How To Write Interesting And SEO Friendly Text

Natural traffic is an important part of any website, and the best way to increase it is to get a better position in Google's search results.

You have already created a list of keywords (if not, read HERE about keyword research and evaluation) and now you need to create content that is interesting to readers and at the same time friendly to Google and other search engine robots. Read more about SEO optimization HERE.

In principle, any type of content can be SEO content - from product descriptions to a variety of interactive tools and videos. However, when it comes to SEO content, most people talk about blog content or articles, because the different types of descriptions, presentations, reviews are the ones that can bring the most visitors to your site - up to 90% of the total number of visitors and more. And the more visitors you get to your website, the more people you can involve in your sales process.

For this reason, we'll talk about writing text - how to write it so that it appears on the first page of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) or, ideally, at the very top of that page.

Choice of topic

If you want to build a thriving online business in the ever-changing world of SEO, you need to create useful, interesting, and compelling content for your site's user. This should be done consistently, with new articles / posts added regularly - at least once a month, ideally about once a week.

And any article starts with choosing a topic. It is important to understand that the article itself will not drive traffic to your site. And often, even an extensive, in-depth and interestingly written article may not produce the expected results. Why? Because, although the article is good and interestingly written, the topic as such is not relevant to a large enough number of people.

Usually, after the article is published, information about it is also disseminated on social networks, sent to those who have subscribed to receive news from you, and sometimes also through paid advertising campaigns. These activities of your activity generate a flow of interested people to this article and further 2 development scenarios are possible:

Scenario A

If these people spend little time reading the article and leave your site without visiting another page on your site, Google will conclude that the article is not good enough and is unlikely to appear in the TOP 10 of Google search results. Accordingly, the flow of people to this article will decrease, as all your social networking and news subscribers who have found the topic interesting will have already read it, but new visitors from Google will not be sent to it. You will be writing new articles on a regular basis, but the flow of visitors to your site will not increase substantially - they will be the same visitors, so your site will develop very slowly.

Scenario B

If these people spend more time reading the article and visit other pages on your site, Google will conclude that the article is good and will start referring to it in their search results. Even if people who visit your site from Google spend enough time reading the article, visiting other pages on your site, and returning to your site in a while, links to this article will appear in better positions in Google search results and NEW traffic to your site will increase.

Scenario B is obviously more attractive because if the article is well written and SEO friendly, it will generate an increasing and, more importantly, a steady flow of visitors. Respectively - it is worth devoting time to researching the potential of the topic, otherwise it may happen that the article will not bring the expected results and the time (or money) spent on its preparation will be spent instead of invested.

Google Search ranking factors

To better understand how Google evaluates each article, you need to understand its ranking algorithm. Google's algorithm is constantly evolving and, consequently, the importance of its ranking factors is constantly changing. Don't take this chart literally, but as an indication of which factors need more attention and which may not be worth spending too much time on.

User involvement

Google's user engagement is understood how the page visitor interacts with both the page and the site as a whole (other pages on the site). The importance of this factor is constantly increasing. The more relevant the article is to the search purpose, the more user engagement. The importance of this parameter is likely to continue to grow, so try to write meaningful articles where people can find answers to their questions.

Regular, engaging content publications

If your site regularly publishes quality / engaging content, it won't take several months to reach the Top 10 of Google search results, but only days or weeks. If the content of a page matches the purpose of the search and people behave that they receive the information they're looking for, Google rewards trusted providers of high-quality information to get them high in their search results, often within a few days of being published, sometimes on the first SERP page.

Keywords in Meta Headlines

The importance of keywords in Meta titles (headings and descriptions) is declining, although it is still important. Google currently generates around 60% descriptions that appear in its search results, and this trend is likely to increase. However, keywords in headlines and subheadings are still important because they help Google better understand / index the content of a page.

