Ranking your website on Google’s first page is not an easy task these days. Unlike in the past, the competition is now very high. And if you don’t do things differently from other people in your niche, the chances of ranking your website high on Google are slim.
Sometimes, your website’s ability to rank high on search engines depends on the website’s quality of articles.
It doesn’t matter whether your website is new or not; if you can consistently write high-quality SEO optimized articles that engage your audience, your website stands a chance of ranking on Google’s first page.
In case you forget, content is king. And it’s the easiest way to outrank existing websites in your niche.
But how do you write a high-quality SEO optimized article?
It’s easy to write a high-quality article that’s readable to both humans and search engines. But it starts with writing an article to solve a problem. In other words, ensure that every article you write offers solutions to your audience’s problems.
Here is the step-by-step process for writing an article that will rank high on Google:
1. Write for humans and optimize for robots
The first step to writing articles that rank on Google is to write for humans and optimize the article for SEO. Try to make your content conversational, friendly, and emotionally appealing.
Google and other search engines know when your content is too robotic, and it could affect your website ranking potential. So, try to write in an active voice and use more transition words to engage your audience.
Contrary to popular belief, Google prefers naturally written content to robotic optimized articles. That’s why you should focus on making your content readable to humans and easy for search engine crawlers to find.
2. Avoid stuffing your content with too many keywords
One of the things that will naturally prevent your content from ranking is keyword stuffing. It’s a blackhat SEO technique that involves stuffing a particular webpage with the same keywords with the hope of ranking high on search engines.
Keyword stuffing includes repeating words and phrases on your article unnecessarily, adding words out of context, and using keywords that aren’t relevant to the page topic.
Try to always use relevant keywords naturally in your article. Trust me; when you try to repeat keywords unnecessarily or insert them where they don’t belong, it will only do more harm to your website than good.
3. Use LSI keywords
Always use LSI keywords whenever you are writing articles on your website. Search engines use the Latent Semantic Index (LSI) to match search results with the searcher’s intent.
So, when you use more synonyms, related keywords, and other grammatical variations to your article, it will be more relevant to your searchers’ intents. This will prevent you from keyword stuffing and will rank your website high on search engine results pages.
4. Use Google search related keywords
When writing an article about a particular topic, try to include Google search related keywords to it. This will make the content more relevant to searchers’ intents.
5. Write epic content
Writing epic content is the easiest way to rank your website high on Google. Epic content refers to any article that casts a spell on people to read, share, and link to it. These articles are inspiring, useful, well written, highly engaging, and solve a problem.
So, always write content that answers every possible question about a particular topic. And ensure that the article provides real insight. As a rule, don’t write long meaningless articles only to please search engines. But write something nice and unique that shares knowledge and insight to your audience.
6. Use long-tail keywords
It’s tough to rank high on short-tail keywords. They are very competitive, and several authority websites are already ranking for them.
So, it’s smarter to target long-tail keywords because they are relatively easier to rank. For instance, instead of writing an article on the keyword “pregnancy test”, you can write something like “how soon will a pregnancy test read positive”, “best time to take a pregnancy test,”, etc. These keywords are less competitive, and you tend to rank high when you target them.
Here’s one thing you should know about long-tail keywords; their search volume is small. But the traffic quality from the keywords is high because they are motivated searchers who are likely to take action once they visit your website.
7. Answer your prospects’ questions
Every searcher has questions they need answers to, and that’s why they are searching for a particular keyword. Ensure that every article you write provides answers to searchers’ questions and give detailed insight into the topic.
Furthermore, try to take advantage of long-tail keywords by answering questions better than your competitors. This will increase the number of shares and links to the article.
8. Try to get your article noticed and shared
Once you post the article on your website, try to share it across major social media platforms and forums. This will get you more links, traffic, and shares. And the more people that share your content across social media platforms and forums, the more relevant and popular it will be to search engines.
If possible, reach out to authority websites in your niche and offer to write a guest post on their websites. Trust me, guest blogging will go a long way to bring your website to the first page of Google.
9. Include title tags and snippets
The first thing Google looks at when categorizing a webpage is its title tag. And when your article ranks on search engine result pages, visitors will see the combination of your title tags and snippets (meta description).
Try to include the keywords in the title tags and snippets. They should sound natural, and they should be engaging enough to trigger people to click and visit your website.
10. Plagiarism-free
Ensure that every article you post on your website is plagiarism-free. Duplicate content is one of the factors that could affect the ranking potential of your website.
Of course, there’s no novelty in writing. But you can always write from a fresh and unique perspective.
