priority for any user. So if someone using Google searched a specific term, the results page will be filled with links that should be able to help them out.
For businesses, it is a huge priority to get higher up the rankings so that more potential customers are able to find their website. There are other ways that they can attract traffic to their site, such as using PPC methods but as we are looking at SEO we are purely talking about organic traffic.
Factors that impact how high a website is ranked include page speed, keywords and the length of time that the website has existed. One of the biggest factors is the content of the website itself. So how do you create content that the search engines will love?
-
Prioritise the user
For long-term results, always concentrate on creating content that is focused purely on the needs of the user. Google recommends that you should create useful, high quality information to help people to solve an issue that they may be facing or help them to find a service that they really need. In terms of the user experience, you also need to make sure that your content is easy to read or view. It helps to have a responsive website for example, so that people using all kinds of devices are able to have a good user experience. You can easily get a responsive website up and running, just make sure that you check the web hosting service reviews to ensure your website will perform well.
-
Be unique
Content that you create should always be unique. If you copy text or images from other website without permission, not only will the search engines penalise you, you could also end up getting sued for breach of copyright. Content should always be unique, you may take inspiration from other sources sometimes but the best content is totally unique and filled with original, expert level content.
-
Titles and headings
Having a page filled with a large block of text is not easy for a user to read and should be avoided at all costs. Using clear titles and headings in your content will not only help your users, it will also help the search engines to determine how relevant your content is. So use your heading tags and bullets, numbers etc. to provide formatting that makes it easier for the users to read text.
-
Use keywords
Keywords are the main ingredient that enables a search engine to link to your content. So understanding how to use keywords will be the base of your SEO rich content. If you are not sure what sort of keywords you should be using, take a look at keyword generating tools to do it for you. Be careful not to stuff your content with keywords though, as this leads to penalisation!
These are just four of the principles that you should look at applying when you are creating content. It helps to stay up to date with the latest trends so your content remains SEO friendly.