Expertise in the specific field

Google values sites that are experts in their niche. However, this only applies to search queries that are directly related to the specific industry / knowledge. However, it is better to position yourself as an expert in one or maybe a few areas than to pretend to be an expert, because then you are already applying for the status of a news or entertainment portal, where everyone can find something useful for themselves and - will you be able to provide such content production capacity?

Links to your content from other Internet resources

The importance of the number of backlinks is slowly declining. While this is still a major factor in Google's ranking, the focus is shifting toward relevant content and the user experience. At this time, Google AI is already smart enough to judge the quality and originality of its own content, and it no longer needs other sites to do the job. This factor is likely to remain relevant, especially for citations on similar sites.

Links to other pages on your site

The more pages on your site that use the same keyword in their title tags, the higher your site will be ranked for that particular keyword. But you need to link these pages to internal links to better show Google how they relate. For example, if you publish 20 articles on different aspects of Topic 1 and link them all to a single authoritative page, you can raise that page's position in the Google SERP.

Mobile friendly design

At present, when at least 60% people visit the Internet via mobile devices, Google has switched from "Mobile friendly" to "Mobile first". That is, your site should be easy to see on mobile phones and tablets. And the site should look and function the same on both mobile and desktop devices. The importance of this factor is growing.

Other factors

That's pretty much it - a total of 200 Google ranking factors are known, but since Google doesn't reveal its ranking algorithm, there may be more. Of course, it's good if your site is relevant to them all, but devoting a lot of time to getting high ratings at all is probably not necessary.

SEO text writing

Not all articles should be about your product or service, but they should all be related to the industry you work in, as it would be pointless to try to sell something to someone who is not ultimately interested in the products or services you offer (for example, feminine hygiene products for men, or electric razors for women).

Assert yourself and / or your company as an expert in your industry, share ideas and experiences, write guides, the latest trends and product reviews, and more. And - do it better than your competitors.

The most common types of SEO text:

• Descriptions of goods or services;
• Instructions and instructions for use;
• Blog articles - entertaining or on topics related to your business;
• Answers to frequently asked questions;
• News information;
• Company descriptions (About us / Vision / Mission, etc.).

The most common mistakes when writing SEO texts

I will only mention those that relate directly to the texts. About page load speed, external and internal links, etc. another time:

• No research is done on keywords and competitors' articles, so the result is not expected. You may intuitively do everything perfectly, but you may only cover 50% or less;
• Writing on Google - You don't write texts to please Google, but people who read it. If they find your writing boring, difficult to understand - they will leave your page quickly (neither will nor share) and Google will draw conclusions…
• Focus on the most popular keywords, which are usually too broad in meaning (more competition) and make it harder for you to get to the top of the search results;
• Too many keywords - text should be natural if it contains too many keywords artificially - the content can become "inedible" or obviously promotional;
• Worthless content - no matter how well-structured and keyword-rich an article is - if the reader doesn't find anything useful in it - it will be quickly abandoned, the reader will be less flattered and Google will draw conclusions…
• Bored, unobtrusive headlines - If your content appears on the results page with a boring, uninteresting headline and / or description, no one will click on it and Google will draw conclusions…
• Writing regardless of the purpose of the search. People are usually looking for something to do (solutions, explanations), ideas, some specific information. If they don't find what you're looking for in your article… and Google will draw conclusions…
• Focus on keywords. Google is smart enough to understand that some words may have the same or similar meanings. Use it to your advantage! Do not repeat your focus keywords n times to make the text boring, obviously commercial, and difficult to read, but use synonyms;
• Too complicated language - complicated sentence structure, foreign words, abbreviations… makes the text difficult to understand / understand. Even the most complex things can be described in plain language and understood by everyone;
• Unverified facts - If your readers check the facts in the text and find that they are inaccurate, they will no longer believe you and will no longer visit your site.

How to write good SEO text?

