You worked hard to not only build your website, but also to fill it with amazing, high-quality content for your target audience to enjoy? Don’t you want them to be able to find it organically through a Google search? Of course!
However, securing one of those coveted spots on the first page of Google is easier said than done. There’s a lot of competition, after all!
Luckily, there are a few things to ensure your site and its content are effectively optimized so you can not only rank higher, but also attract tons of new traffic your way. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about in this #ContentWritingChat.
#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Optimize Your Content & Website to Rank in Google
Today, we’ll be chatting all about how to optimize your blog content AND your website so you can rank on that coveted first page of Google. 📈 pic.twitter.com/Wan1Y75fcf
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Partner (@ExpWriters) June 7, 2022
This month, we held a community chat all about optimization. If you want to learn what it takes to rank, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into the tips!
Q1: Why is it important that we take the necessary steps to get our content and our websites to rank high in Google search results?
A1: You work hard to create amazing content for your brand. Don’t you want people to see it and enjoy it? Of course!
By optimizing your content and ranking high in search results, you’re more likely to be discovered by new readers. #ContentWritingChat
Taking the extra steps to optimize your content means you stand a better chance at getting discovered by new people. Not only will you see an influx of traffic to your site, but it’s great for boosting engagement and conversions.
Q2: Part of ranking is choosing the right keywords. How do you select keywords to use in your content and on your site? For instance, should you consider factors like search volume, competition, etc.?
When choosing keywords, focus on relevancy, search volume, and user intent. There are tons of keyword research tools out there that will help you determine the right focus keyword to use on your web pages and within your blog posts.
Q3: Once you’ve chosen your focus keyword, where do you place it in your blog posts and on your website? Are there key places that shouldn’t be overlooked?
A3: Make sure you include your keyword in a few key places such as: title, meta description, introduction, and headers.
The title, meta description, introduction, and headers are important spots for placing your keyword. You’ll even want to sprinkle it throughout the body of your copy in a way that’s natural, not forced. The article from our blog that’s linked in the tweet above offers even more great advice.
Q4: Is there anything you should avoid when it comes to optimizing your content and your site? For instance, any old SEO tactics that are no longer relevant today?
A4: Don’t make SEO the *point* of your content. See it as a valuable benefit and be sure to optimize, but make sure the content is valuable in itself. This avoids a lot of pitfalls. #ContentWritingChat
Focus on creating amazing content first. After all, it’s about providing value and serving your audience. That’s always the top priority. Optimization should merely amplify your content.
Q5: How can you check to see where your content is ranking?
A5: You can do this manually by searching for your focus keyword and seeing where your content ranks. Or you can use a tool that tracks keyword rankings. #ContentWritingChathttps://t.co/otL3CLAVrQ
Invest in SEO tools that will provide all the data you need to measure your progress. If you can’t afford tools right now, manually search for your focus keywords to see where you’re ranking.
Q6: What do you do if your content still isn’t ranking? Is there anything you can do to ensure your content and your site begin to perform better?
A6: One idea – Try longer, more evergreen content. Test out longform blogs that people can reference over and over. #ContentWritingChat
If you’re not already creating longer, evergreen content, give it go. Google wants to see that you’re providing high-quality content and being of service to your audience. This could be what turns things around and gets you ranking at the top of the search results.
Q7: Which tools have been essential for optimization? Do you have any favorites for monitoring your website analytics and for conducting keyword research, etc.?
If you want to learn more about SEO, always refer back to our blog and visit Search Engine Journal as well.
Come join us for the next #ContentWritingChat! It happens on the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM Central. Just follow @ExpWriters to stay updated.
These can often pose quite a challenge to writers.
It’s not the keywords themselves. Those tend to be pretty straightforward.
It’s the often odd combinations of words in ways that are anything but grammatically correct.
Add to that a general lack of punctuation, throw in the name of a city and state, and you have what seems like a recipe for the most awkward sentences ever written!
So, how do we creatively insert a keyword in our content for best results?
Let’s explore.
The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success
Competition Comparison: Long-Tail Keywords vs. Broad Keywords
I’ve been able to rank content just on my site, expresswriters.com, for over 11,000 phrases.
Do you know what the majority of those keyword phrases are?
Long-tail phrases.
So when you’re looking for keywords to optimize your content with, you can either look up broad or long tail keywords.
Broad Keywords
1-2 words long
Also known as: “short tail”, “head terms”
Long Tail Keywords
3-5 words
Long tail keywords are primarily better because of two factors:
Lower competition: Easier to rank for. Great opportunities for new, emerging or growing sites.
