In a meeting recently, when someone brought up the topic of search engine optimization, a seasoned writer and editor rolled his eyes, groaning about SEO guidelines that he didn’t seem keen to comply with.
Hey, I get it. As a writer myself, I understand that most writers don’t want webmasters telling them what to do any more than developers want writers telling them what to do.
But the thing is, Google and other search engines are the primary way that people, including writers, navigate the internet. If you want to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which should improve the marketing efforts that you’re an essential part of, there are ways to write for both people and search engines that you can be happy about. Here are some tips.
Write high-quality content.
Before you worry about keywords and other SEO strategies, start by crafting text that is informative, engaging and relevant to your target audience. Search engines are getting better at understanding quality, which will help to ensure that your valuable content gets the attention it deserves.
Use keywords strategically.
Keywords are the words and phrases that people are searching for online. When you use relevant keywords throughout your content, you’re making it more likely that your content will show up in search results.
However, you don’t have to overdo it. If you use too many keywords, your content will look spammy and you’ll be penalized by search engines. Keep in mind that excerpts and metadata can also help optimize content without affecting your prose, as long as the summary adequately represents what’s on the page itself.
Add a call to action.
CTAs are not just for campaign pages. Even in a news article, you can tell your readers what you want them to do next, whether it’s signing up for your email list, sharing your content on social media or registering for an event. These days, readers are used to being invited to do something as a result of reading an article, so it’s OK to give them the opportunity.
Optimize your website for search engines.
Writers and editors are integral parts of web redesign teams. When working alongside developers, be sure to consider best practices like a clear and concise website structure, relevant title tags and meta descriptions, and mobile-friendly design. Likewise, if you’re responsible for uploading your stories to a company site, be sure to include strong, descriptive headlines; subheads that establish hierarchy of content; high-quality photos and videos; and keywords embedded into the metadata.
Build backlinks to your website.
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. The more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank in search results. There are a number of ways to build backlinks, such as guest blogging, submitting your website to directories, participating in online forums and working to get company leaders quoted in the media.
Promote your content on social media.
Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your website. Share your content on your profiles and engage with your followers. Even if you’re not in charge of social on the job, you can write posts in the company’s voice to hand over to social media managers.
Featured image above: Photo by Edho Pratama on Unsplash
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