Writing high-quality content which ranks in the search engines is a daunting job! And when is it a job well done? In this post, I want to present an SEO copywriting checklist with some quick checks you should definitely do before you publish your article.
First do the hard work!
Before you can use this SEO copywriting checklist, you should have done a lot of work already. You should have done your keyword research, decided upon the exact topic and set up the structure of your article. All before the actual writing begins. Nobody said SEO copywriting was easy. In order to write awesome articles that will rank, you should definitely read SEO copywriting: the ultimate guide.
And then check:
Lots of checks you should do to make sure your text is SEO-friendly are covered in the content analysis of our Yoast SEO plugin. That’s a checklist in itself. But besides that, you should definitely check the other 7 questions of the SEO copywriting checklist below. Did you really think of everything? Time to hit the publish button!
1. Is your bullet green?
You should have an overall green bullet in the content analysis of Yoast SEO. Check whether or not you can improve upon the orange or red bullets (without making any concessions to the quality of your article).
2. Is the main topic of your article clear?
When scanning through the text, the topic of your article should be instantly clear to your audience. Make sure your subheadings fit the topic of your post. Also, check those first sentences of every paragraph. Ideally, these core sentences should cover the topic of each paragraph.
Read more: ‘Why text structure is important for SEO’ »
3. Are there any lengthy paragraphs?
Most people don’t like to read long pieces of text. Check whether you can shorten those lengthy paragraphs. Five or six sentences per paragraph is ideal.
4. Have you added internal links?
Before publishing your article, think about linking to similar articles. Maybe you have a cornerstone content article on a similar topic. Make sure that you’ll link to that article. Perhaps your new article is the best one you have written in a long time. In that case, make sure to add some links to this new piece in your previous articles.
Keep reading: ‘How to incorporate cornerstone content’ »
5. Is your call to action clear?
What do you want people to do after they’ve read your article? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to read another article? Make sure your call to action is clear and that people will be able to click from your article to other places on your website.
6. Could you optimize for multiple keywords?
You’ve probably thought about which keyword you would like to rank for with the article you’ve written. If your article is lengthy, you might be able to rank with more than one keyword.
Read on: ‘Why should you use multiple focus keywords?’ »
7. Do you use transition words?
A text can be made much more readable with the use of proper transition words (or signal words, same thing). Transition words are words like ‘most important’, ‘because’, ‘thus’, or ‘besides that’. They give direction to your readers. Make sure every paragraph has some of these transition words.
Read more: ‘5 tips to improve readability’ »
8. Did you choose the right category and tag?
By choosing the correct category and tag for your article you clarify your site’s structure to the search engines. This way, they’re able to understand much better what your site’s about. Apart from that, it will also help visitors on your site to find this article, or related articles.
Keep reading: ‘Using category and tag pages for SEO’ »
Conclusion
Writing articles that’ll rank in the search engines is something we like to help you with! We are currently working on making sure that some of the checks in this SEO copywriting checklist will be incorporated in the content analysis of Yoast SEO. That’ll make SEO copywriting a little easier. Want more help? Make sure to check out our SEO copywriting training.
from Yoast • The art & science of website optimization https://yoast.com/seo-copywriting-checklist/
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