It's 2023, and almost everyone has heard of SEO. The most relevant websites use specific keywords and phrases that rank businesses in internet searches, and so should you.
Optimally, you would find what you're searching for using search engine optimization tools -- the SEO everyone talks about. Think of your SEO as the beacon in the night, the lighthouse that cuts through the fog to illuminate your digital real estate and bring clients safely to your port.
Use your SEO with a laser-like focus, and you'll bring in a tremendous number of clients. Ignore it, and you may find that the digital silence is numbing.
If you're already all over your SEO keywords like adhesive on tape, that's great. However, what you know about SEO is about to change.
The Party Is Over, Bring Up the Lights
The farewell tour has begun: Universal Analytics is going away as of July 1, 2023.
Instead, GA4 will measure future web content by collecting various data based on events rather than sessions. According to Google, the new analytics will be straightforward and predictive while moving away from cookie measurement and behavioral tracking (thanks, GDPR!).
Niche expertise and the judicious use of SEO keywords, will still matter, but so will other key ingredients, such as:
- high-quality content,
- meta title tags with keywords
- a mobile-friendly website
- and for the first time ever, trustworthiness will be measured by what back links you use and the sources you quote.
Of course, you can prepare ahead of time to meet the new standards. The challenge lies in getting there with your SEO and the host of other metrics that can affect the effectiveness of your marketing funnel.
Unless you're working with a content strategist who keeps up to date with Google Analytics -- and the upcoming QA4 midyear changes in 2023 -- you're spinning your wheels on a dirt track of words that may or may not provide marketing traction.
SEO Writing for Web Content
Writing SEO content is something you can do yourself if you have the time and patience. You'll also need some linguistic chops.
You've got to know what you're doing when it comes to incorporating SEO, but there's more.
Among the many considerations ahead, you'll also need to think about writing basics, such as:
- Sentence length
Keep them short. Web crawlers prefer lines of about 60 characters. That's 20 or so syllables, which translates to 25 or fewer words per sentence.
- Readability (using the Flesch-Kincaid test)
Readability is all about comprehension. How challenging is your -- and how would you know? Many writers rely on the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score, which assesses readability and grade level.
Flesch-Kincaid applies a formula to assess the number of words and syllables in sentences to determine readability and grade level. Simple text earns high readability ease scores. Dense, hard-to-read text scores lower.
Most web content falls somewhere in the middle -- at an overall mean score of 56.1. This post, for example, comes in at a 7.8 grade level and has a readability score of 60.8 (before final edits).
Can you write long sentences and multi-syllable words anyway? Yes, but balance them with shorter ones.
- Passive voice.
Active voice emphasizes the subject. Passive voice positions the object or action at the front of the sentence. Using passive voice is a great way to remove emotional connections. The sentence report, but they don't engage.
ACTIVE: We wolfed down the dinner.
PASSIVE: The dinner was wolfed down by us.
Not only does the passive sentence sound awkward, but it also affects readability. Although Yoast analytics permit 25% passive voice, write in passive voice no more than 10% of the time. Avoid using it in your meta descriptions altogether.
In short, your writing must be extraordinary. Even better than the score your former English teacher would give you. Make it your goal to earn high marks for content, SEO word choice and readability.
All the Right Keywords in the Right Places
Your website's purpose is to draw clients. Attracting local consumers relies on your ability to create and position marketing SEO keywords. For example, consumers frequently search for a "hair stylist." These keywords narrow the search:
- walk-in hair stylist
- walk-in hair stylist for short hair
- walk-in hair stylist near me
- walk-in hair stylist for short hair near me
- walk-in hair stylist in Dallas
- walk-in hair stylist for short hair in Dallas
And yet you've got to do more than sprinkle keywords throughout your content. You must fit your SEO keywords into the right places. Round pegs in round holes, and so on.
How might an effective SEO content writing template look?
With nearly a dozen ways to organize web content, syntax and grammar matter the most. You must have well-written sentences free of errors. Surprisingly, morphology (word level) concerns SEO writers less.
Language evolves. So does the way we write.
Web content today is far less formal than the content of the past. We orient our content to sound more like the spoken word. You'll know your writing is successful if it sounds like a conversation and attracts visitors and converts them.
Sources:
Lushaku, A. (2022) SEO Content Writing: A Linguistic Analysis. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4169165.
Zhang, J. and Dimitroff, A. (2005) The Impact of Metadata Implementation on Webpage Visibility in Search Engine Results (Part II). Information Processing & Management, 41, 691-715. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2003.12.002.