The structure of your content allows users to easily read and navigate through your website. The use of various organizational tools and factors helps accomplish this.

Title Tags

Title tags inform search engines what your site is about. For users, they provide an accurate and concise description of your page’s content. Including strong keywords in your title tag can engage users and potential clients. However, avoid over-usage and keep it an easy read. Title tags must be short, and descriptive. You want it to clearly reflect what your site is about, while keeping it between 50-60 characters.

Meta-Description

The meta-description text appears underneath the title tag in the search engine results page (SERP). Therefore, it should include a combination of informative text and a strong call to action. Placing keywords in your meta-description also increases the likelihood of users choosing your website. Users won’t enter your website unless they know what it is about.

Headers and Subheaders

After the title, your content’s headers grab the user’s attention. Most users lack patience which is why headers must guide them right to the information they’re seeking. Sub-headers achieve the same job. Selecting good headers and subheaders allows users to easily follow the flow of your content. Like title tags, headers and subheaders should also include keywords. Keep in mind what will attract the reader’s attention to the more in-depth sections of your page.

Bullets

Structuring your content in bullets takes away wordy paragraphs and makes for an easier read. Readability is key and will keep your readers coming back for more. Breaking up your content into bullets or smaller paragraphs increases the chance of them reading everything on your page.

Surprisingly, search engines favor long posts. Studies show longer content outperforms shorter content by a substantial amount. When it comes to web content size, using more words means more ranking opportunities. Keep in mind a minimum word count of at least 500 words per page for documents you wish to rank well in the search engines. This provides a good foundation allowing you to integrate 5 to 10 keywords, while still keeping the content natural. The more content you write, the more chance you have of using variations of your target keywords.

Optimizing Your Keywords

Keywords serve as words used to classify or organize digital content, or to facilitate an online search for information. They hold great importance considering they are what people type into search engines. However, Rand Fishkin, founder of the well-known inbound marketing company Moz, says you must include the keywords in your headlines, and a few times in the body of your post. Other than that, you don’t have to stress repetition.

Readers want to be reassured the page they’re visiting contains the information they’re looking for. Seeing keywords in the headers and subheaders will not only prevent them from leaving, but get them to read the copy below it. Strive to write posts naturally containing targeted keywords. Clunky, keyword-stuffed posts disinterest readers.

Semantically Related Keywords

Search engines continually refine and expand their methods. In fact, search engines now possess the ability to identify semantically related keywords. Essentially, they use “semantic search” technology that attempts to determine what users mean when they type in a certain keyword. Search engines then explore the semantics of a those words, or the meaning behind them. For example, if you type a specific keyword into Google and scroll down to related searches, you’ll find semantically related keywords. If you use various semantically related keywords throughout your post, make sure not to stuff or overuse so you’ve made in clear to Google what your post is about. This will help you rank higher in the SERP.