Search engine optimization (SEO) starts with site content. Here’s the open secret: Google publishes a guide called “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content”. It’s part of a bigger guide called “Explore Google Search documentation to improve your site’s SEO”.
SEO doesn’t start with secret tips and tricks. Google tells everybody what they want.
To the Point, Here’s the Link to the Google Content Guide
If you just want the link to all the juicy Google info, here it is:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content
My Suggestion on Content
There are lots of details in SEO, but the fundamental requirement is content your audience searches for.
Write content for the people you want coming to your site. This is your audience. Whoever they are, and whatever they search for, write for them.
Don’t write for a general audience, and don’t write for search engines. Google wants content that your audience wants. Write for your audience.
The Basics – Write About Your Business
Of course, write about your business, what you offer or the problem your audience is trying to solve. To use an obvious example, if you run a hair salon don’t post content about plumbing. That’s obvious, right? But in a certain way, it’s that simple.
Start by writing about your business or the problem you solve. If that’s all you do, you have a good start.
Get Inside Your Audience’s Heads
What does your audience search for? Write about that.
Specifically, what words and phrases does your audience search for? These are good keywords. Include those words and phrases in your content.
If you serve towns and regions, include town names and other place names in your content. Place names are good keywords, too.
Mark Up
Websites are made with Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). It literally marks different parts of your content with simple code that helps search engines process your content.
For instance, headlines are different from paragraphs. HTML marks the text to show the difference visually and to indicate the difference to search engines and screen readers. There’s also an important HTML title tag that marks the title of the site.
7 Bits of HTML Everybody Should Know
If you’re writing for the web, you should understand some HTML. I created a short series of posts on the 7 Bits of HTML Everybody Should Know as well as videos. These are the basics when I ask clients to write content.
Find the Video Series On YouTube
If you edit website content, you’re editing the HTML. Learn at least these seven bits. It’s important for SEO.