9 Tips for SEO-friendly Content

If you're wondering how to make your content more SEO-friendly, we've got something for you! In the following short checklist you will find nine tips on how to design your content so that it is better rated by search engines!

Checklist:

1) Keywords: SEO keywords are search terms that users enter into search engines to find something. To make your content more SEO-friendly, you first need to find out which keywords are used to search for your services or content. Then you can incorporate the keywords into your content. 

Find out more about this topic in our blog post ‘SEO: Keywords and how we deal with them!’.

2‍) Qualitative text content: The content you offer should be of high quality and interesting for your target group. It's hard to believe, but Google is now a good judge of the quality of a text. That's why it's important when including keywords in the content not to simply string them together, but to incorporate them into the text in such a way that it remains interesting. The main thing is to prepare the right topics for specific target groups.‍

3) Text length and paragraphs: The quality of your texts also includes making the content only as long as necessary and as short as possible. The text should therefore be adapted to a length that keeps it interesting but includes all the valuable information. The use of paragraphs helps readability - for the target group and the search engines.

4) Headings: For readability, content should be structured and made clear. Google analyses the structure and hierarchy of headings. Every page needs a title in H1 format - i.e. the top heading level. It is also important that the hierarchy is adhered to and that no titles are skipped. For example, it will be rated negatively if you continue with an H3 title after the H1 heading. It is also worth placing the keywords in the H1 heading in particular. Search engines read the headings to better understand the content of the page.

5) Emphasised words: Emphasised words also help readability. They can be used to make keywords stand out. This also helps the target group find the content they want to find with the keywords more quickly. Google recognises, for example, when a section of text is written in bold (bold tag). ‍

6) Font and font colour: A good colour concept can also be conducive to readability. It is important that the ratio of text colour and background is right. A good contrast leads to a higher readability rating by search engines and better evaluation of the content.

7) Image optimisation: Attractive and relevant photos in the content have an appealing effect on the target groups and the search engine. Google can already do a lot - but is not yet very good at reading images. However, you can support Google by adding so-called ‘alt texts’ to the images used. These ‘alt texts’ describe the corresponding images. The search engine reads this content. Consequently, this is a good opportunity to place additional keywords to convey the content of the page.‍

8) Titles and descriptions: The meta title refers to the title of an HTML document. The meta description is the short description of the website or content. Meta title and meta description belong together with the meta keywords to the meta tags. 

Why is it important to optimise the meta title and description? 

The description defines the text that appears in the search engine result and the meta title defines the title of the content that appears in the search engine result. As the title and description of a content in the search engine result determine whether the target group visits the website, they play a role in the evaluation of the content by the search engine. The main things that can be optimised here are the length and the content. 

• The length of the meta title should be limited to 58-65 characters (524 pixel length) and the meta description to 160 characters so that the title and description remain legible for the search engine. The meta title has more influence on the ranking than the meta description. 
• The title should contain the keyword that matches the URL (usually in the first position). 
• This should be followed by other adjectives that the target group would associate with what is being offered or what the target group might be looking for. However, you should only use adjectives that you can stick to. 
• In the meta description, the keyword is stated and should be followed by adjectives that reflect what the target group is looking for. The description should consist of short sentences or keyword lists in which the most important keyword is mentioned at least once. In addition, Google sometimes rewrites the meta title if it feels that a different meta title would work better.‍

9) Backlinks: The last tip is the so-called backlinks. Search engines also rate content according to how many backlinks you receive. Backlinks are references (links) from other websites to your own page. It is therefore crucial that other websites also link to your own content. Google sees this as a recommendation of the linking website to the content of your page. The better the ranking of the other website, the more valuable the backlink is for your page. On the one hand, this helps to find the best content on your own website. On the other hand, such backlinks increase the credibility of your own website and lead to the content of your own website being visited more often and being rated better by the search engines. It can also be worthwhile to include links to other websites in your own content.

Want to know more about backlinks? Find out more in our blog post ‘Backlink: The key to SEO happiness’.

How Headstarterz can help you:

We are happy to help you develop a strategy and optimise your web content. We have the expertise and tools to continuously improve your virtual visibility. We offer our SEO service in two variants: Every six months or quarterly, you will receive a detailed analysis of your website from us, including specific recommendations for action from our SEO experts. We will be happy to advise you on the ideal solution for your website.