Web content writing isn’t just about providing static sources of information to your website visitors. In fact, one of the most significant (and overlooked) aspects of web content writing is optimization techniques that get that traffic to your page in the first place. After all, if your web content isn’t optimized, how is anyone – including search engine bots – going to find it? Understanding how web content development practices must integrate with search engine optimization strategies is crucial to driving relevant traffic to your website. However, the following techniques will only work if the content on your site is well-written to begin with.
*Titles to Pages and Posts
The titles of your pages and posts provide the most relevant clue to what the page is all about. This means that titles need to incorporate relevant keywords in order to be effective. To do this you must know how your readers will search for your page or blog post/article before you begin writing it. You can use tools like Google AdWords for keyword research, or study the keywords used in content that is similar to yours.
In general your primary keyword should be as close to the beginning of the title as possible. If you can fit two major keywords in your title and still have the piece sound natural, it can boost your article’s search results significantly. For instance, we could have changed this article a little and written the title as:
Web Content Writing: Hiring an SEO Web Content Editor
This would give us two major keywords in the title, improving the chances that the piece will be returned in search results when people enter a related or matching phrase.
*Body of Pages and Posts
Most SEO experts agree that the most important place to position keywords in the body is in the first and last paragraphs. However, an even more effective placement strategy is to place the keyword as close to the beginning of the first sentence and as close to the end of the last sentence as possible.
If the content on your page is rather lengthy, you’ll want incorporate primary, secondary and LSI keywords to give your readers and the search bots a better understanding of your content. However, at no time should the density of a keyword (or any term) rise above 3-4%.
Proper web content writing also links to authoritative sources both within the same domain and outside sources. Links should be in anchor text where possible and included at a rate of not more than 2 per 80-100 word paragraph.
*Product and Service Descriptions
Product and service descriptions are where many people fail when it comes to web content development. In most cases the common name of the product or service is the logical keyword and therefore must be used as part of the description. For instance, if you sell the new Excalibur Metaphysical Fakery System 2750, listing it as such might not be a good idea if consumers know the product commonly as simply EX 2750.
Product descriptions are a good place to target as many consumers as possible. For instance, in the example above, you could vary the description of the product as you write it, sometimes referring to it as the EX 2750, sometimes as the full name and other times by another name that customers may use to search for it. Make sure to utilize your product descriptions effectively by being as DESCRIPTIVE as possible – this will help your SEO efforts immensely.
*Responses to Comments
If you post articles or blogs to your website, then the comments that your readers leave -as well as your responses to them – become part of your web content. This means that your posts should be optimized, your readers should be instructed to remain on-topic and your responses should also be optimized including anchor text.
*Video and Picture Descriptions
Video and picture descriptions are considered web content and should be optimized accordingly. Remember; you’re not just telling your audience what your video is about, you’re helping them find it from among millions of other pieces of content.
Web content writing is a specialized skill because it requires a strong knowledge of search engine optimization strategies in order to be effective. And because mistakes made in an optimization campaign can be detrimental to your site’s search rankings, hiring a professional to write your content is generally a smart move.