So we all want our content to rank on page 1 of Google and Bing and Yahoo and basically everywhere.
But before we can get anywhere close to the kind of results that our content deserves there are a few obstacles that we need to overcome.
Now, this article is not going to become a big SEO tutorial because I have already covered SEO comprehensively with my SEO Guide 2021 and my Mobile SEO Guide 2021 posts.
This article is more of a strategy post that will help you write SEO-friendly articles that Rank Page 1.
How to write SEO friendly articles that Rank Page 1 – Getting started checklist
Here is a list of requirements that you need to have under your belt.
Chances are there will be some areas that you are weak and some that you are strong.
For example, it really doesn’t matter if your SEO is great, if your content is thin, if it doesn’t answer the search users’ intent then you are going to struggle.
So here is what you need to rank your articles page 1
1/ A good basic knowledge of SEO
You don’t need to be an SEO expert you just need to know the rights and wrongs of on-page SEO.
Layout and formatting are key and what I mean by that is that you have headlines and short paragraphs of text that are easy to read.
Break the text with spacing and rich content (images and video).
You need to make your pages appealing to visitors to keep them reading and to improve your time on page and dwell time.
If your visitors are staying on your pages then that is a big signal to Google that your content is great and as a result, they start to take a chance on you and your SERP’s get better.
2/ Internal and External Linking
You have visitors spending time on your site but what do they do after they have read your article?.
Hopefully, they will show you some appreciation for your content and write you a great blog comment further adding value to your great content.
But what next?
Internal linking is what is next.
Give visitors a reason to stay on your site longer by offering them your best-related content to click through to so decreasing your bounce rate.
Having a high bounce rate is not as bad as you might think providing it takes a while for the bounce to occur because you can have people bounce after a couple of seconds or after they have read the article. Because the definition of a bounce is when a visitor lands on a page and then returns to search without going anywhere else on your site.
A bounce where someone spends 10 mins reading is not a bad thing but it would be so much better if they were there 10 mins and they click through to another of your articles and that is why you offer internal links.
You should also be offering authority sources to qualify your content and offer the user a good user intent exit from your site. No dead ends.
If you want to rank page 1 then you need to write for user intent.
3/ Cover user intent within your articles
This side of writing SEO-friendly articles is huge in my opinion.
Lots of bloggers will just grab a keyword phrase and write around it, mentioning it 5 or 6 times to make their SEO plugin happy.
This may have worked in the past but it really is an antiquated way to approach SEO and no longer works as well as it used to.
Here is what you should do
Ditch the conventional keyword research.
Instead, go straight to Google and search for your next idea for a post and just check out the “People also ask” and “the related searches” sections.
Google shows you what people are searching for, you are shown the user-intent behind the search.
Write your article about user intent. Use the “People also ask” and “related searches” as “keyword phrase suggestions and for your post title and headlines.
Enstine Muki wrote a great article here on Infobunny about optimizing for Keyword Anticipation.
With the idea that you should look to anticipate the next big keyword phrase rather than relying on keyword research which in essence is relying on what has already been found and used and is the past.
Keyword Anticipation Vs Keyword Research. How can it boost your SEO [Guide]
4/ Optimize for multiple user intent keyword phrases
Your Google search to kind your user intent keyword phrase will have given you ideas for lots of phrases that you can incorporate into your article.
Choose 3 or so of the most relevant and use these phrases throughout your article.
Use your main keyword phrase in your title, your URL and in a heading or two and also into descriptions of your images.
Use the other phrases in subheadings and throughout.
If you can get this right your article will rank for not just your main user intent keyword phrase but also for others that you have optimized for.
5/ Write long-form content
You are certainly going to struggle to optimize for multiple user intent keyword phrases with articles under 1000 words.
You need to be pushing the 2000 wordmark to be able to fully optimize for multiple keywords.
It is said that you should write for people and not search engines but if you write good long-form content then you can certainly do both. You can cover the user intent of search and also optimize for very easily.
Join the conversation at Infobunny- Can you write for SEO and your readers at the same time? - Click To Tweet
How to write articles for SEO
So once you have covered all of the above then your done right?
