When writing for the web, search engine optimization (SEO) is a key consideration. As writers, we are always looking for ways to create compelling content that people will read. Read on to improve your online writing skills and boost your SEO at the same time.
Effective Online Writing Can Boost Your SEO
Writing for the web is a completely different animal than writing for print. For many many of us, learning how to write effective web content has become a priority. With so much competition for our attention, it’s critical that our content is useful, engaging, and easy to understand. Before our writing can be any of these things, it has to be found!
Whether you’re writing a blog, web page content, or creating other digital products, you have to capture and keep your audience’s attention. To do that, you need to follow a few basic web writing principles. These 3 ‘write’ things will also help boost your SEO and keep people reading your writing once they find it.
1. Refine Your Writing
Less is more.
Have you ever landed on a web page with a wall of text? How long did you stay? If you’re like most of us, it wasn’t very long.
People tend scan text online before they read it, so the more scannable your content is, the more likely readers will stay on the page.
In his book, Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug suggests that you write your first draft, then remove 1/2 the words. Then remove 1/2 the words again. Then again. This exercise will demonstrate clearly how many unnecessary words we use when we write.
Blog Post: 3 "Write" Ways to Boost Your SEO.One 'write' way is to practice removing unnecessary words from your writing. Since you're on twitter, you are off to a great start! #280Characters Share on XLess is also better.
Obviously you’re not just going to remove random words. You want to remove words that aren’t “working” for your copy. When you want to get an idea across effectively in the fewest words possible, you’re more selective. Choose words for clarity, impact and inspiring action.
Try this yourself.
- Choose any topic and write 1 page on it.
- Now revise that page down to 1 paragraph.
- Then revise it down to 1 sentence.
You’ll soon see how many unnecessary words we use to communicate our ideas. Summarizing in this way teaches you how to write “lean” copy with only what is needed.
Obviously different types of content require different depths of writing, but when you practice getting your message across with fewer and more effective word choices, it will improve all types of writing.
2. Be Clear On What Is Relevant
Your audience only needs to know what it needs to know. If we have expertise in an area, we may often assume others also know what we know, or are also deeply interested in the topic. This is rarely the case.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask yourself, “Given the message I’m trying to communicate, what does my reader need to know?“
3. Use An SEO Plugin
You can boost your SEO and writing skills by using a plugin like ‘Yoast SEO.’ Since this is a self-hosted WordPress site, we use the Yoast SEO plugin to set up our pages and posts. We start with the focus keyphrase (the main idea of the article) and then spend time crafting the article’s title using a headline analyzer (find one at: monsterinsights.com/headline-analyzer/). After we outline the article’s headings and subheadings we begin writing.
The Yoast SEO plugin makes clear suggestions about how to improve both SEO and readability. If you aren’t using WordPress, look for similar plugins or apps in the platform you are using.
In summary…
- Refine Your Writing
Use short paragraphs with a maximum of 3 sentences. Further break up text using headlines, sub-headlines, lists, images, and block quotes. - Be Clear On What Is Relevant
Remove unnecessary words, while including the necessary components for the action you want your audience to take. - Use an SEO Plugin
This website is a self-hosted WordPress site, so we use the Yoast SEO plugin.
Resource Recommendation
Sign up for a free Yoast Academy account for access to lots of great information on all things SEO.
Now, get writing!