Content is King! A Guide for Creating SEO Friendly Contents
In my last article SEO Trends – What Should We Do? I discussed about having great contents. Having great contents is the first step towards achieving best SEO results for your website. So what should you do to create a great content to which search engines would assign a higher value & higher page ranks? In this article I am going to discuss tips for creating SEO friendly content.
Contents could take form of articles, videos, infographics & any other things that would add value to your website topic.
Before you start creating contents for your website, you have to make sure that your website is search engines friendly. You can refer my article 7 Tips for Making Your Website Spider Friendly for more details.
There are various aspects we should consider for creating SEO friendly contents. When we say content it means your individual articles, videos etc. as well as the overall contents on your website taken as a whole. We will discuss both the aspects here.
SEO considerations for contents on your website taken as a whole
- Decide your main keywords
Before you start adding contents you should decide which keyword you wish to target. You should choose that keyword which exactly or very closely describes your core nature of business. In my opinion here you should keep this process as simple as possible. Suppose, you are promoting web hosting then your main keyword should be ‘web hosting’. Keep in mind that your website content taken as a whole should be optimized for the main keyword. We can use keyword tools for researching keywords, but in my opinion it’s not required while deciding your main keyword. This is so because you yourself know better which word describes your core activity. Of course we should use keyword research tools but it should be at micro level while adding more & more relevant contents. The main keyword should be used in your website title, description & Meta tags. It’s also recommended to include your main keyword in the URL of your website.
- Find newer ideas for creating fresh contents
Search engines love fresh contents. So try to keep your website always up with fresh new contents. You can get ideas to create new contents in your niche by visiting Niche Forums. Get an idea about what questions people in general are asking in these forums. You can create series of relevant contents on your website to answer these questions. Remember to share this content with forum members also as this would create your good reputation in these forums.
- Keep your overall Contents Focused around main topic
While creating different pieces of contents you should always keep your focus strongly around your main topic. Search engine like Google now assigns good page ranks on strongly focused contents.
SEO factors to be considered for Individual website contents
- Keyword Research
You can use various free keyword research tools to choose different keywords for using in your contents. You can use Google Adwords free keyword research tool. Decide the keyword to target based on the number of searches as compared with the competition. Try to visualize what search phrases people would be using for searching things in your niche. You would also get an idea of how people are finding your website on search engines. You can also use Google Analytics to know from which keyword your website is getting traffic from search engines. Analyze your analytics reports to find for which keyword you are getting an average position which is near to 10 & start optimizing your contents for this keyword. Let me explain this further.
Suppose your website is about personal finance & its average position for your main keyword ‘personal finance’ is say 50. However, there could some other related keyword (for example SIP) for which you could see that your website is appearing at an average position of 26. It’s better to concentrate on that keyword as there are better chances for your website to come on first page of Google if you optimize your contents for this keyword.
The reason why I am discussing this technique is to convey that you should use keyword research intelligently rather than getting too much obsessed about it.
- Use keywords in appropriate places & appropriate manner
You should use your main keywords in title, first paragraph & summary section of your articles. You should use main & related keywords in the article body. Make sure that you are not stuffing keyword s & keep in mind that your users are human. Your content should be readable by humans & should make sense. It should convey a great value for your website users.
- Internal Links to your existing contents
While creating new contents, where ever possible provide links to related articles, videos or any other contents already published on your website. This provides completeness to your contents & makes your website easy to navigate.
- Become an expert in your niche
You should add contents in such a way that would reflect your expertise in your niche. Try to explain things in detail instead of simply mentioning them without any elaboration. You should keep the readers’ interest in reading your contents.
In summary we can say that to creating highly focused contents with proper keywords usage is the key for creating SEO friendly contents.