You submit your article. You fetch and render within search console so that you index fast.
Share to your social channels and then just wait for Google to let you know if your ranking on page 1?
Yes, your covered if that is as far as you want to take it but it is my strategy to take this much further.
Once your article is indexed you can search the phrases that you optimized around and see where you are placed for each one.
If I am not happy with my placing for a particular phrase I then go back into my article and see what I can do to edit so that I rank better where I am weak adding more content, more related phrases and generally making the article stronger.
Then I wait for the updates to be indexed and just see if the article has moved.
You just repeat the process until you feel that you have gone as far as you can
The long and short of it is that Google likes updated content and when you are not writing new articles for SEO it is a very good SEO strategy to update older content
How to write SEO friendly articles that Rank Page 1 – Takeaways
Here is the thing you can do all of the above and still not get results you are happy with and that is not because you are doing anything bad it is just down to track record.
But what I can tell you is that if you do all of the above CONSISTENTLY then you are going to see the results that you want.
Because these are the fundamental basics of what Google is looking for in 2021.
This is how you write articles for SEO and for people.
If you are optimizing for one keyword phrase and trying to get the exact match keyword into a 1500 word article and make Yoast happy then you are going to have to repeat your phrase 12x or more and that is going to look very repetitive to your readers and turn them away.
Google is now very good at understanding what you are writing about without over-optimizing your keywords.
Using multiple related keywords helps to make understand what your content is about and offers you more avenues to be discovered.
Your content is less repetitive making the readability much better and the overall user experience on your site improves.
And if the UX of your site is good your visitors stick around.
There is no quick fix to writing SEO-friendly articles that rank page 1 it really does come down to your consistency to produce good long-form content that is optimized for SEO and your visitors.
That’s all for now!
Now you know the secret to writing SEO friendly articles that rank well on Google
All you have to do is be consistent and very patient.
If you need any further explanation on anything highlighted above or you would like me to work with you to get traction with Google then you can visit my Contact Form linked in the menu at the top of the page and send me a message outlining your requirement.
I also love great blog comments so if you have anything to say, questions, opinions then you can add them to the comment section below.
Make sure that you subscribe to the comments so that you are notified when I reply.
Regards Dexter
RELATED ARTICLES
How to do SEO yourself in 2021
Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide 2021
Is AMP dead or still relevant today?
Lisa Sicard
Hi Dexter, I love your piece about user intent. That is something I’ll be working on as I’m updating old posts and going forward with new ones. Thank you for the simple explanation on that one.
I’m so glad that SEO today is more about writing for people and not the almighty search engines. It makes it more logical.
Thanks for the informative tips here Dexter and have a wonderful Sunday and week ahead.
Dexter Roona
Hi Lisa, updating old posts is something that I do a lot. It also gives me the opportunity to add additional internal linking to newer relevant articles.
Your right SEO is now much more about writing for your audience through Yoast would like you to believe you have to tick all your green buttons, I’m not knocking Yoast but to do what they suggest doesn’t make for a good read if your post is long-form, but it does make more sense to Google if you use a lot of related keyword phrases instead of hitting your direct match numbers.
Thanks for stopping by regards Dexter
Dipak jadhav
After reading your whole article now I am able to do some serious SEO work on my blog.
As I am a new blogger I am confused about how to write SEO articles but now I got the answer. Thanks a lot for sharing such good quality information.
Dexter Roona
Hi Dopak, don’t make SEO your main focus, split your attention 50/50 between SEO and writing for real people. If you write good long content it will be much easier to create content that ranks on Google.
Moss Clement
Hi Dexter,
Well written blog post. I so much agree with you. Yoast is a remarkable SEO tool, but relying on Yoast and doing everything it tells you isn’t always the best option. For example, Yoast will give you result of your article and in the result, you will see Yoast telling you that your keyword density is very low, only 3 or so is found, try to add more. And as you mentioned, if you choose to listen to and make Yoast happy, you’ll have to use same keyword phrase over and over again, which might make you look spammy to your readers.
The best thing, in this case, is to use related keywords to optimize your post.
