February 2012By Ben Cotton

contact@ben-cotton.comwww.twitter.com/bencottonwww.socialwebthing.comwww.linkedin.com/in/bencotton

10 Steps to Writing Super Content for Search Engines

 

1. Research

• Research Google Analytics for the search terms and keywords people are using to arrive at your site

• Are your readers Joe Public or do they have specialist knowledge?• To increase online visibility combine what you want to say with phrases

and topics that people are searching for

 

2. Put important content at the top

• Important content and keywords should be near the top of the page

• This includes your title, opening sentences and paragraph

• web crawlers start at the top of your page and work their way downwards

 

3. Headlines

• Signal to search engines important keywords by making them headings• Ensure where possible headlines are a different font size and bold, this

again makes things standout for Google web crawlers. 

 

4. Internal links

• Link internally to content you have previously written• Make sure that your links are clear and contain keywords• Links that contain keywords signal to Google what type of content can be

found on your site and helps its crawler navigate around your site 

5. Create external links

• link externally to other high ranking websites and blogs to increase search visibility

• External links help Google understand what websites you associate yourself with

6. Maximise meta description 

• Meta data is your pitch to readers and Google• Strong meta description can be the deciding factor that gets

someone to your website• There is a character limit of 160 to consider, but the principles

of writing for both humans and search engines in mind

7. Keyword URLs

• Wherever possible use relevant keywords in web page URLs• Google says that it helps SEO efforts and inner pages now rank more

frequently for keywords than homepages• People will be likely to link to your website using the keyword URL as

anchor text

8. Rename image ALT text• Although the

importance of ALT text has diminished somewhat in recent years, it still acts as an effective way to drive traffic to your website

• Many websites automatically generate a random title for ALT text which is unhelpful

• You should amend this to describe primarily what is happening in the image, but also look to incorporate relevant keywords. 

9. Use images

• Images feature prominently at the top of listings

• They should not only fully be optimized for search, they have to be an integral part of your SEO strategy

• Search results with images tend to have higher CTRs and lower bounce rates

10. Utilise SEO plugins

• WordPress boasts many fantastic SEO plugins, such as Yoast, All in One SEO and Platinum SEO Plugin all of which can optimize content with relatively little effort. 

Thank you

Contact details

contact@ben-cotton.comwww.twitter.com/bencottonwww.socialwebthing.comwww.linkedin.com/in/bencotton