Website content represents the essence of the online universe. After all, the only reason why users surf the Internet is to find informative, actionable, amusing, funny, or educational content.
But the biggest problem for website owners is to find their place in the digital sun since there is really a lot of content available online. Live stats show that there are over 1.7 billion websites on the Internet, but the number keeps growing day after day.
In such circumstances, it takes an excellent content creation strategy to drive traffic to your site and convince users to engage with your posts. This is by no means an easy task. But we will show you how to write SEO friendly content in a few practical steps.
SEO: Definition, Background, Stats
If you want to know how to optimize the content, you need to learn the basics of SEO. By definition, search engine optimization is the process of arranging a website so as to make it discoverable in engine searches.
SEO friendly sites earn higher ranking in search engine results, which helps them to drive additional traffic and convince more users to keep coming back. This is extremely important because almost 95% of the entire web traffic comes from search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
The key is to optimize website content and make it appealing to both your audience and search engine algorithms. This includes literally every piece of content on your site, from blog posts and product pages all the way to “know-how” guides and infographics.
If this sounds like a big deal, that’s because it is. Numerous studies prove the power of SEO and its influence on website performance:
- Over 80% of people perform some type of online research before making a purchase.
- Organic SEO is about 5.6 times more productive than paid search ads.
- Almost 91% of all pages receive zero traffic, while only 4.5% earn less than 10 visits per month.
- Nearly 70% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from companies whose sites answer their questions easily.
Recommended for you: How to Create Engaging Content for a Boring Business?
9 Steps to Optimize Website Content to make it SEO Friendly
Experience has taught us to use dozens of SEO tactics simultaneously, but the truth is that several factors play a major role in this area nonetheless. This is why we decided to explain nine steps to optimize the content on your website. Let’s take a look!
1. Write Good Headlines and Subheadings
What is the first detail users notice when looking for content on Google or Yahoo? It is, of course, the headline. Headlines and subheadings are very important because they enable search engine crawlers to identify, understand, and categorize your posts.
At the same time, titles and subtitles help users to skim through your posts and figure out the content without actually reading it. Such a feature makes the website user-friendly, which directly influences your ranking in engine searches.
2. Mind the quality
As the number of websites keeps increasing, users are getting more demanding and so they don’t want to consume low-quality content. On the contrary, they demand top-level articles that can cover a subject from every point of view.
You need to be insightful and highly analytical to win over the audience these days. If possible, try to support your claims with statistical findings, researches, and quotes from authoritative industry figures. All those tricks will make your content better and help you to build professional reputation long-term.
3. Write longer posts
The third suggestion on our list goes hand in hand with the previous one. Namely, high-quality articles are almost always longer because it takes a lot of words to explain any given concept or phenomenon thoroughly.
According to the report, the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. It’s a clear signal for content creators that the highest-rated posts are getting longer and more informative. You should embrace the same model of thinking and begin creating longer and SEO friendly articles.
4. Make it keyword-rich
You probably know that keywords make the essence of SEO. For this reason, keyword optimization is one of the first things you need to consider before you actually start writing a new post.
For example, it’s not the same whether you use keywords like an Instagram algorithm or go with the phrase such as get more Instagram followers. The two search terms target different audiences and you need to know which one to use prior to taking action.
There are many keyword optimization tools you can try here, but we will mention some of them in the next chapter of our post.
5. Add internal links
Internal linking is yet another way to drive more traffic to your website and boost your ranking in engine searches. How does it work? The idea is simple – you should add links leading to other pages on your own website.
That way, users will not stop after reading only one article from your site but rather move on and keep reading additional materials. Of course, you need to play it cleverly by adding internal links to meaningful posts only. In case you take readers to irrelevant articles, they will abandon it and jeopardize the credibility of your website.
6. Image optimization
Visual elements should supplement each one of your articles. This is important because the human brain processes visual information much faster than plain text, while images also make the content more colorful and versatile.
In terms of SEO, it means that you need to optimize photos just like any other part of the post. This process is simple because you only need to create image tags with the corresponding keywords to describe the content. For instance, if you are showing the image of a marathon runner in New York, you can describe it using keyword phrases such as “New York marathon runner.”
