Content
Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your
website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know
good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users
to it.
Write easy-to-read text
Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow.
- Avoid:
- Writing sloppy text with many spelling and grammatical mistakes
- Embedding text in images for textual content (users may want to copy and paste the text and search engines can’t read it)
Stay organized around the topic
It’s always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have
a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends.
Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users
find the content they want faster.
- Avoid: Dumping large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without paragraph, subheading, or layout separation
Use relevant language
Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of
your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different
keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic.
For example, a long-time baseball fan might search for NLCS, an acronym
for the National League Championship Series, while a new fan might use a
more general query like baseball playoffs. Anticipating these
differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing
your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce
positive results. Google AdWords provides a handy Keyword Tool that
helps you discover new keyword variations and see the approximate search
volume for each keyword. Also, Google Webmaster Tools provides you with
the top search queries your site appears for and the ones that led the
most users to your site.
Create fresh, unique content
New content will not only keep your existing visitor base coming
back, but also bring in new visitors. You want the search engines to see
your Web presence is growing, not shrinking. Web sites with 100 pages
re-launched with 500 pages do better because of the “tail” traffic
(those additional 400 pages are getting direct traffic), and the Web
site seems to get a bump in “authority” because the entire Web site has
grown.
- Avoid:
- Rehashing (or even copying) existing content that will bring little extra value to users
- Having duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content across your site
Offer exclusive content or services
Consider creating a new, useful service that no other site offers.
You could also write an original piece of research, break an exciting
news story, or leverage your unique user base. Other sites may lack the
resources or expertise to do these things.
Create content primarily for your users, not search engines
Designing your site around your visitors’ needs while making sure
your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces
positive results.
- Avoid: Having blocks of text like “frequent misspellings used to reach this page” that add little value for users
- Never:
- Insert numerous unnecessary keywords aimed at search engines but are annoying or nonsensical to users
- Deceptively hide text from users, but display it to search engines
Write great articles about your area of expertise
By doing this you become a major source of news and information in your area of expertise.
- Avoid: Burdening these articles with sales pitches for your products or services
Develop your content close to the top of the page (output HTML)
Having an <h1> tag close or right next to the <body> tag
increases its importance with search engines and therefore weighs that
header title heavier. Also, having your content follow closely after
that <h1> has the similar effect. It is suggested that developing
your pages framework/structure to have its content just following the
<body> tag (at the top) followed by lesser important elements will
increase the likelihood that the page will rank higher.
Include your keywords/key phrases in your content
Using your keywords/key phrases within your content will show greater importance in spidering.
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