What is SEO Friendly Content

Writing SEO friendly content is not hard. And unlike most people think, it doesn't have to result in stilted, ugly prose. SEO friendly content is just content that was written with some attention paid to how a search engine might see the content

SEO Friendly Writing Does Not Mean Writing for Search Engines

The first and foremost thought in your mind when working on content for your Web pages is that you're writing for people not for search engines. If you have to choose between a technique that is good for your readers but not so good for search engines or vice versa, choose that which is good for your readers. Search engines ultimately want to provide content that is interesting and informative for their customers too, and a page that is too optimized is no fun to read.

Luckily, most of the techniques that makegood Web writing make for decent SEO as well.

• Write relevant content. Search engines have ways of recognizing when a page is not really about what it might seem to be about. If you're playing games with your content to try and fool search engines, it will eventually be found and you'll lose rank or even be banned. It's much better to write content that is relevant to your topic.
• Put conclusions at the beginning.Another way to think of this is that you want your keywords to be denser towards the top of your article. If your page is about snow leopards, then the first mention of snow leopards should be in the title and first sentence. Don't start using synonyms for your keyword phrase until the second or third paragraph.
• Use lists instead of paragraphs. Lists are easier to get your seo content into without your repetition seeming strange.
• Make your links part of the copy. This is especially important if your links include your keyword phrases. If you've linked to the Snow Leopart Trust on your snow leopard page, make sure that you link the words "Snow Leopard Trust" and not something unrelated like "click here".
• Include internal sub-headings and they should include your keyword phrase. Use heading tags for your sub-heads, and repeat your keyword phrase.
• Proofread your pages. It doesn't do any good to focus on the keywords "snow leopard" if you spell it "snow leopart" once or twice on the page. Plus, the spelling and grammar errors make your content look unprofessional, so people are less likely to link to your page.

Why Content for SEO?

When you think of SEO, do you think of content marketing? You should.

Matt Cutts has repeatedly said that quality content is key to Google rankings, and Bing’s Duane Forrester reminded marketers that “all SEO ranking signals revolve around content of some kind” at SMX Advanced 2011. High-quality, search-friendly content allows businesses to populate their sites with keywords and valuable information for visitors (and both are important to search success).

Brafton’s infographic, Why Content For SEO, explores how content is key to search engine visibility. You can click the image to see the full-sized infographic. For an in-depth look, check out our related blog post.