5 Tips for More Powerful Web Content
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Fri, Jul 23, 2010
We all know that awesome web content gives your site SEO power. In fact, search engine optimization revolves around the creation of content. The better written the content on your web site from an SEO standpoint, the more effective it will be at driving additional traffic to your site.
Since it’s so important, it’s worth going over some of the basics. You’ll stay on track with your SEO efforts if you pay attention to the following 5 tips:
1. Keep your content up to date
Yes, you can make money for a while with content that’s already published, but the shelf life of your content is limited. If you don’t constantly update your content and post new, optimized content, what used to be awesome, powerful content will turn bad— like so much old lettuce.
Post to your blog at least twice a week, ditto for article submission to online directories. It also wouldn’t hurt to publish a white paper or ebook now and then. Use previously written content to create these more involved items, if time is an issue. This is called repurposing, and it’s a great way to squeeze more juice out of your web content.
Creating content that is fresh and new on a regular basis is the best way to keep your posts attractive to search engines. You may be able to attract comments to your posts, as well – another way to keep web content updated from a search engine point of view.
2. Don’t worry about code
Search engines like web sites that have simple coding. Complicated HTML codes don’t necessarily impress them. Simple heading, paragraph and list codes are usually adequate. If you have some code intensive entries, make sure you balance it with plenty of simply coded content to keep your content to code ratio satisfactory.
3. Use proper keyword density
Opinions about keyword density vary, but in our experience a 1% density keeps your content sounding natural while still registering with search engines. Sprinkle in related terms, secondary keywords and descriptive terms, and you have a delicious SEO-friendly mixture. Your best option is to choose one strong keyword phrase per article or post to avoid diluting their SEO strength.
4. Begin and end strongly
Make your point quickly and in the most attention-grabbing way possible. Consider adding your primary keyword phrase to the first and last paragraph. The trick is to not make it sound unnatural. Someone looking for information isn’t looking for a sales pitch, and inserting keywords in awkward ways says “sales pitch”.
5. Use keyword links
Use strategic keyword links to hyperlink text to other pages on your site (see above), and to other sites that contain relevant information. Not only will this give your readers a fast way to access other posts that you have created, it will also assist with the ranking of your page on search engines.
Without a good SEO approach to your web content, all of the effort that you put into research and professional writing techniques could end up being a waste of time. So keep these tips in mind when writing content for your site.