10 Ways to Optimize Your Content For Search

If one of the purposes of your content is being visible in search, you must optimize it for search. Learning how to optimize your content for search allows your website to be seen online. The good news is that it’s not as hard as it sounds.

Think of optimizing your content like swimming laps in a beautiful pool on a hot summer day. You can get a good workout and have fun by swimming in the lap lane. But if you swim during family hour, you’ll experience a lot of frustration. To minimize frustration, create content so that you can glide through the waters of the web with ease.

Here’s how to optimize your content for search so that you can “lap” your competitors:

1. Site Speed
   The first tip on our list is one that is not directly related to content, but that only shows how important it is. Slow loading websites annoy both users and search engines, so make yours as fast as possible.

2. Carry Out Keyword Research
   Before you create content you should also carry out keyword research. You shouldn’t make absolute decisions based on keyword research. But you’ll want to get an understanding of what people search for, and how they search. This will help you write content that is relevant. It is also helpful to have a main keyword in mind.

3. Write For Humans
   Always, always, always write for humans. It is impossible to overstate this – when you start tapping the words onto your keyboard, forget about search engines. Write with the intention that a real human will engage (and hopefully want to share!) your content.

4. Make It Long
   You’ll want to craft the perfect recipe for your content length. Longer posts are usually better for SEO but always remember: quality over quantity. A longer post that doesn’t engage in a fun, entertaining way can send your readers away. Remember to “write for humans” if you’re going to write a lengthy article.

5. Headline – Title Tag
   Spend some time writing your headline so that it includes your main keyword, and encourages the user to click. The best way to do this by including a number in the headline, or asking a question that references the reader. Here are some examples:
   • 10 Reasons Why Swimming Is The Best Exercise
   • Is Your Local Pool Hazardous To Your Health?

6. Sprinkle Keywords Into Your Content
   Now go back to your keyword research and pick out three or four keywords that are relevant to your content and try to integrate them. Make sure that your sentences aren’t awkward. And remember to use long-tail keywords as much as possible.

7. Add Some LSI Keywords
   LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing, which is a complicated way of describing the way that Google looks for synonyms. When you write in a natural way, you’ll use synonyms. Machines cannot use synonyms in writing, so when Google notices them (or LSI keywords) it distinguishes good writing from bad.

   Let’s look at the keyword “swimming exercise.” Synonyms that Google understands as being related to this keyword are “benefits of swimming” and “swimming workout”. You can find these by using the Google Keyword Planner, or by doing a search for your keyword and scrolling to the bottom of the results – look for the “Searches related to…” section.

8. Use Heading Tags
   Heading tags are HTML elements which make the sub headings on your page stand out from the rest of your text. This makes your content easier to read, but they also help search engines understand what the page is about. Try to use keywords as much as possible in your heading tags.

9. Write A Good Meta Description
   You should also add your keyword to your meta description. But make sure that it’s well-written,  persuasive, and is the correct length – 150 to 160 characters.

10. Add Links
    Finally, add a mixture of inbound and outbound links to your content. Some should link to other content on your website (which helps to reduce bounce rate) and others should link to relevant content on other websites.

Test the waters of the web by easing these tips into your content strategy. When you optimize your content with these 10 tips, you allow your website to be seen. You’ll simultaneously build loyal fans and bring in more business. And what could be better than that?