Higher buying intent (ROI): Searchers are usually looking a specific answer to their question and are much more likely to be in the buying stage. Example: “where to buy basketball shoes online” vs. “shoes” – the searcher knows exactly what he wants by searching the long tail keyword, and he/she is much more ready to buy!
Broad keywords are tempting because of the amount of traffic searching for them.
But remember, you need the right traffic, not a ton of traffic, when it comes to looking at the value of keywords that will bring in real results.
Which type of customer would sell today if they walked in your dress shop?
Someone who wants a “dress”
Someone who wants a black dress, size M, for an evening party next week
One of my favorite tools to research keywords with is SEMrush and Mangools KWFinder.
In KWfinder, here’s what it looks like to find a low competition long-tail keyword.
For example, we looked up a keyword, blogging statistics. We wrote a blog around this as a keyword since it had a “possible rating at 50/100” – that’s since gone up to 52 – and we were able to get our blog in the top 4 results for that keyword. The left side of KWFinder is where you’ll find your gold mines – long tail keyword opportunities that you can write content pieces around.
I recommend going long-form and writing one piece of content around one keyword for best results. Don’t dilute and cram too many keywords in one piece.
Natural Language in SEO
The days of keyword-stuffing your way to the first page of Google are looooong gone, but today with how smart Google is, there’s no reason you can’t do this:
[bctt tweet=”Write for search engines without sounding like you’re writing for search engines, says @JuliaEMcCoy. ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
When it comes to writing with SEO in mind, this means using natural language – and natural variations of the words that appear in the focus and secondary keywords – instead of inserting the same exact keywords and key phrases into your text over and over again.
Let’s Talk About… Focus Keywords + Natural Usage
We always ask our clients for one focus keyword per piece.
But when it comes to penning the actual copy, if the exact keyword phrase doesn’t flow well, we fall back on just writing naturally.
Here’s an example.
For instance, this client-supplied keyword phrase:
“best ux designer Austin”
Clearly won’t work in either the title tag, meta description, or in the content (page, article, blog post, etc.). It may be an important, valuable keyword phrase for the client, but it’s a bit too clunky to use as is.
Even if you think you can squeeze that kind of phrase into a sentence – such as “When it comes to finding the best UX designer, Austin has a lot of choices to offer.” Sure, once in a while you’ll be able to get away with that. But far too often, the inclination seems to be to get hung up on that exact keyword phrase.
In a title tag or headline, the best approach would be to use the keyword naturally, like so:
“How to Find the Best Web and UX Designer in Austin”
You would then use variations on this keyword phrase throughout your content.
Bottom line:
Don’t try to force the keyword into the copy, and don’t then use the exact same keyword or key phrase over and over. Use synonymous keywords.
Location-Based Keywords
Let’s talk briefly about location-based keywords.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, along comes a location-based keyword:
“eyedoctor in Burlington Vermont”
Remember:
To Google, there is absolutely no difference between:
“eyedoctor in Burlington VT” and “eye doctor in Burlington, VT”
Since we’re humans writing for humans – we should always defer to using proper punctuation, grammar, and style, even in SEO writing.
So, use the space between eye and doctor.
When you take into account that these keyword lists being supplied to (or, in some cases, created by) us are almost always generated by such tools as Google’s keyword tool and other tools – not actual humans – it’s not surprising the keywords provided to us don’t include punctuation, proper grammar, etc.: because they were generated by algorithms/tools.
It’s absolutely essential for websites to use location keywords in the page titles and Meta description tags of their pages. When it comes to using those same location keywords in the content itself – in the copy, in headings, and in image Alt tags – remember to avoid overuse.
Ways to Get Creative with Location-Based Keywords
Let’s say your keyword is “gluten free pasta Phoenix.”
You don’t have to jam that keyword all over your web page, article, blog post, etc. – including in the meta data for those pages.
You can break it up any number of ways: pasta, Phoenix, gluten free, gluten, gluten free pasta, gluten free in Phoenix, pasta in Phoenix. That’s a lot of variation out of one phrase!
It is, however, still important to use your focus keyword or phrase in the first and last paragraphs, at least one <H2> heading, and the title of the article, if at all possible.
But as we’ve already discussed, make sure you’re using those keywords naturally.
Ultimately, it’s about balance: be creative, use real sentences and headings, speak naturally, and don’t overdo it.
How to Tell if You’re Overdoing It with a Keyword
It may sound silly, but it really works: simply read your content out loud and pay attention to how it feels reading the content, and listen for any awkwardness, clunky-sounding sentences or phrases, general weirdness.
