Once you have created excellent content, it's time to optimize it for search engines. Search engines require signals to comprehend a text well. You can provide these signals by strategically placing your keywords in the text. In this blog post, we will delve into optimizing texts by providing clear step-by-step guidance.
How to optimize your SEO texts
As bloggers, we all strive for our texts to rank high in organic search results. While many writers focus solely on keyword density, it's important to note that creating effective SEO texts involves much more. In fact, optimizing SEO texts requires attention to the following components:
- Title
- Meta Description
- URL
- Introduction
- Subheadings
- Concluding paragraph
- Links
- Alt tags
A strong title is essential for ranking well in organic search results.
We distinguish between a readable title (page title) for your audience and an optimized title for search engines (the meta title). A good meta title is no longer than 70 characters and consists of one or more of the following components:
- the main keyword (at the beginning of the title),
- a unique selling point,
- and the name of your organization.
The meta description
The meta description is a brief description of your text. It's like a snippet that Google displays in organic search results. A strong description ensures that your search result stands out to users. Therefore, don't forget to include your unique selling points in the meta text! A well-crafted meta description increases the click-through rate (CTR) to your website.
Note: According to Google, the meta description should not exceed 155 characters.
Include your keyword in the URL.
Include your keywords not only in your content but also in the URL. This enables search engines to identify the topic of your page immediately, and your visitors will also see the keyword in the link. Avoid using strange characters in the URL. A good URL is recognizable, easy to understand, and appealing to visitors.
A search engine-friendly introduction
Effective SEO texts should include a search engine-friendly introduction. This means including your main keywords in the first ten words of your introduction so that search engines quickly understand what your text is about. For example, in this blog post, we have chosen the keyword 'SEO texts' and included it in our introductory sentence. However, it's important to remember that you are writing for your audience, not just for search engines. So, if you can't fit your keyword into the first ten words, don't worry, there are other places to include it in your text.
Use keywords in your subheadings.
Using subheadings enhances the readability of your text for both visitors and search engines. It's no surprise that it's also crucial to include your keywords in these subheadings. Since search engines scan your titles and subheadings first, they hold more value than the rest of your text. Therefore, ensure that your most essential keywords appear in your subheadings.
A strong concluding paragraph is essential in optimizing your SEO texts.
Just like in your introduction, make sure to include your main keywords here. By doing so, you reinforce the idea to search engines that your text is relevant to the reader's search query or intent. It's your final chance to make a lasting impression on your audience, so ensure that your concluding paragraph summarizes your main points concisely and leaves your readers feeling satisfied.
Don't forget to add links.
Writing and optimizing SEO texts alone isn't sufficient to rank well on search engines. That's why we recommend using internal links as well. By incorporating these links, you pass on link value to other pages on your website, effectively informing Google which pages are significant for your site. Additionally, adding links enhances the user-friendliness of your site for both visitors and search engines.
Note: Only add links where it makes sense to do so.
Adding ALT descriptions to your images
This is also an important step in optimizing your SEO texts. It may be tempting to hit that publish button after adding an image, but don't forget to fill in the ALT description! This text appears in the source code of your page and is only visible when the image cannot be loaded. Adding this text is a simple task that doesn't take extra time but contributes to a higher score in search results.
Start to optimize
When you choose to create the content for your website or webshop yourself, you'll realize that there's a lot to consider. Even if you've written a fantastic text, it's a waste of your time and effort if customers can't find it. That's why you should use this blog post as a step-by-step guide to optimize your SEO texts to rank as high as possible in organic search results. At We Make IT, we understand that writing and optimizing texts can be quite challenging. If this challenge is too much for you, our skilled writers and SEO specialists are here to help you create engaging, high-quality texts. Together, we ensure that your content continues to perform well, even in the long term. Contact us for more information on how we can help you.
