Due to the growing popularity of the blogging world, many people are interested in creating articles. Because it's the easiest type of content to create, compared to photos or videos.
But that does not mean the article can be underestimated.
Creating an interesting article is not easy.
So despite having published many articles on the website, nothing has caught the attention of the crowd. Although already applied the name of SEO.
This is the main problem of bloggers and article makers.
Already tired of making articles ...
No one visited his site ...
No one reads until the end ...
And finally, their articles failed to be ranked on Google.
If you as an article writer often wonder why your article has never been read, never get a good ranking on Google, this is the right guide for you.
Forget SEO
Fooled by article title?
For those of you who already know SEO, must have heard that the article must be optimized for search engines in order to get a high ranking in Google ... is not it?
The term SEO-friendly article.
Unfortunately, this concept is outdated.
The opposite happened. Those who apply SEO techniques just fail, and those who forget SEO when writing articles really get a high rating.
This is because those who focus on SEO unconsciously create articles for the machine. Uninteresting articles are read by humans.
That's why most of these guides will teach you how to create "human-friendly" articles.
The past, which we think of as SEO articles like this:
- Have keyword density percent
- Minimum length 300/500 words
- Bold, underline, italics on each keyword
- Keywords in title, first paragraph, last paragraph
- Keywords in meta description
- Use a subheader (h2-h6) that contains keywords
But now ... forget all the rules.
Here's why:
Google uses human behavior to rank in search results.
I mean like this ...
... when we read the article, it seems clear the difference between good and bad. Good articles are usually read for a long time, are often recommended, and readers do not return to Google.
Google can translate this behavior into data.
That's what they use to rank.
In the era of modern SEO, human friendly articles mean also SEO-friendly.
Let's go back to the 6 rules above ...
Suppose you write a book.
Does use lots of bold, italics, underlines, subheadings, and certain keyword densities can make your book more interesting?
No effect.
Precisely if the advantages will actually make people who read your article so more disrupted. As a result, they do not read.
Site articles are also the same, judged by humans.
Robots from Google just follow how human behavior.
Therefore, to be able to get high rankings you have to create articles that are able to attract reading human interest.
1. Learn the character of prospective readers
Not all reading topics have fans in the same demographic.
There are young people, adults, the majority of men, women, and others.
For example, articles about finances may be readers of the majority of men aged 25 years and over. While the article about the game more among the young.
... What should the reader characterize?
The goal is that you can customize the content of the article, especially the style of writing with your reader character.
So your article is easy to read.
If your readers are the majority of young people, use a more relaxed language. If your reader's parents use a more formal language but do not be boring.
Your article will not be interesting if it is not tailored to the character of the reader.
If your site is a blog, you do not need to write according to the rules of writing. Rigid writing can make your articles boring.
To find out the demographics of website readers, you can see from the following media:
- Google Analytics (Audience> Demographics> Overview).
- Community sites where people who are enthusiastic about your niche get together.
2. Attract readers with an interesting title
Did you know ... if there are 100 people who stop by your site, 80 people will read the title. But only 20 people will read the contents of the article.
That's if it's not optimized.
That means you are losing enormous potential.
Let us remember when doing a search on Google. What makes us choose a website?
The title ... is not it?
So an interesting title will make people interested to read.
In addition, if we speak the rank. THIS is also one of the 'wow' factors that will make your article rank in Google high.
See the following picture to understand the logic:
Google will follow human behavior ...
... if people consider the second article better, then Google will raise the rank of the article.
That's the logic, now we see how.
Suppose if you search on Google with the keyword "how to drive flies", then in rank 1-3 there is an article titled like this:
- 5 Ways of Exploiting Flies
- 5 Practical Ways for Fly Fly from Home in 30 Minutes
- Tutorial Tips on How to Remove the Latest Natural Flies
The first article title ... happens.
The format of writing a title like a number 1 is too standard, there are no factors that make others interested in reading.
Now let's look at the second title:
There are words like "practical" and "in 30 minutes". Compare with the first, from the title alone we can already imagine this article more interesting.
If the first title is like eating tofu, the second title is tofu + soy sauce.
Humans who do a search on Google always want the best and easiest solution to their problems. This is what we have to offer.
That's why in the title there should be "ketchup".
Then what about the third title?
The third title is the victim of over-optimization by including words that look splashy when it's so strange to read. This trend is often a beginner blogger.
Never use the 3rd title.
Your article will be so cheap.
The technique of making a title is very important, although because of its importance then I create a special article that discusses the title. Read the 7 content creation techniques.
3. Your article will not be read verbatim, do this to outsmart it
Articles on websites are different from books.
If in the book, they really want to focus on reading. On the internet it is not so, so they will not read word for word.
You also have to go through most of the articles above before getting to this third point.
This is natural
Most readers skip most of our writing, they do not read but do scanning or skimming.
Take important points only.
This pattern of readers is named F-shaped pattern because like the letter F.
So they do a scan vertically, then when they find an interesting sentence then they read horizontally.Like letter F.
This is against our will as writers.
We want them to read as long as possible.
The reason is important:
The longer they spend on your site, it will create a strong "bond" between you and the reader. So readers will fall in love with your writing.
4. Follow the following format to make your writing easy to read
I do not know how many times I have not read the article when it's interesting, but the format makes it easy to read.
What would you feel if you had to read an article that:
- The letter is too small or too large
- The vertical distance is narrow
- Use unreadable fonts
And the contents of the article, not useful if not legible.
Especially if your demographic target is 40+ whose eyesight has decreased.
I often hear parents complain when reading an article in front of a computer, it's too small and hard to read.
Do not torture them.