The Internet is full of a variety of tips, from how to find and choose keywords to how to structure text, how many words there should be in each paragraph, and more. All of these tips are generated by analyzing the text referenced in the first Google search results and finding "average" parameters, similar to "average hospital temperature." Read more about how Google search works HERE. That is, be critical of these tips on the Internet until you are sure that they really work. This is especially true for WordPress SEO plug-ins and third-party SEO applications, as in many cases their recommendations are outdated or impossible to implement without making the text a strange recipe using 600 words or more and including the recipe name (as a keyword). subheadings and several times in the preparation instructions).

It should be understood that Google is just an algorithm. An algorithm whose main goal is to find exactly what you are looking for. When someone types something in the search bar, Google tries to understand:

• Does he want to know anything?
• Does he want to buy something?
• Is he looking for entertainment?

And the most relevant (indexed) result in the database is selected accordingly. How does Google determine which result is the most relevant? It is not known, but we can mention:

• The result that Google thinks best solves the searcher's need / problem (learn / buy / have fun). Respectively - it best matches the requested topic (if you are looking for new skates, you will not be offered fishing rods) and has a higher value (more exhaustive / wider than other results).
• If the match and / or value is the same or similar the above can be shown:
  • Results that are geographically closer to the computer you're searching for (so search results like Riga and Tallinn are likely to be different). My guess is that the location of the resource is based on Google my bussiness the data entered and / or LocalBusiness Schema Type (and Google's description of this) and / or top-level domain (country code);
  • In Latvia, domains with the extension LV, but in Germany with DE, etc .;
  • Results with a higher DA (Domain Authority)and PA (Page Authority);
  • Results that lead to more links from other authoritative pages on a similar topic;
  • Results with a "fresher" publication date;
  • Results that are clicked more often in Google search results (because they may have a more interesting headline / description);
  • Results in which their visitors spend more time (so they may be better / more interesting).

When writing texts, try to:

• Write to people. Get to know your audience - what interests them, what hurts them and write to them about what interests and hurts them:
• Try to create unique content - If parts of your text are copied from another web page (whether from your own domain or another domain), Google may treat this as spam or duplicate / copied content (duplicate content) and accordingly links to this page in the SERP will appear far from the Top 10 or will not appear at all.
• Write interesting and without "excess water", because if the text is not interesting for readers, it will never get in the Google TOP search results. Google is a smart enough search engine to be able to determine the value and relevance of each text with relative accuracy. And Google probably has a lot more data on site visitors, their behavior, and their engagement than is shown in your Google Analyticor Google Search Console accounts;
• Expand your written text with videos, relevant illustrations, info graphics, etc .;
• If you say A, say B - write practical texts. You have to write in such a way that the reader does not feel that something has not been said to the end or questions arise - OK but how to do it? What's next? Where to turn? …
• Split text - Separate paragraphs using subheadings. This will help readers find what they're looking for faster, keep them engaged, and help Google better understand the content of your text, and increase the number of keywords that match your text;
• Write in simple extended sentences;
• Include the main keyword in the title and preferably at the beginning of the text. Include related keywords in subheadings. This allows you to increase the number of keywords that can be referenced in your Google search results.
• Use citations from resources with high domain authority and post links to those resources. This will show Google that you are referring to / obtaining information from quality / authoritative sources, so that the content you create may also be of high quality.
• Put links to other pages on your site in the text. Do this in the context of the written word - as a supplement to the text, a place where the reader can get more information on a particular topic. 

Is it better to write the texts yourself or order them?

Any digital marketing agency will be happy to help you, for a specific and fair fee, of course. However, remember that SEO texts are written primarily to get higher in the Google search results - but if you pay for SEO articles - they are no longer free. On the one hand, you seem to pay once, but the article will last a long time, on the other hand, no one can guarantee that you will get to the first page of search results with a particular article. You may be able to get more out of your FaceBook or Google advertising services with the amount you pay the agency.

With the services of digital marketing agencies, you can achieve an increase in the number of visitors faster, but we would still recommend you to try it yourself. Yes, it will take longer, but you and only you know best what to live for and what interests your site visitors. As you write, you have complete control over the process and with each subsequent article / post you will do the job faster and better.