Optimize content for SEO
Only content, nothing else
This documentation focuses solely on how to optimize content for SEO and the core fundamentals of SEO. It does not cover any other aspects of SEO, like technical SEO, backlinks, etc.
Although you are welcome to learn more about SEO outside of its relationship to content, this guide will not cover everything you may need to know about SEO.
If you choose to delve deeper into SEO, you will have access to a plethora of resources by the end of this guide.
SEO is the process of optimizing a website and its content to improve its visibility in search engine results pages. The purpose of SEO is to increase organic traffic to a website by enhancing its position in search engine results pages (SERP) for relevant keywords and overall quality.
We do not expect you to learn everything about SEO in a single sitting; it is impossible to discover every nook and cranny in one go. However, understanding the core principles, best practices, and fundamental techniques of SEO will greatly aid your comprehension of how it functions and how important and useful it is when creating any type of web content.
Helpful resources (SEO basics)
Guides
Long-form vs short-form content
When writing content with SEO in mind, we typically classify it as either short-form or long-form. Now, the definitions of short-form and long-form content are debatable, but according to the article "Short-Form vs. Long-Form Content: Which Is Better for SEO?" from the Ahrefs Blog, written by Joshua Hardwick and Sam Oh, the following definitions are used:
Short-form content is roughly anything under 1,000 words. This is how we choose to define it, but definitions vary. You may only consider something under 500 words to be short-form content, and that’s fine.
And for long-form content:
Long-form content is roughly anything over 1,000 words. Again, this is how we choose to define it. You may disagree and only see something as long-form content if it’s over 2,000 words. It’s up to you.
What should you write? Should the content you make be short or long? Well, it depends. Both types of content have pros and cons, and it's up to you to figure out which one is best for you.
Most of the time, the quality of the content and the current ranking requirements are more important than the type of content. If you already have a lot of content, you might want to focus on making the content you already have better instead of making new content.
You can figure out what kind of content you should make by looking at where your current content ranks, what it ranks for, and what keywords you want to rank for. If you already have a lot of content that ranks well for a certain keyword, you might want to focus on making that content better instead of making more content.
Helpful resources (Long-form vs short-form content)
Articles
Keyword research
Keyword research is the process of discovering words, queries, and phrases that users search for. It also involves putting search queries into groups based on where the user is in their journey and what kind of search they are doing, such as navigational, transactional, or informational.
There are four types of keywords that are helpful to know about because they group the different goals of users and can help you plan your keyword strategy. These four types are:
- Informational: Users who want to find information or get an answer.
- Navigational: Users looking for a certain brand, website, or page.
- Commercial: Users looking for information on brands, products, or services.
- Transactional: Users who are ready to buy or do something.
Keyword research can now go into a lot of detail. You can use a lot of different tools and methods to find keywords. But let's just quickly go over a few of the basics.
When doing keyword research, you should always keep in mind the following:
- Search volume: How many people search for a keyword.
- Keyword difficulty: How hard it is to rank for a keyword.
- Search intent: What the user is looking for when they search for a keyword.
- Relevance: How relevant a keyword is to your content.
- SERP features: What features are shown in the SERP for a keyword.
- Topic clusters: How keywords are grouped together.
Helpful resources (Keyword research)
Tools
- Google Trends
- Google Ads Keyword Planner
- Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator
- Ahrefs Keyword Rank Checker
- Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Checker
Articles
On-site/on-page optimization
On-page/on-site SEO is all about making your website's content as good as it can be. On-page/on-site SEO is anything that is on your website in one way or another, so be it the content, the structure, or the code.
Even though there are many ways to improve your on-page/on-site SEO, there are a few things you should really make sure you do when writing content:
- Write unique & optimized content: Create good content that matches what your readers are looking for.
- Place keywords strategically: Include your target keywords in important places like H1, the first paragraph, and subheadings (h2, h3, etc.).
- Create a title & meta description: Make a title and meta description that fit your content and include your target keywords.
- Structure using headings: Headings make it easy for people to scan your page, and it helps Google figure out how important different parts of your page are.
- Add internal links: Internal links help search engines find new pages and decide which linked pages are important.
- Add external links: Adding links to authoritative sources is a great way to help users.
That's really on scratching the surface of on-site SEO. When you dig deeper you'll discover tactics like schema markup, image optimization, rich snippets vs featured snippets, and more.
Helpful resources (On-site/on-page optimization)
Tools
Articles
- Kelly Lyons, "On-Page SEO: What It Is and How to Do It"
- Margarita Loktionova, "How to Format Your Blog Post: 7 Effective Tips for 2023"
- Kelly Lyons, "What Is a Title Tag & How to Optimize Title Tags for Google"
- Rachel Handley, "What Is a Meta Description? [+ SEO & Writing Tips]"
- Luke Harsel, "Internal Links: Ultimate Guide + Strategies"
- Google Search Central, "Use links wisely | SEO Starter Guide: The Basics"
Technical SEO
You won't worry too much about technical SEO when you're writing content. But it's still important to know how it works and how the content you post affects it.
First of all, technical SEO and off-site SEO are not the same thing. Technical SEO is all about how search engines crawl and index your site, while off-site SEO is all about how other sites refer to yours.
It's important to share your new blog posts on social media, and using reviews in your content is another great way to build your authority. But these are all things that are part of off-site SEO. You can find out more about off-site SEO here.
When we talk about technical SEO in the context of writing content, we usually mean one of the following:
- Duplicate content: Content that is the same as or very similar to other content on your site or on other sites.
- Dead links: Links to pages that have been taken down and no longer exist.
- Structured data: Data that is organized in a way that makes it easier for search engines to understand.
All of these are important things to keep in mind when writing content or when optimizing and refactoring content you already have. Even though Google won't punish you for having duplicate content or dead links, you're still missing out on SEO opportunities.
Helpful resources (Technical SEO)
Tools
Articles