You should be able to hear where your writing doesn’t feel natural – it won’t easily roll off the tip of your tongue.
You’ll also hear where you use a specific word too many times.
And a nice side benefit to reading it aloud – even if you’re doing it silently – is you’ll almost always find places that could benefit from a bit of finesse and polish.
Did You Enjoy Today’s Episode of the Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy? Come Back for More!
I hope you enjoyed the third episode in my YouTube show!
100% of my agency’s sales come from the content marketing – and now, I teach YOU how to do what I’ve done to build an authority presence in content marketing, in my course! This course is unlike any out there because I show you how to actually become an expert in content strategy and build a practical, ROI-based online brand content strategy from the ground up. Check it out today.
Did you miss #ContentWritingChat this week? There’s no need to worry, my friend. We have you covered with a recap of our latest chat (and it’s a good one). Go ahead and dive into our recap and brush up on your SEO skills with this week’s tips!
#ContentWritingChat June 21 2016 Recap: The Basics of Optimizing Your Content Correctly for Search Engines
For this week’s chat, our guest host was Sherry Bonelli. Sherry is an expert digital marketer (hailing back from 1998), the founder of Early Bird Digital Marketing, and has been featured on the TODAY Show, CNN, ABC. She joined us to share her tips on optimizing your written online content for search engines.
Q1: What are the basics copywriters should know about SEO?
You don’t have to be an SEO expert to optimize your online content. If you’re a natural writer, knowing the basics will just refine your existing skills to help you create fantastic content that Google will love. Check out these tips from the chat:
A1: Everyone can learn enough SEO basics to make a difference! Don’t overthink it. #ContentWritingChat
Don’t forget that everyone can learn the basics of SEO and even small optimizations can make a difference.
As Sherry said, the title of your content and its description will get the attention of potential readers. Make sure you’re using the right keywords to rank higher and attract your ideal reader.
A1. Even a basic understanding of the language people use to talk about your industry will help your writing. #contentwritingchat
Great advice from Kristen! Understand the language people use within your industry. You need to get inside their heads to choose the keywords they’ll be searching for.
A1. Write for the audience- talk like you’re talking to a real person. Keywords matter but are second to utility. #ContentWritingChat
Make sure you know how to do keyword research. To find the ideal keywords for your content, you’ll need to know how to research them effectively and which tools you should use.
A1. Copywriters should know why SEO matters, what keywords are and how to use them effectively. #contentwritingchat
Cheryl said to focus on using the right keywords for your content and in your titles and headings. Don’t forget to tag your images with the appropriate keywords as well. This is a step that’s easy to overlook!
Sarah from ThinkSEM said you don’t need to optimize all of your content. Ultimately, it depends what the content is for. Certain pages on your site don’t necessarily need to rank.
A2) Only optimize what is relevant. Such as our “about” or “contact us” page may not be relevant. #contentwritingchat
Michael said you should optimize all of your content. He also said the optimization process starts before you even begin writing. You have to conduct research, select keywords, and more.
A2 Short answer. NO. I’ve written stories and “rants”, no keywords messing up my focus. Shared 100x more than SEO pieces #ContentWritingChat
Sherry said keyword density isn’t looked at so much anymore. She also said to make sure you’re not guilty of keyword stuffing. If you’re having trouble with your keyword, she suggested reaching for the thesaurus. You can find synonyms to use in your content.
A3. Your keywords should be present, but focus on engaging content first & foremost. #contentwritingchat
Ray’s advice was to make sure you’re not stuffing your content with keywords. It’s not good for your readers and the search engines won’t like it either. Instead, focus on providing valuable content for your reader.
Don’t forget that Google will show you what people have been searching. All you have to do is start typing for suggestions to appear. She also said that you want to find content that’s being searched for, but doesn’t have too much competition.
A4: Think, how would my audience ask the question? Then, Write the answer using the terms used in the question. #contentwritingchat
Ray knows it’s important to consider your audience in this situation. He said to think about how your audience would ask a question to help in choosing the right keywords.
A4: By getting to know your audience through research & communication. They are the key to the right content keywords. #contentwritingchat
Similarly, you should spend time getting to know your audience. By doing some research and communicating with your target market, you’ll get to know their preferences and interests. This will help in choosing the keywords that will get you results.
Sarah also said you need to figure out how your audience is talking about a specific topic. Use the words and phrases they’re using because that’s what they’ll search with.
