Writing for online audiences is a little more complicated than for their offline counterparts – due to the inclusion of search engine optimisation (SEO) requirements in the copy. When you integrate keywords and links into an article, search engines like Google pick up on these – and they affect your website’s ranking when displaying search results.
In the past, we’ve explained that a well-written article with cleverly weaved keywords and links will help you climb the SEO leader boards, but also, we’ve recently learned that it’s not always the case. So how does SEO truly work? Read on to find out more…
A David vs. Goliath story (if Goliath wore body armour)
There’s no shortage of SEO experts online. They often promise that you’ll be able to achieve first page rankings by writing the best article to the extent of your abilities and including SEO tricks like meta titles, keywords or URL customisations. Joseph Raunch, a member of the Forbes Communications Council, disagrees. Not only did he find such an attitude a “gross oversimplification,” he also argued that “if only the first three results are the most well written, the implication is that every other article [outside of the top three] has inferior writing quality.”
Whenever we perform a web search, Raunch pointed out that we judge each webpage’s quality according to the following criteria:
· Content relatedness to our query
· Ease of content absorption
· Accuracy and trustworthiness of the domain or publisher
· The content’s ability to keep us interested
“When articles are engaging, we read longer, click more and scroll deeper than we would on a boring piece… Google then knows exactly how long you were on that page, where you clicked and whether you made it to the bottom.” However, web optimisation via SEO only makes the page more appealing for Google’s analytics engine, not for the reader, he criticised. “When you browse an article, are you determining its value by counting how many times a certain word is repeated or mentioned? If someone added a line with some keywords to the article, would you feel its quality increased dramatically?”
According to Raunch, SEO is less about article quality per se, but more about these five pillars:
1. Link building – how many people link back to the article and/or click on an embedded link significantly drives up web rankings
2. The source – the domain’s authority is a huge determining factor, and search engines will always prioritise content from big names first (i.e. The Financial Times will generally hold more clout than The Bloom Picayune).
3. Time – “SEO is all about the long game.” Integrating keywords, building links and optimising pages is done over a span of years, not just a few articles.
4. Money/Teams – a bigger budget affords more tools and personnel – it’s one of the reasons why big domains (like news networks) have teams dedicated to SEO work
5. Luck – sometimes, Google just gives you one of the top three spots without any prior optimisation or strategy. Don’t count on this alone to get you to the top!
Knowing this, are smaller websites forever doomed to trail behind the big leagues? Well, both yes and no. It’s absurd to go in expecting to be able to top Forbes (because frankly, they have articles covering the sun and moon already), but this doesn’t mean to give up on SEO optimisation entirely! Well-constructed SEO is still beneficial for you and your audiences, as it makes your content easier to find.
A SEO refresher course
Although SEO might not be as malleable as we once thought it to be, it still pays to be proficient. Let’s turn to SEO guru Neil Patel and some of his top tips for getting more clicks:
1. Web loading speed matters! – Ever come across a page that just wouldn’t load? Regardless how amazing the title or description promises to be, audiences don’t like to wait – each one second delay can yield a seven percent loss in conversions! If your website includes visuals, be sure that they are at a web-friendly size.
2. Link to other credible and relevant websites – It’s all about building connections. Provided the links are relevant to your content, good links solidify the foundation of your piece – both factually and analytically.
3. Write for people first and Google second – “Forget that Google and other search engines exist when you’re writing. Instead, create content that will help someone. This is known as SEO copywriting,” opined Patel. As Raunch mentioned earlier, search engines track users’ activities, not the other way around.
4. Encourage trustworthy sites to link back to you – This one is more difficult, but if you’re in the habit of writing pieces for other sites, this is a great way to get referrals! However, don’t be discouraged if there aren’t many linking back to your website. It’s important to establish your brand as an industry leader/expert and that takes time – once you’re at the forefront, useful content will always bring in more links.
5. Consider using web analytics – Need to know where visitors are spending the most and least amount of time on your website? Analytics trackers can show you hot and cold zones, how long visitors stay on your site for and much more!
6. Write unique meta descriptions – A meta description is an abstract about your page that search engines will list together with the URL. Google doesn’t like duplicate material and will dock points if you just copy and paste your introduction, so be sure to concisely describe the content of each page!
7. Customise your URLs – Have your friends ever shared a link that looks like a garbled mess without any other context? Search engines feel the same way about messy links, so be sure to customise each article’s URL to make it easy to read (like the ones we have above).
8. Create and publish unique content consistently – establish a posting schedule and stick to it! Due to the “fresh factor”, newly published content (or pages with large amounts of new edits) are ranked higher than older posts featuring the same keywords.
Using SEO for the sole goal of climbing search engine rankings is the wrong mindset. “There are thousands of uninformative and bland blog posts that rank well for keywords because their owners have spent time and money on link building and optimisation,” explained Raunch. Instead, use SEO with the aim of helping audiences to find your content – quality work naturally attracts clicks and will raise your website’s recognition amongst audiences and peers. He concludes, “Winning based on hard work should be more than enough for bragging rights.”