The phrase Content is King has been echoing through the Internet for a long time. More precisely, however, it should be said that high-quality content is relevant on the Internet so that you can be found by search engines and your potential customers. The days of keyword stuffing and similar tricks are over once and for all. So what exactly distinguishes high-quality content and what role do the matching keywords play as search terms? In this article, we answer these and other questions about search engine optimisation, as well as giving you helpful tips for successful SEO.
Google has clearly established itself as the most important search engine with a worldwide market share of over 90 percent. Nevertheless, you should not lose sight of the needs of competing providers. The requirements and algorithms of the search engines have constantly evolved in recent years, making the optimisation of a website more than a one-time process. It is, therefore, important to stay on the ball at all times and carefully consider the SEO tips given by experienced SEO managers. Good optimisation for the search engines will make your website easier to find and will also have a positive impact on your customers. You can hire an experienced SEO agency or acquire the necessary knowledge yourself. However, it is also helpful to know a lot about search engine optimisation if you commission an external service provider.
What requirements do the search engines have for texts?
This question can be answered in one sentence: Texts should be relevant, unique and of high quality. Keywords come into play when it comes to relevance. Thorough keyword research should always be the first thing you do, but the right keywords depend on your topics and your target group. Whether the selected keywords were the right ones can be monitored by tracking the conversions. If necessary, you can make improvements at any time and add more keywords to your content or replace existing keywords. In addition, keep an eye on the websites and online shops of your direct competitors. Take a close look at which keywords they work with and what level of success they enjoy with this strategy.
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Do the keywords match your topics?
For Google, Bing or Yahoo, it is important that you do not lure Internet users to your website under false pretences. Let’s illustrate this with a fictitious situation: You are using the keyword “Influencer” on your website because you have noticed that this topic is currently the subject of a lot of discussions. Many users search for information about influencers and come to your site via a search engine query. But they will quickly notice that you have little or no information for their chosen subject, instead offering gardening articles. In this case, most users immediately click away again and start a new search. The search engines register the high bounce rate and conclude that your website is not relevant for the topic. This can have a negative effect on your position in the search engine results and you will have to work hard to improve your Google ranking. Search engine ranking is essential for your presence on the web. Every single day that your customers can’t find you, or experience a difficult search, can cost your business revenue. Keep in mind that most people start surfing the web through a search engine, usually Google, even if they already know the site. In addition, the search engines still essentially decide on the ranking of the respective website on the basis of the texts. Photos and videos are becoming more and more important, but this only marginally reduces the impact of good texts on the algorithms of Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Which tools support keyword research?
With the Google Keyword Tool, or Google Keyword Planer, you can make useful keyword searches. However, free availability of the tool has been somewhat restricted with unlimited access only available to those companies that regularly spend money on Google Ads. As competition for the keyword planner from Google, there is the following free software on the market:
If you have the budget, a higher-value variant of a Keyword Tool is recommended. For example:
But whichever tool is best suited for your purposes, don’t underestimate the importance of the right keywords.
What does “duplicate content” mean and how do I avoid it?
A term often used in search engine optimisation is duplicate content. The search engines make sure that your texts are not only relevant and of high quality, but also unique. In fact, they demand unique content. Those who don’t bother to create their own texts, but instead copy whole sentences – or sometimes even more – from their competition will attract negative attention from Google & Co. It is just as unfavourable to have texts on different subpages within a website that are identical or very similar. This is called internal duplicate content and if you want to make sure that your website doesn’t have duplicates, use the Siteliner tool. If there is duplicate content, the website will get a poor ranking and, since the Panda-update in 2011, Google will display it further back in search engine results. This can have catastrophic consequences as very few Internet users go beyond the first page of search results. Therefore, make sure that you change and extend your texts so that any similarity to existing texts is unnoticeable. Ideally, work with a larger number of sources when writing to avoid similarities.
Are you using synonyms?
To avoid duplicating terms too often, make sure to use synonyms. With a varied language and the intelligent use of related words, you will not only offer more engaging content, but also reach more people since not every Internet user is utilising the same search terms.