Use easy-to-read fonts and sizes. Fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Open Sans, Roboto, Georgia, are common fonts on websites, using fonts like this and not unusual ones.
Google font has a nice font collection, free, and you can directly use it on the website.
If confused, it is better not to use special fonts.
For further information:
- Use fonts that are easy to read or do not use special fonts if you are confused.
- Size between 14-22px.
- Horizontal width between 480-720px.
- Line height between 1.5-2em.
- Margin under paragraphs between 1.5-2em.
5. Improve the quality and weight of your article content
This is the main factor the success of article writing.
The heavier your articles, the more satisfied the reader is, and the more will recommend your articles to others.
Remember that ... satisfied reader = search engine satisfied.
To create a weighted article that can satisfy your readers should do some research.
But the problem is,
Quality articles can only be created by authors who are well aware of the topic.
You will not be able to create quality articles without understanding what is being discussed and can only have copies and paste.
Let us discuss further.
Types of articles that are common on the internet are 2: information or guides.
If the article is a guide, its contents should really be a guide ...
... not just reading.
So, a good guide article can be used as a handbook when the reader will do something related to the article.
For example:
- Recipe food that can be done directly when they cook
- Used HP buying guide that can be used as a guide when buying used HP
- How to improve work productivity that can be directly done to improve productivity
While the article content information should be really in-depth information. For example by giving the results of analysis / research, or the results of interviews with an expert.
Quality articles are always longer, but longer articles may not be easy to remember
There is a fatal error that is often done by content writers, the author uses too many words that are not useful because they want to get a certain number of words.
That's because people say long articles = great for SEO.
But the important thing is not the length, but the quality
But what if the topic can only be talked about for a while?
Do not extend it.
Topics are very influential with the length of the article. If the topic you selected is narrow, then the article will be short.
Do not force a narrow topic to be long.
Or if you can, choose a topic that can be talked about for so long. Because the average long article does get better results on search engines.
A study showing that the article on page 1 of Google currently has an average length of over 2000 words.
6. Find and use keyword LSI
We get into technical SEO.
Because basically, we discuss SEO articles, this is one of the most powerful tips to create keywords that can get high rankings.
This 'medicine' for you who are too obsessed with SEO.
There are 2 benefits of using LSI keywords:
- Getting ranked for different long tail keywords
- Improves relevancy & ranking for main keywords
For those of you who have never heard of this term, let's first discuss ...
... what is LSI?
In short, LSI (Latent Semantic Index) is a feature that is adopted by search engines in order to understand the purpose of the article.
For example "Apple".
The term Apple can be ambiguous between the fruit or the name of the company, but the search engines are able to distinguish which are the fruits and which companies are by reading the words that surround the main word.
But what is LSI's relationship with SEO?
Instead of using SEO techniques in the past, where we repeated keywords to achieve a certain percentage, take advantage of LSI to tell the search engine that our articles are relevant to the desired user.
As a result, your ranking will be better.
This technique is also so much more powerful than SEO ducks (keyword density) because we do not do a lot of repetition of the same keywords.
Not only that.
You will also get rankings for various LSI keyword variations.
Searching for LSI keywords is not difficult. Do a search on Google with your main keyword.
7. Do grammar and spell check
Sounds very trivial, but actually very important ...
As a result, even on news sites, there are many mistakes.
It is trivial, but if there is a mistake to write then your article immediately get the impression is not professional. This is dangerous.
Imagine if you visit a website that sells products for $ 1000, but the content there are many errors in writing.
So the only solution is checking manually.
8. Do other on-page SEO optimization
he said forget SEO, why discuss SEO again?
When writing, forget SEO. But this on-page SEO optimization we do AFTER the finished article is written.
Forget SEO while writing, remember SEO again when finished writing.
This SEO process is not long, at most only takes 1 minute. But many people are too dizzy with this and ignore the more important ones above.
Therefore, I discuss this at the end.
Meta description
Meta descriptions sometimes appear in search results as a summary of your articles. This could increase clicks to your site if properly used.
be careful
The biggest mistake in writing a meta description is to collect too many keywords.
Actually no need to enter keywords.
... but if you really want to write a keyword, do not be over 1.
The most important is the technique of writing how you can invite potential readers to visit your site.
URL
Generally, the website URL will appear automatically, created the same as the title of your article. But some people (like me) prefer to use modified URLs.Tips for URL writing:
- Contains major keywords
- Not too long
- Try not to contain prepositions
Picture
The article without pictures is boring.
Do not just to write articles, then you feel no need to include images. Either because of laziness or other reasons.
Do not just decorate.
Images in the article to explain the concept that is difficult to explain just by writing.
In HTML, use the alt attribute for the image. If it is related to the image, use the keyword LSI in alt.
Links to other pages and to other websites
If possible, include internal links to other articles related to the topic of the article you write as it will improve the structure of the website.
In addition to internal links, links to other websites are also very important.
9. Now it's time to find the reader
Many website writers feel that after pressing the 'publish' button the task is complete.
Not yet, the challenge will actually begin.
The same day you publish an article, there are millions of other articles that are also published.
Your article will not be found if it is not promoted.
If no human reading, then Google will not know the quality so that your article will not get a high ranking.
So do not be satisfied first after publishing the article.
Not enough to create quality content then left just like that. You must distribute the articles you have just written.
Even successful websites have consistently promoted their content.
The right distribution will increase the number of visitors to many times.
There are some basic tips you can do to market the content:
- Tell others on social networks and community sites (forums). Do not spam, do it only if anyone needs related info
- Install the share button in each article to make it easier for readers to share articles
- Notify a Twitter account that addresses similar topics
These three tips above are just the most basic.
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