@ExpWriters A4: Write the awesome content first! Analyze your content for common keywords, then OPTIMIZE accordingly! #contentwritingchat
Julia said to figure out what your audience is talking about. Use BuzzSumo to see what topics are popular at the moment. Keyword tools such as SEMrush and KW Finder are great as well.
Again, it all goes back to your audience. Know what they’re searching for so you can choose your keywords accordingly.
Q5: What tools do you use to help with SEO?
There are a ton of great SEO tools out there and it can be hard to choose just one to use. In fact, many people use multiple tools to help them out. Here are some tool recommendations to try:
Amalia likes to use tools such as Yoast, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and Moz.
Q6: Which SEO experts do you follow to stay updated on Google standards?
Because Google does change the standards from time to time, it’s important to stay updated with what’s going on. There are plenty of SEO experts you can follow online to help you stay up to date.
Julia had quite a few suggestions to offer. Do you follow any of these people?
Q7: How can we handle the updates Google made to meta content standards?
Google recently made some updates to their meta content standards. If you haven’t heard about this, make sure you reader our blog post on it: https://staging.expresswriters.com/new-meta-content-length
Q7: Hard to keep up with google! Follow experts and learn from their mistakes. #ContentWritingChat
Kristen is spot on with her answer. Don’t alter the core message or readability of your content for SEO. Providing quality to your audience is always the most important thing. Never sacrifice that.
Sarah knows there are quite a few “don’ts” when it comes to SEO. She said to avoid keyword stuffing, over-linking, and writing just for keywords/SEO. Avoid being spammy.
A8 Biggest one: NEVER focus only on keywords. Worst road you could go down. The anti of good online content. #ContentWritingChat
As Julia said, you should never focus solely on keywords. It’s more important to focus on creating high-quality content.
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
P.S.Interested to learn how Julia created our chat from scratch and how I manage it? Check out our episode on The Write Podcast posted this week, where Julia and I discuss everything entailed in launching/running a Twitter chat!
According to Moz, Google algorithm changes happen about 500-600 times yearly. That’s quite a bit of change in the way Google SERPs analyze and rank your content. The good news? There’s a distinguishable trend towards favoring a quality flow across all content pages published over the web.
Yes, one of the online content trends for 2014 is quality. And we’re not just talking about the quality products or service your brand or business is offering. We’re taking quality content, which boils down to good old-fashioned quality writing. True quality is going to be integral and depend on:
Proper planning
Keeping it interesting
Keeping it relevant and fresh
Seasoning with search engine optimization techniques
Creating backlinks
Once Upon A Time, Keywords Ruled
When SEO was young, it was a kingdom ruled by keywords. If you wanted to be the king on any search engine results page, you had to research and insert specific keywords and phrases into your web pages and online content. It didn’t matter if the keywords read perfectly in the sentence or not. They had to be exact – otherwise rankings fell.
Google Panda was the game changing algorithm update here. In late 2011, a big change was made from ranking keyword-focused content to higher quality, more reader-friendly content. What exactly was the big change?
According to HeBS Digital, Google said goodbye to keyword-centric SEO and changed the very direction of search engine queries in relation to websites. The change directly affected marketing strategies. Instead of providing searched for keywords to website analytics tools, Google moved to a nondisclosure policy. Says HeBS Digital , “Google is not disclosing to website owners the keyword terms visitors use to find the site, e.g. ‘downtown Houston hotels’ or ‘Hotel near Times Square’.”
At first, this change felt like doom rolling into the SEO kingdom. Businesses gasped in horror because a strong percentage of their sales came from website revenue, revenue that was directly related to the influx of traffic via keyword placement!
“The major shift on behalf of Google marks the end of the keyword-centric era and ushers in the page-centric era,” wrote HeBS Digital. “This new initiative is in tune with [the] Google Panda Update, which punishes low-quality content that provides poor user experience and engagement.”
The New Hero, Quality Content
As the Keyword King was dethroned, the new fearless hero made an entrance. However, this hero wasn’t really a new face. According to HeBS Digital, “Without keyword-specific data, SEO marketers must focus on what [we have] been supporting all along: relevant, editorial-quality website content.” Instead of depending solely on keywords to drive and corral the audience, it was time to use the more precise tools of the newly, officially crowned hero:
Create engaging content
Use professional copywriting
Develop a content creation plan
Use SEO monitoring technology
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, expanded on the new way of doing things. Cutts said, “A lot of people [think] there’s some one recipe, and you can just follow like baking cookies, and if you follow it to the letter, you’ll rank number one.” However, this way of thinking was shockingly incorrect. No single, perfect recipe for quick bake SERPs exists—not then and not now.
