Have you ever though of optimizing an article for the search engine? No! Well, its high time to do so. Nowadays, in the world of tech and increasing competition, your job is not only to please your readers but also search engine giants such as Google. But, how could you do so? Especially, when there are hundreds or thousands of websites in competition!

Well, that’s the exact reason we are writing this article. Here we will provide you with a few brief yet effective article writing tips that could optimize your article and crank up its rankings straight into the front page of Google. Excited? Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s begin!

Step 1: Make sure the headline confirms that the article is relevant to the needs of the users!

This is one of the criteria for a good headline that you used during the creation of the text. Heck, just put the main keyword in the title of the article. The key must be used naturally. If users are searching for your material using the query “order a taxi in Moscow cheap”, write in the title “How to order a taxi in Moscow cheap”. Swap words if you like and use different word forms.

Search engines understand equally well the options “how to order a cheap taxi in Moscow”, “how to order a taxi in Moscow cheap” and even “how to order a taxi in Moscow cheap”. The latter option may surprise your living readers, so focus on natural human language.

Robots really don't care how you write: "buy a cheap car in St. Petersburg" or "buy a cheap car in St. Petersburg." However, if your headlines and content as a whole consist entirely of unnatural structures, Google and colleagues may suspect you of search spam. In this case, you risk getting sanctions. The title of the article is displayed in the search results. Thanks to this, the reader can evaluate how the content offered by the “search engine” meets his needs.

This is where the principle of visual response comes into play: the user is more likely to go to a page whose name matches the search query as closely as possible. Why does using a keyword in the title work? Consider the following example: when a person first lands on a new web page, they try to quickly figure out what it is about. What does he do first? That's right, read the title of the material. Search robots do the same!

Step 2: Make sure the introductory part describes the problem and how to solve it!

Why is this needed? If only because you are unlikely to be able to formulate a problem and identify ways to solve it without using the main key phrase. Yes, in the context of search engine optimization, this step should sound like this: check if you inserted the main key at the beginning of the material.

Do not look for an exact formula and a specific definition of the beginning. Old-school SEOs suggest inserting "keys" in the first paragraph, the first three or four sentences, the first 800 or 1000 characters. And you think like a representative of the new school: just use the key at the beginning. Believe me, search robots consider the beginning the same as you.

Step 3: Expand the topic in detail!

Yes, we are talking about search engine optimization. The deeper you dive into the problem, the more detailed and complete you reveal the topic, the more relevant your material will be to the needs of the audience. Thanks to this, you cannot think about key phrases at all. Why waste energy?

You can't write well about social media marketing, vacation home building, or craniocerebral hypothermia without using the right "keys" the right number of times. If you want a theoretical background, read about LSI copywriting. Want specific advice and tips? See what you do when you expand on a topic:

  • Use the key phrase in the title. How without it?
  • Use the "key" at the beginning of the article.
  • Insert the desired keywords in the subheadings. This happens naturally and logically.
  • Use "keys" in the names and alt attributes of the photo. How else, after all, you have to take care of users who will not display an image? By the way, pay attention to optimizing photos in articles .
  • You create content so useful that people link to it on websites and blogs, and actively share it on social networks.
  • Use low-frequency queries in the text. Imagine, to use the long tail tactic , you do not need anything: just know for yourself, expand on the topic in detail.

Step 4: Show search engines that you are the author of the material!

How to do it? Just share the article on social networks immediately after publication. This is a tip from Matt Cutts! Thanks to sharing, “search engines” find and index your content faster. Announcements in social networks have a number of other advantages:

  • Thanks to social networks, you get traffic.
  • People read and comment on your content. They also read other articles on your site. This improves the behavioural metrics of the resource.
  • Readers share your content with their followers and link to your content on blogs and websites. You increase your audience reach and get natural links.
  • Distributions act as social proof.

Step 5: Link to useful audience content published on your site!

Insert hyperlinks directly into the text, make inserts and blocks with the conditional name "You will also be interested in articles." The main condition is that you need natural links that will really interest your users. If you think they should have an anchor, use it. If you want to use words like "here" as an anchor, do so. If it feels natural to use a URL, paste the link as it is.

Why link to useful content? You increase the awareness and engagement of the audience, as well as improve the site's behavioural metrics: average time and depth of views.

The Bottom Line

So, these were 5 of the best article writing tips for optimizing your article and boosting its search rankings. Hope you liked this useful information and would use it effectively in your next content!