Dexter Roona
Yes exactly and that is why I say write long as it is easier to use your main phrase more and incorporate more related phrases.
Klik Doit
But, how to permanentLY rank 1 in Google?
Dexter Roona
That depends on your time-on-page and bounce rate and dwell time and how consistently you create great content that readers love.
Cutting Edge
Hi Dexter,
This is a great content. Thank you for the great advice on how to rank on Google. Would love to know more about SEO from you.
Dexter Roona
You can send me a message via our contact form if you want to get in contact.
Anand Badola
Hey there,
It is really important to pay attention to the SEO, What people don’t realize is that SEO can give you a lot of free traffic.
I know it is hard and you have to constantly push it in order to get moving. But once you get the hang of it, you can really get the awesome results.
You have written an exceptional post.
Keep up the good work 🙂
Bhawna Kaushik
Hey Dexter
Awesome article, I think keyword research is really important. When it comes to niche marketing people starts with SEO and they become a really big deal.
Inksplore
Hi Dexter,
Incredible insights. I was literally shocked when you said, “Ditch the conventional keyword research” and than I read the after content and was amazed to learn about an alternative way of finding the keywords, will definitely start using them.
I agree that UX is one of the criterion to help a site rank better, its a good idea to avoid cluttering the screen with number of ads and popups. Thanks for the post, keep sharing such insights.
10seos
Awesome article. Thanks so much for sharing this excellent blog. Keyword research is so much important in seo. Right keyword will get you better results sooner.
Dexter Roona
It will get you results but only if your content is good. You need to write valuable long-form content.
meenal deshpande
SEO is about ‘fixing’ your site to rank high using flavour of the month/year technics, which is not natural as you are trying to trick the engines to rank you higher. And if we are trying to provide what the customers want, why should we consider what the engines want?
I would hope that folks will get fed up with Google and turn more the search engines that are less commercial and more customer originated. Presently it is all just a game we play to win and most likely the losers are the customers.
Michael
SEO friendly articles not only drives traffic to your blogs but also helps on the readers in some cases depending on the type of your post.
Sathish Arumugamsa
Writing for SEO purpose and attracting the audience is really seem to achieve a conflicting goal. If we need a readable and SEO friendly blog post then the words and content should be found in the prominent place. Make focusing on the overusing of the keyword which hampers the readability of the text and does not make the content SEO friendly
Sharif Rayhan
Thank you for the wonderful article. Yes, simple things really matter a lot and should prove effective in 2018, hence concentrating on the basics should yield excellent output this year. I would like to add a bit about the importance of Disavow Tool which should be used at least ones a month and clean those bad links which hinder the overall progress of your site.
Thank you.
Mohd Vasim
Nice article sir and nice website to. I m searching this type website u article so useful i read nd use your useful thought. Thanx
Mohd Vasim recently posted…Make Money Online From Content Marketing
Nagesh
Wow, Nice Article this article helps to write SEO friendly content. No need expert for the SEO to write content rank. These tips help very well.
Thank you for your valuable content.
Nagesh recently posted…How to make a Website live?
Sam Adeyinka | Blog Trainer in Lagos
Hey, Dexter! It’s been a while I come here to your great blog.
How are you these days?
So, I was trying to search on Google for the keyword “SEO Friendly Content” when I stumbled on your blog and decided to read what you have, and o boy, I was wowed!
Well, I have written a thorough guide on the same topic, and if you want you can link to it in your post or on your resource page for SEO Guide.
So, speaking of, I think writing SEO friendly content is not hard, but only requires a great level of research, documentation, optimization (of focus and LSI keywords), and of course the blogger’s ability to write great, quality, and evergreen content.
Sam
Sam Adeyinka | Blog Trainer in Lagos recently posted…Free WordPress Installation Service – Create Your Own Website Today!
Blog Expert
Your Blog is very very good. It loads very fast and the content you are providing is really praiseworthy. I really appreciate it.
Blog Expert recently posted…Rankraft- Internet Marketing & Online Marketing Services in India
Jack Martin
Great Article!
Content is always king in SEO. It is important to optimize your content to get more traffic on your website.
Thanks for sharing.