Internet Marketing Business Strategies

One of the biggest problems that you can face when creating your website content is making it appealing to your readers while paying attention to Search Engine Optimization. Optimization can be very tricky and striking a balance between your desire to have your article rank as highly as possible while also creating good quality prose for your readers can seem difficult at times.

As a general rule, if you cannot focus on both simultaneously, writing first for your readers and then making small modifications for Google is normally the easiest route.

Here are a few simple ways to make sure that your content is equally appealing to your readers and to the search engines.

Is Your H1 Clickable?

The easiest place to start is with your H1 or title content. For search engines, your H1 tag will give them a good idea as to what your content is about, which means including at least one keyword is essential.

On the other hand, the title needs to be interesting enough for potential readers to click on the link in the search engine results, so take extra care to ensure that your title is engaging and eye-catching.

Did You Include Keyword-Rich Sub-Headings?

Another thing to look at is whether or not you are including keyword-rich subheadings, which are normally H2 and H3 tags.

From a search engine’s perspective this will give them additional insight into what your content is about, particularly the keywords you are targeting, so it is good for search engine optimization. Optimization that makes use of multiple subheadings is also good for your readers as it is an excellent way to break up the content and make it easier to read.

Bear in mind that many people don’t actually read all of your content. They will browse through your subheadings and only read the content if the subheadings are interesting.

Are You Using Too Many Keywords?

While it is important to include keywords, both search engines and readers will punish you if you use them excessively. Search engines are becoming more sensitive to over-optimization. Just because your article is about dog training doesn’t mean that “dog training” needs to be included in every sentence. For readers, articles which are stuffed with too many keywords can make the text read unnaturally. Your readers will think that the content is poorly written and they will probably leave your website.

Did You Create a Useful Meta Description?

Meta descriptions provide search engines with insight into what your content is about. They are also be displayed in the search results. From your potential reader’s perspective, the meta description needs to be as interesting and engaging as your title in order to attract their attention and get them to click through to your website.

Did You Link to Internal Pages and Authority Sites?

Finally, once all of your content is written you need to take a few minutes to think about internal linking as well as adding some outgoing links.

Internal linking can provide huge search engine optimization benefits to the other pages in your website. additionally, some people theorize that having one or two outgoing links to high authority sites can also provide SEO benefits because it tells search engines that you are trying to provide readers with the best experience possible.

From the reader’s perspective, it gives them an easy way to find additional information which is relevant to the topic that they are interested in.

By implementing these quick tips, your content will be interesting and engaging for your readers while fulfilling the requirements of Search Engine Optimization – optimization has therefore been achieved both for the search engines and your readers. After all, if you neglect to optimize your article for your readers then no amount of Search Engine Optimization will be of any use in the long run.

David Hurley