The world is largely split into people who agonise over their content’s SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), tweaking it here, nudging it there… and then those whose eyes glaze over at the very mention of data, trends and metawhatnots.
If you’re investing time and energy into your website’s words and you fall into the latter camp, then we’re afraid it’s a waste of your efforts until you get a handle on SEO (or let us do it for you).
Eyes glazing over already? Stick with us… we’ll make this quick and painless.
Understanding SEO basics will help your website gain visibility in the search engine rankings and drive traffic to your site. What does that mean in real terms?
Profit… lots of lovely profit.
You see, search engines pay close attention to your words, whether that’s web copy, blogs, product descriptions… all of it. You’ll be rewarded for the good, and penalised for the bad and the ugly – even an innocent mistake can put you in the digital naughty corner.
Let’s use a theatrical analogy… we love a bit of drama.
If your words are on stage, captivating and entertaining their audience, then your SEO/data is the unseen technicians, engineers and crew backstage who quietly but brilliantly keep the show on the road. One can’t really perform without the other.
The most important stuff
If you do nothing else, make sure that the blogs and articles on your site are well-written, typo-free, authoritative, useful and closely linked to your products and services. What might your visitors be searching for, and how can you answer their questions?
SEO is a huge topic and we could go on all day… but here’s a quick and dirty checklist to optimise your content. We promise it’s worth the effort.
Topic – before you choose a topic for your blog post, see what people are searching for around it – that way you know it’ll be relevant and useful. We like AnswerThePublic.
Keywords – feel free to use target keywords where they naturally fall, but don’t shoehorn them in at every given opportunity. It might have worked in the past, but you’ll be penalised for it now. Keyword stuffing also makes your content look cheap and nasty, so just don’t do it.
Headings and subheadings – make sure your heading (H1) and subheadings (H2s, H3s etc. – also called ‘header tags’) are clearly marked. Simply put, your H1 is your page’s title, your H2s are your main subheadings, and your H3s are sub-subheadings… and so on. There’s a great guide to all that at Hubspot. It helps the search engines understand the hierarchical structure of your post.
Length – vary the length of your blogs and articles. Search engines love a longer piece of 1000 words or more. Try writing a 2500-word pillar article with broad appeal, and then a couple of ‘satellite’ or ‘cluster’ 500-word blogs to support it, or drill down into one part of it in more detail. As long as all three link into each other, you’ll be golden.
Structure & format – long paragraphs/sentences are a no-no. Make it super readable and easy to scan. Use headings, subheadings and bullet points to help the reader navigate the article.
Typos – the quickest way to alienate the search engines is with copy that’s littered with grammatical errors, clumsy sentences and typos. Our proofreading service will get you out of that particular hole, and we can do a full site spring-clean if it’s time your site had a makeover from our resident grammar hammers.
Tone – maintain a consistent tone across the site, just because it’s nice to read.
Images – use images, but always credit the source. And add alt tags for accessibility.
Links – never miss an opportunity to include internal links in your blogs, but don’t force them. They should appear naturally across the site, and two or three per page is usually plenty. You can also drop a few relevant external links in, too.
Backlinks – strike up a deal with other sites and see if they’ll link to your site from theirs.
Duplicate content – you’d never plagiarise, obvs, but look out for creating duplicate content by posting your blog in more than one place. You can solve this – just find out about canonical tags and how they work.
Dwell time – this is how long someone spends on your page once they arrive. Search engines measure how long people stay, so make it compelling and relevant right from the off to save people bouncing in and straight out again.
Metadata – ok we accept we’re close to losing you now, but every page on your site must have metatitles and metadescriptions to let Google know what the page is about. Keep to within the character limits, but be aware that it’s measured in pixel size. This SERP simulator will keep you on the straight and narrow. Or just call us.
At Profound we’re not only great writers; we also bring a heavy dose of data expertise which we draw on for every client and every project.
If blogging is a thorn in your side, web copy frustrates you and SEO leaves you cold, let us help. We can optimise your current content and write new content for your site. We’ll even create/run your content strategy and handle the metawhatnots. Just give us a shout.