Making your writing search engine friendly is very important these days because Google is such a massive part of the Internet. Sure, there are other search engines in a game, but Google rules the roost and dictates what is the right SEO (Search Engine Optimization). However, the rules around SEO change all the time. Here is what you should know if you are trying to write search engine friendly articles today.
1 – Write naturally without considering the search engines
This cannot be stressed enough. Back in the early days when Google was a primitive SE, the text had to be written in a certain way so that it could try its best to categorize it. That was all that the company could do, but now its search engine algorithm is massive and has undergone two search index strip-downs since its birth.
Google doesn’t need help in categorizing your article, it doesn’t even need help to understand the concepts behind the article. Sure, it is still a program and it cannot understand the concepts behind your article, but it has become very good at guessing what your article is all about and who can get some value from the reading.
Just write naturally in your own voice and your own way. The only way they will punish you in terms of style is if your text is simply atrocious, such as this line: “I and ad no zzzz 4eva, bt I ainttekkin Ne Dr-Ugs 4 it.”
2 – You can write a lot and enjoy search engine friendly benefits
There was a time when Google would show favor to shorter articles, and would show favor to websites that had lots of articles. But things have changed since the Hummingbird update. Now it works a little differently.
Now, if you have ten articles at 300 words each on one website and one article of 3000 words on another website, then both will have similar SEO benefits. This is a simplified version of the Google rule. In short, it means you can write long and short articles and enjoy a reasonable amount of search engine benefit. You do not have to write short articles.
3 – Forget all you think you know
There are quite a few rules you may find in SEO books that are now redundant, so here are a few of the most common ones.
Forget keywords
Google doesn’t care about them anymore. They care about what keywords are attached to anchor text, but don’t care about what keywords feature in your text.
Forget short and to the point
The search engine mechanismnow favors long articles as much as it does shorter ones. They only ignore you if your text is padded out.
Forget engaging content
Representatives of the organization have said that it is too difficult to define correctly what engaging really is, so it is no longer a factor in SEO.
Forget adding outgoing links (unless you quote something verbatim)
There was a short-lived rule stating that your text will be judged by the outgoing links it includes. This is still true if the links lead to black-hat SEO sites, but is an otherwise redundant rule.
Forget about perfect spelling and grammar
This was originally a rule set in place because article mills were filled with poorly written articles. Now article mills and black-hat article directories are a thing of the past and Google doesn’t pay such a fierce attentionto all the spelling and grammar rules. However it will punish your website in cases of poor and repetitive grammar and spelling cases.
4 – What about “Short and to the point?”
Google used to say that articles should be short and to the point. In fact, what the company meant was that they would like to see concise work. This search engine machine does not want people writing 2000 words to explain a concept that could have been explained in 100 words. They do not want any fluff, which means no pieces padded out with extra words.
What the organization wants is concise articles, but even a very concise article can be 10,000 words long. So, forget keeping it short, just keep it to the point.
5 – Surely “engaging content” is search engine friendly?
Google dropped the notion that people should write engaging content in order to rank highly because people were turning their articles and essays into things that resembled “Action News” broadcasts. You can delegatewriting services to create interesting content for your blog.
Google have made it clear that they want “useful content.” It can be as engaging as a picture of a carrot, or as engaging as a fireworks display, but it will not make any difference. What will make a difference is if the content is really useful.