How To Format Content Writing For SEO
When it comes to content writing, people don’t want to just be sold to. They want to be given a reason to become an advocate of your brand. Your website visitors, social followers, and readers are more likely to do business with brands that are trustworthy and relatable to them.
To captivate your audience, you’ll want to provide a variety of content to match exactly what they are looking for. Your content writing should be clear, straight to the point, and captivating to the reader. Thankfully there’s a format for that.
These three key things will help you format content writing for both your readers and your SEO efforts. To format for SEO, follow these simple steps:
Use The Inverted Pyramid Style For Optimal SEO Results
Recommended by Yoast SEO, the Inverted Pyramid is a writing style commonly used by journalists. This is where you put your key points in the first paragraph and work to draw the interest of readers.
One of the most common mistakes writers make is that they leave key points late in their content. Readers today don’t have the time to goose chase the main points in the article. The best content is easily understood by simply scanning the text. If a reader can derive value from the content by scanning the text, the reader will be compelled to stay on the page and read more in-depth. This is the job of the content writer. This is why writers should use this style to get readers to know what you’re about.
Check Text Structure To Format For SEO
Another key aspect of content writing is checking to ensure that your text structure is easy to read. We will use Yoast SEO’s three steps here to help guide you.:
Make Your Paragraph Structure Clear
To have clear paragraphs, work to form a thematic unit with one core sentence followed by elaborating that sentence. Also, make sure your paragraphs are less than 3-5 sentences long. This is important to know when writing for websites whether it be blog content or Guest Articles. Through each of these steps, continue using the inverted pyramid style and include plenty of white space – short sentences and spacing between paragraphs – to ensure your content is readable and easy to digest.
Use Transition Words
As used to score posts at Creatives Scale, it is advised that you use transition words to show readers the connection between sentences and paragraphs. Transition words should be the start of a new sentence. The purpose of transition words is to continue your thought in short, concise sentences without creating long, run-on text.
Transition words are helpful when summarizing, comparing, or concluding points. Examples of this include the word “too” to summarize, “less than” to compare, and “thus” to conclude. No doubt transition keywords help make things clear for you and your readers.
Use Headings & Subheadings To Help Guide Your Readers
Headings are crucial in helping readers scan through your text while deciding whether to continue reading on. Headings and subheadings need to attract the readers’ attention while describing what the paragraph(s) are about.
Work to have headings above each paragraph or series of paragraphs with similar topics. Make sure that your structure is smooth and easy to understand. Good headers explain the topic without further reading needed. This helps guide the reader into reading information that is necessary for their research.
Here are some Heading organization best practices to format for SEO:
- Only the title of the post should be an H1 / Heading 1
- Each post should have a minimum of three H2 / Heading 2 headers
- H2 / Heading 2 headers should include keywords where possible and when they can be used naturally
- H2 / Heading 2 headers should summarize their respective section of text
- H3 / Heading 3 subheadings should only be nested within an H2 / Heading 2 to keep with the heading hierarchy
- Headers should never include a link
By following these steps, you’ll improve readability and will give your readers clear knowledge of what you’re all about. This will help your SEO efforts in return as well.
Use Stories To Relate To Your Readers
Perhaps the most important piece in formatting content writing is storytelling.
We all love a good story, especially personal experiences that are relatable to others. Whether in blog posts or on product pages, including stories like that will help attract reader interest big time. These kinds of stories help others remember your message more easily and may even inspire them to take action. This is indeed a great way to improve brand recognition and increase organic search traffic by creating more interest in blog posts.
Quality Content Writing That Resonates Is The Key To Success
In conclusion, formatting content writing in ways that are organized, relatable, and to the point will help attract readers’ interest. In return, you will see your SEO efforts improve over time.
Creatives Scale offers freelance, gig-economy opportunities for online content writing and marketing specialists. To put your SEO content formatting to the test and start a career in SEO Writing, visit our Freelance Signup page to learn more.
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