How does the Google expert say to use keywords? Instead of haphazardly stuffing content, Cutts says, “Think about the keywords that you’d like to have in your copy. Make sure your copy is long enough that you can work those keywords into your copy in a natural way and not an artificial way. And my recommendation is to either read it aloud or read it to someone else or have someone else read it, and sort of say, ‘Do you spot anything that’s artificial or stilted or that doesn’t quite read right?’ And if you can read through the copy, and have it read naturally where a person isn’t going to be annoyed by it, then you’re doing relatively well.”
Why the change? Wouldn’t stuffing keywords be easier than actually writing editorial-quality copy? The biggest reason for this change was to cut down on the spam in keyword-focused pages. Keyword-focused pages might well have increased website traffic and led to a statistical increase in several key areas, but they also accomplished on major thing that even Cutts said to avoid: they annoyed readers.
The old keyword techniques just don’t work as well as they used to. “When was the last time that anyone wanted to read copy that included many repetitions of a word that didn’t provide any additional context or information which helped the reader? Not very many,” says Search News Central.
Google’s Panda upgrade permanently dethroned keywords. And it all happened for one simple reason, which Search News Central sums up by saying, “The biggest reason [for this change] is that documents that lace themselves with hundreds of keyword repetitions looks like spam. So much so that it becomes unreadable for the normal human being.”
Plot Twist: Your New Focus
Since keyword research is clearly no longer a driver in SEO, what should you focus on? Well-researched content that delivers stellar readability is HUGE. This will do so much more for you than content that solely focuses on keyword optimization.
Instead of zeroing in on a keyword, make it the last thought as you write your content. You might say it’s time to start thinking of keywords and phrases as takeaway points. They are that tidbit of information you want the audience to remember. It’s likely your keywords are all related to your niche. By infusing the takeaway moment with your keyword or phrase, you’ll silently train your audience to come back to and look for your content in regards to that topic or key point.
Write to educate, inform, and share knowledge. What lasts longer than the latest and greatest product or service? A way of thinking. Your goal should be to generate the kind of well-researched and well-written content that educates, informs, and shares knowledge with everyone who reads it. Share facts that are backed up by research. Incorporate precise numbers such as exact statistics or results from a case study. Above all, reference and link your research. As a result, you’ll promote your way of thinking. Arming the audience with fact will only benefit your credibility, authority, and sales.
Keep your angle fresh. This can be easier said than done, especially when you simply cannot find a fresh angle to approach your content from. In an article about content for search engine rankings, SearchEngineLand.com says, “Sites can take advantage of [a] freshness boost by producing relevant content that matches the real-time pulse of their industry.” In other words, trend with your industry and present the latest and greatest relevant information with your own spin. No one has a voice exactly like yours, which is why your spin will help preserve freshness and uniqueness.
Write to engage. According to SearchEngineLand.com, “Quality content should produce meaningful interactions with users.” You can consider your content successful when it generates chatter. You want to see comments from your readers. You want to see them sharing your content via their social networking channels. You want to create a reaction. Write to engage by harboring a conversational style, incorporating real-world experiences, and telling a story.
Market your content. You can accomplish this in a number of ways. Moz offers two excellent suggestions in a piece on how to write great content: 1) “Post your post on a popular blog,” and 2) “[Use] your own social media [channels].”
A Final Word Regarding Keyword Research
Obviously, keywords are not dead. Instead of being a focal point, they are now that coveted secret ingredient to your favorite recipe (but remember that there’s no one recipe for rankings!). Keyword research is still a part of SEO. So, how should you perform such research for web content? Here are some ideas straight from an expert, Copyblogger:
Choose possible keywords to kick-start your research.
Determine the popularity and competition score of each of your keywords.
Discover (and research) other related keywords.
Check the trending data on your keywords. You can do this by using Google Trends.
Do some research on how your keyword(s) is/are being used in trending social network conversations.
Examine your research results, and ultimately choose the keyword(s) you want to target for your site.
Don’t be afraid of hiring help. If keyword research boggles your brain and leaves you short of breathe, don’t be afraid to enlist the help of a trained professional. Most copywriting agencies are equipped to lend a hand or point you toward a seasoned pro.
In summary, keywords have now become that little something extra that we add for emphasis and throw in for good measure. They are no longer the focal point of search engine optimization. Moving forward, it’s important that you use them wisely (and sparingly!) while focusing on the new SEO trend of editorial-quality copy. Do this and you will be well on your way to learning and applying the moral of The Tale of Too Many Keywords.
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