Today, the article was very well written thinking about SEO must be, necessarily, very well written thinking about the user. The time when optimizing an article was enough to bold some keywords and add the meta keywords tag is over.
Well, I cannot say that this sentence is 100% wrong. The evolution of Google's algorithm is each day following this path: getting closer and closer to the human perspective of a webpage.
However, despite this evolution being continuous and improving more every day, currently, the ways Google uses to evaluate the content of a page are still exact, and not abstract, like the human feeling of satisfaction, being thus passive of manipulation (in the good sense of the word).
Although in the construction of content, there is the side of thinking about the user and the side of thinking about Google, it was never necessary to choose only 1 of them. Quite the opposite.
Today, the article was very well written thinking about SEO must be, necessarily, very well written thinking about the user. The time when optimizing an article was enough to bold some keywords and add the meta keywords tag is over.
Before getting into the subject of the post itself, it's important to remember that a page's content is only one of Google's ranking factors.
In other words, we are not going to give you a recipe in this article for you to be first with your post, but rather some practical tips that Google welcomes and tends to value when evaluating a page. That being made clear, let's get to the tips!
How to Find Best Keyword
As SEO is not a book of rules that everyone must follow, each SEO professional has their way of choosing the ideal keyword to work with.
After 4 years working in the field, the method I advocate for choosing the ideal keyword works through the 4-dimensional analysis of a keyword. I believe that to be able to say whether or not I should work with a keyword I need to know it in the context of-
- Search volume,
- Ranking difficulty,
- Step in the funnel that this keyword represents,
- My site's current placement for the keyword,
Knowing the keyword in these 4 dimensions, you become qualified to choose the target keyword of your article. The characteristics of the analyzed keywords that you should prioritize will depend a lot on your goals.
However, I will describe here the keyword profile that I find the ideal for working on an article.
Find High Volume Keywords
Having a good store on a deserted neighborhood street may not be very profitable, in the same way, that it would be having the first place in Google for a keyword with very little search volume.
For this reason, targeting keywords that have a high search volume is quite interesting.
Using Low Competition Keywords
The currency of SEO is TIME. If you want to position an article with a keyword that is very competitive and disputed, the effort that will need to be invested will probably be much greater.
It doesn't mean we shouldn't work with hard-to-place keywords. But yes, we must take this into account when choosing the article's focus keyword, asking the question: Do I have the time and energy to position the article for this keyword?
Positioning close to the first 6 positions
Recent studies show that about 70% of clicks on results on Google are in the top 6 positions. This means that being positioned close to these placements can be an opportunity. since with less effort than usual, it is possible to move up positions and enter this zone of a greater volume of clicks.
The analysis of this parameter when choosing the keyword focus of your article will work as follows if for the keyword in question you are already positioned close to these 6 first positions, most of the time it is more advantageous to optimize the page that is already positioned rather than creating an article from scratch. But your analysis is always worth it.
Funnel step to which the respective keyword corresponds
This dimension has a very strong correlation with the concept of short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords. Funnel bottom keywords would be those that bring with them a higher-than-usual purchase intention. They are usually long-tailed.
To clarify the interpretation of this dimension, let us place an example in the context of a dental clinic:
Funnel Top Keyword: “how to floss”. It is niche-related, but does not represent a real purchase intent,
Middle Funnel Keyword: “types of tooth whitening”. It is related to the niche, it does not represent a real purchase intention, but it concerns service,
Funnel Fund Keyword: “dentist appointment with Unimed health insurance”. It is related to the niche and represents a real purchase intention.
The analysis of this dimension is more subjective than the others mentioned here, as the choice will depend on the type of targeting you want to have with your SEO work.
If you choose the focus keyword of your article, taking into account the 4 dimensions mentioned here, you are halfway there!
Optimizing Tags
There are some tags present on blog pages that should be taken into account when writing a well-thought-out SEO article.
The previous choice of the article's focus keyword is essential for the optimization of these tags since all that we will mention here are optimizable through the chosen keyword.
Optimizing Title Of the Post
A study done by Backlinko in 2016 analyzed about 1 million pages of results and looked for correlations between the first results.
One of the correlations found was about the meta title. The study pointed out that, although the correlation is not as strong as all of them, there is a relationship between being in the first place and having the exact keyword in the meta title tag.
Optimizing Meta Description
In 2009, Google announced that neither the meta description nor the meta keywords would contribute any more as a ranking factor. Despite this information, meta description optimization is being mentioned in this post for two reasons.
1. Although it doesn't directly affect your page's ranking, write a good meta description. And using the keyword can increase the click-through rate on your SERP result. When the user searches for a keyword on Google it appears in its meta description, automatically bolded.
The click-through rate in search results is a ranking factor, so it's important to pay attention to this tag.
2. The meta description and also the title tag can greatly influence the Bounce Rate, which is also a proven ranking factor. For those of you who didn't understand, don't worry! We'll go deeper into the subject soon.
Optimizing Headings
Google encourages the hierarchical organization of a page through heading tags. They are “h1”, “h2”, “h3”, “h6”. In your article, these tags usually function as title, subtitle, subtitle, etc. With “h1” referring to the title, “h2” to the subtitle, and so on.
The importance of using the article focus keyword in heading tags is proportional to the importance of each heading or subhead.
In the heading tag “h1”, for example, the use of the keyword is non-negotiable, it is recommended to always use it.
As for the other heading tags, there is no need for all of them to contain the keyword. After all, it wouldn't even be user-friendly.
Still, whenever you find the opportunity to use the keyword in one of these heading tags in a way that doesn't feel forced and is helpful, it's recommended.
Proper Keyword Density
This tip is more related to the content creation of the article itself. A few years ago, a doubt had roamed the minds of everyone who dealt with content production.
The question was: How often should I use the keyword in my content? And well… The answer used to vary a lot.
That's when a new recommendation started to emerge: the ideal amount of keywords in a text is 2%. That is, for every 100 words, 2 should be the article's focus keyword.
Although it was a somewhat unfounded number, the rule stuck and ended up working very well for everyone. Even for me, that's why this is one of the recommendations in this article.
However, the 2% should not be taken literally, making you modify your text at all costs until you reach this goal. They are just for you to have a parameter and this will help you to better use writing thinking about SEO.
If you're interested in this tip, I recommend you check out this keyword density calculator made by Agência Mestre.
Doing Relevant Internal Linking
Getting the user to spend as much time as possible on your site is a great sign for Google. Much related to the Bounce Rate, the time spent on the site can mean a good user experience.
Having internal links within your article pointing to other of your related articles can encourage this type of behavior.
If that wasn't enough, by making the internal link you are also making it easier for Google to navigate your site.
The practice also influences the distribution of link juice across your site.
Optimizing Images
The same Backlinko study that I cited in this article reveals that most of the top-ranked sites contained at least one image.
There is no proof that having an image on a page is a good thing for Google! But, analyzing on its own whether the image would impact positioning or not, an argument may already be valid, having an image in the article makes the text more user-friendly and may eventually retain that more difficult user to conquer.
Who is another circumstance would possibly abandon the page, inflating the Bounce Rate of the URL. Not to mention that the image gives one more opportunity to use the focus keyword (alt text, image name, etc).
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