As a rule of thumb for search engine optimisation, at least 70 percent of the text should be unique and you should generally avoid duplication or text copying. In the worst-case scenario, the author of the original text may send a take-down warning, even if they only perceive short parts of your contribution as plagiarism of their work. Textbroker, therefore, uses special software for plagiarism protection. All texts submitted by independent writers go through a duplicate content check. If it turns out that a copywriter has duplicated content, they are instructed to rewrite the article. In this way, Textbroker customers avoid the risk of duplicate content being used unwittingly.
What software offers a reliable duplicate content check?
The following are some of the best-known tools for checking content against existing texts on the Internet:
However, there are sometimes simple technical explanations as to why duplicate content occurs. An example of this is that the website can be accessed both via http and https. Another reason could be that you moved your website to a new domain and forgot to enter a redirect for the previous URL. In this case, there is also a risk that the search engines will identify duplicate content. There is also a risk if there is a separate mobile access site that has not been classified accordingly.
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Content optimisation through WDF*IDF analysis
WDF*IDF analysis is another way of optimising content in the long term. WDF stands for “within document frequency” and IDF for “inverse document frequency”. The formula determines the ratio in which a word or a related combination of words appears on a website, relative to all websites that also use this keyword. By determining which keywords should be used more or less frequently to improve search engine attention, a website benefits from the WDF*IDF analysis as part of the on-page optimisation. Those who use the Managed Service at Textbroker automatically benefit from this analysis and benefit from it for their search engine optimisation.
What makes a reader-friendly text?
Even if you pay meticulous attention to avoiding duplicate content and keyword stuffing, it won’t automatically lead to successful search engine optimisation. Search engines have become smarter and don’t just count individual keywords any more. Now, they can also see if a text is well structured and whether it contains meaningful and readable sentences. A text of 1500 words without subheadings has a deterrent effect on most people, which Google also knows and rates accordingly.
Ultimately, the Internet has changed people’s reading habits. In contrast to a book or a magazine, websites are not read from top to bottom. Instead, users scan the texts, often only superficially, and jump back and forth between different content. Against this background, it is important that the texts are well structured. Ideally, the first few sentences should captivate the reader and encourage them to read on. In addition, the most important things should be at the beginning and the main search terms should appear in the first section. If you know the rules for creating a press release and the image of the inverted pyramid, you can use it here.
What styles should I use to break up my texts?
The visitors to your website or webshop have similar preferences to the algorithms used by the various search engines. As a rule, the individual sections should not contain more than 150 to 300 words. If you occasionally use one of the stylistic devices listed below, you will keep your readers engaged. Loosen up your texts and increase readability with the following tricks:
Remember: The search engines check whether your content offers added value to the readers, whether it is easy to read, and also whether it is unique.
How important are keywords today?
We mentioned at the beginning of this article that the excessive use of keywords is no longer well-received by search engines. Nevertheless, it remains very important to work with the correct keywords. Correct in this case means that they are the keywords that your customers or potential customers regularly use. So most people are not looking for a car, a vehicle or a motor vehicle, but simply for a car. They also don’t enter postage stamps into the search engine, but just the good old stamp. Therefore, a thorough keyword analysis should precede the creation of your texts in order to find the right keywords for SEO. Once you have identified the appropriate keywords, you should also analyse which terms are suitable as synonyms and variants. If you use synonyms, the text becomes more alive. In addition, consider using semantically related terms.
Deliver added value to your readers
Content improves website ranking, especially when your readers find it relevant. Therefore, you should take care that your SEO texts not only have a positive effect on the ranking with the search engines, but that they also offer excellent readability. Several aspects are important for the relevance of content. Topics should not only be up-to-date, but also provide a new and surprising point of view; no matter what it is, the content should be tailored to the respective target group. For example, if you sell digital cameras, you may have different audiences among your buyers. Your customers might include hobby photographers who only put the camera in their suitcases once a year, but your target group will also include ambitious bloggers and Instagrammers, as well as professional photographers.
If you offer the same content for everyone, it won’t be interesting and helpful for every reader. Instead, try to look through the eyes of your target audience and think carefully about what questions they might have and what problems they want to solve. If your content offers suitable answers to the questions and solutions to the problems, the visitors to your website will come back and your profile will increase. Additionally, users share interesting content with their friends, further increasing the reach of your content. Even if you are simply viewed as a helpful source of information, this will have a positive impact on your visibility and reputation and they are more likely to consider you when it comes to products and services.
