When it comes to SEO compliance in content writing, a lot of writers have the same complaints; How to stick to the keywords so that your content does not get lost on page 30 of the search engine while also making it impressive for the readers? It is an on-going battle between the two, truth be told.
Uses of content writing are many but if you do not adhere to the SEO keywords, then your content will not account for anything. Having said this, even if your content does appear on page 1, it will not help your case much if it is not good. How to grapple with these two very real problems?
Here are a few tips that may help you tackle this issue.
Table of Contents
Write for your target audience
You may think this did not need to be stated, but a lot of writers forget they are writing for the readers and only focus on the business aspect of content writing.
What is content writing? You are primarily writing for a target audience and persuading them to uptake your goods, products or services. But if base your articles solely around them, you will come off as forceful. You will not reel in any readers this way. Remember that the content has to cater to the target audience first for it to be of any use.
Use attractive headlines
What the internet users see on the home pages are only titles to your articles. If you do not pack a punch here, your article is going to get lost in the matrix. Think of your title as bait. Make sure the titles you use are attractive, leave some mystery and pique your readers’ interest. They are more likely to click on your article if they are hooked by the title.
Incorporate keyword-rich sentences
To let the search engine know what your article is about, use SEO keywords. But do not pack them all in a few sentences. This will come off as contriving and artificial. Use them meaningfully and distribute them evenly throughout your article so that the readers AND the search engine approve of it.
Give your articles a structure
When a reader clicks on your post and sees a long unstructured essay with no subheadings or pointers, they are likely to press ‘back’ and jump onto others. Would you want to read an unorganized post yourself? No, right?
Structuring your posts gives the readers a more palatable product to read. They instantly trust you more and find it more appealing to read a large article divided into short paragraphs than reading a long uncategorised post. Subheadings also enable the reader to jump to relevant parts of the article that they are looking for and skipping the information that they do not need.
Keep it succinct
People are looking for short and to-the-point content. Do not use language that is too wordy or grandiloquent. Keep the length of your sentences short. If you feel any word/phrase is not contributing to the main purpose of your post, it is best to remove it. Do not use redundant words/phrases.
The attention span of an average reader is already short, so you want to pack all your meaningful content in a brief article.
Content writers, as opposed to creative writers, have to work within deadlines. It may sometimes be a struggle to set forth your best work while the clock ticks against you. To deliver good content even under pressure, your writing skills must be top-notch.
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