You may like: Everything You Need to Know About Link Building and SEO.
7. Customize URLs
Webpage links are yet another very important aspect of optimization. How come? First of all, well-polished links look prettier in the eyes of your visitors. Secondly, tailored URLs are easier to trace by search engine crawlers.
Every content management system has a simple mechanism that you can use to customize webpage links. The end result is visible to the naked eye since you will replace an ugly URL with a meaningful link just like in the example below:
- Ugly URL: https://www.rswebsols.com/o8yvfou8h98%uvdruek$%khjub
- Meaningful URL: https://www.rswebsols.com/write-seo-friendly-content
8. Enable social sharing
Website traffic strongly influences domain authority, so you have to allow as many people as possible to see your content. One more way to do it is by adding social sharing buttons to your website. That way, every reader can share your content on his/her social media accounts.
For instance, WordPress-powered websites can use a plugin like Social Share Icons to add sharing buttons. The process is fast and easy, but it can do miracles for your traffic and ranking in general.
9. Make it mobile-friendly
The last SEO suggestion on our list is to make your content mobile-friendly. Users won’t stick around for a long time if your website is not responsive, so you better take care of it by testing every page.
Google developed a simple mobile-friendliness test, giving you the possibility to check each page in a couple of clicks only. The platform will show you the result in less than a minute, so you can figure out the responsiveness of your site along with possible bugs or problems.
The Best Content Optimization Tools
We explained to you how to make your content SEO friendly, but it’s hard to conduct all those tasks manually. Successful webmasters rely on digital tools to improve ranking, so let’s see the best platforms that can help you to enhance your content.
1. MOZ
MOZ is one of the most comprehensive SEO platforms you can find online. This tool covers pretty much everything a webmaster may need: keyword research, website audits, backlink checks, rank tracking, performance analysis, etc. What we love about MOZ is its local SEO feature that helps local businesses to drive traffic and grow customer base quickly.
2. Google Keyword Planner
The largest search engine in the world developed its own Keyword Planner and you can use it free of charge. The tool is based on Google’s massive data libraries, so the results couldn’t be more accurate or relevant. Keyword Planner is not only revealing the most productive search terms and phrases but also helping content creators to analyze trends and search patterns in different periods.
3. Hemingway App
If you write your own articles but want a reliable tool to proofread and edit the document, perhaps you should test the Hemingway App. You only need to copy and paste the text to see spelling or grammar mistakes. However, the app does one more thing – it assesses your content and points out sentences and phrases that can be improved. That way, you can polish the text and make it much more SEO friendly.
4. Keyword Density Checker
Keywords are mandatory if you want to boost ranking, but it doesn’t give you the right to overload pages with any word or phrase in particular. As a matter of fact, Google may even penalize your website for this sort of practice. This is why webmasters use Keyword Density Checker to analyze keyword frequency and make amendments where necessary.
5. Google Trends
Writing about hot topics can help you to rank higher in engine searches, which is why we recommend you to use Google Trends. Just like the name suggests, this platform allows you to identify trends in user behavior and focus on topics that your audience really wants to read.
You may also like: Developing a Content Strategy for SEO Success.
Conclusion
The goal of every website is to generate traffic and grow the list of recurring visitors. Although it sounds simple, it is actually a difficult job. You get to face a huge competition since thousands of websites are already active in almost every niche.
In this article, we showed you nine ways to write SEO friendly content. We also discussed the best tools you could use in the process. Content optimization is a neverending process. These tips will give you the general notion of how to keep your site fresh and popular.
Have you ever used some of these mechanisms? Do you have other precious ideas to share with our followers? Feel free to leave a comment – we are eager to hear about your SEO experiences!
This article is written by Susan Saurel. She is a passionate writer from Texas. Teacher of higher category, PM in an IT company, loving mom, and a persistent traveler, content writer for My Assignment. Susan is ready to share her experience with her readers, and she has something to say, for sure.
This article is written by Susan Saurel. She is a passionate writer from Texas. Teacher of higher category, PM in an IT company, loving mom, and a persistent traveler, content writer for 
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