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Have you optimised your website on-page and off-page?
Website optimisation and SEO are important considerations for winning and keeping customers, but it is important to distinguish between on-page and off-page optimisation. As the terms already indicate, in the case of on-page optimisation it is a matter of activities undertaken directly on the website. The aim here is to check whether the source code is clean, whether the website loads fast enough, whether it is barrier-free and whether the structure and content are correct. The content can include texts, photos and videos, which should be provided with the appropriate keywords.
Off-page optimisation, however, is primarily about the relationship to other websites. . High-quality links with relevant websites or blogs are important as search engines interpret these backlinks as a recommendation of the other website. Therefore, if renowned websites with high-quality content link to your site, it will automatically appear more trustworthy and relevant. However, caution is advised with this link building. If your website or webshop receives too many links too quickly, Google & Co. will be suspicious, suspecting manipulation or that the links have been purchased. Too many links are not necessary; what counts is the quality. Linking a few trustworthy and high-reach pages to your content is, therefore, more helpful than a large number of links to only moderately influential pages. As a rule, an SEO analysis leads to the result that the on-page optimisation has to be carried out first. With attractive and relevant content on a well-optimised website, it is easier to get high-quality links to pages with a high reach.
Scoring points with clean source code
A clean source code that supports search engine optimisation includes the correct use of HTML elements. Important are the title tag and the headings with H1, H2 and so on. The title tag in the header area of the HTML code is the unique title of a URL and ideally contains the main keyword. This title should be precisely formulated, not too long and should offer readable and relevant content. The title tag is important for two reasons: First, the search engines weight it in their algorithm and second, they display it in the search results. The perfect length of the title tag is controversial. Aim for 60 to 80 characters to be on the safe side, with 60 characters as an ideal. Together with the meta-description, the title tag is one of the most important metadata entries.
You can only assign the H1 tag once for the most important main heading. Second most important headings (H2 or H3) can be used multiple times. To create accessibility, you should work with the attribute “alt”. If a photo, for example, is tagged with such an alt tag, the screenreader used by a visually impaired person can tell them what can be seen in the photo.
User-friendly navigation is good both for search engine optimisation and for the user experience of website visitors. If they can find their way around your website quickly and easily, they stay longer on the page and find the desired information in a targeted manner. Otherwise, they’ll click away, which means you’ve scared off a potential customer. Not only that, but in the worst cases, you will be punished by the search engines for bad usability and lose valuable positioning in the ranking. Therefore, the correct setting of internal links and intuitive navigation belong to the on-page optimisation.
If you develop a good presence with popular content in social media, the search engines will reward you. Therefore, it is important that you look at each channel in social media individually and do not simply publish all content automatically in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Each platform has its own special features that need to be considered. The time of publication, the use of suitable hashtags and the highlighting of certain content all play a role. If you run a professional social media marketing campaign, your fans and followers will place a large number of links on your contributions. This has a positive effect on the ranking of your website. Of course, the effect increases if your fans and followers are not nobodies on the net. The stronger their influence and the larger their network, the more you profit from their mentions and links. Identifying social media influencers in a targeted way and addressing them directly also helps you to place them in search engine results.
Search engine optimisation in a nutshell
A successful and sustainable search engine optimisation and a successful SEO ranking takes a lot of care and patience. Even if you are apparently in complete compliance with all the expert tips, it will not catapult you to the top of the search results overnight. Therefore, monitoring is important in order to amend and improve in the first weeks after optimisation. But even after that, you can’t sit back and relax as search engine providers are constantly working on perfecting their software. Therefore, you must always stay on the ball to keep up with the regularly changing algorithms.
How does Textbroker support the search engine optimisation of content?
Given the importance of the search engine optimisation of your content, how do you plan to regularly source the high-quality and relevant content that both your customers and search engines require? At Textbroker, a large number of copywriters are waiting for your orders and they will provide you with high-quality contributions for your website or product descriptions for your online shop, all with the necessary SEO optimisation. You can use the author profiles to select suitable freelancers with SEO know-how for your topics, then easily place your orders with the keywords you want, creating a briefing via the user-friendly online platform. The created texts are not only delivered error-free, but are also pre-checked for duplicate content. If a text does not meet your expectations, you can return it and receive a revised version 24 hours later.
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