How do I write a search engine optimized article?

Writing an SEO article is not as easy as it used to be. While still important, in the past you needed to take into consideration many things like keyword research, placing these keywords strategically all over the content, and the length of the article.

However, with the tight competition that comes with SERP ranking, there are other things that you need to consider when writing an SEO-friendly article or content.

Quick Guide on Writing SEO-Friendly Articles

These guidelines can be used as a general reference when writing SEO-friendly articles. Keep in mind that some of these tips may work and some may not. It all depends on your niche, target market, and website objective.

1. Keyword Research. One of the core factors of SEO is the keyword. Make sure that you brainstorm and choose keywords that are relevant to your content. This will help search engines track your page and show them in searches that are related to your niche.
2. Keyword Prominence, Proximity, and Density. Once you already have your keywords, you need to integrate them strategically on your article. Make sure that they are prominent enough to be recognized by search engine bots. You also have to consider keyword proximity, especially for keyphrases. The closer the keywords are together, the more relevant they become. Lastly, you do not want to overstuff your article with too many keywords so be careful with keyword density. The ideal density is between 1% to 2%.
3.  Bullets and Sub-Headings. Readers are more likely to read articles that are easy on the eyes. Use sub-headings when necessary and bullet points to emphasize interesting facts.
4. Understandable and Simple. Make your story as straightforward and comprehensible as much as possible. People have no patience for articles overloaded with complex language or incoherent jargon.
5. Optimize Your Article Length. Google and other search engines particularly like long pieces. However, readers can get quickly bored with them. So, you need to have your story length split the difference. Depending on the topic, try to keep your article length between 300 and 700 words.
6. Be Informative and Interesting. The most important thing of all is to make your article informative and exciting. Research your topic carefully. Use images and videos for optimization. Make sure that all the information is relevant to the keywords that you are using and your topic. Google and other search engines have no patience for articles and blog posts that make no sense to readers.
7. Go longform. Average top 10 results have articles of 1600+ words.

If you can follow this simple guideline plus develop and add your own writing style, you will be able to produce not just an SEO-friendly article but an article with high-quality content.