SEO, also Search Engine Optimization, is the overall process that involves increasing the opportunities available to you for other people to find your content online. For a long time now, many Long Beach SEO experts have used SEO to improve their writing skills. Think of it from this perspective, whenever you perform a search on Google or other search engines, you see both the paid advertising and non-paid ones on the search results pages. In most instances, it is the paid advertising result pages that you usually find at the top of the search engines. However, you still need to work out the best SEO practices that rank your articles and blogs at the top of the search engines.

Consider these tips to get more in-depth information of what SEO is all about.

• Conversions

All Long Beach SEO experts will agree that this is the usually the big goal and reason for paying attention to the SEO writing skills and tips. At the end of the day, you are writing to increase your overall conversion counts and percentages. Yes! SEO involves much more than helping you to get rankings or drive traffic to your site.

A conversion can be anything from a comment on your article or blog, a follow-up on Twitter, the purchase of a product, or even downloading a white paper. It’s essential that you know what your conversions are. From there, you can easily set your optimization goals and work to achieve them.

• Readability

Long Beach SEO professionals agree that all online materials need to be readable. However, this may not make sense for an upcoming author. In most cases, you find that everybody can argue that their writing is readable. However, that isn’t usually the case. When push comes to shove, your SEO readability needs to refer to the following:

• Grade Level
• Reading Ease

To make your content more readable, you need to try and write short material. You also need to write an article in a more of an active tone of voice. Today, there are numerous free online tools that you can use to improve your readability scores. The most commons ones include Readability.io and Flesch-Kincaid Readability formula.

• Pay attention to the page layout

The secret to making your content easier to find on the search engines is to follow the search engine rules. You can also make it a point to engage in keyword research which helps to determine what everyone else is searching. This can help make your blogs or articles more effective.

Remember, you’re writing to get your content seen, read, and enjoyed by your readers.

Every Long Beach SEO expert would agree that creating content that you know many people are already searching for is also an effective SEO tactic.

Before you get to writing and clicking the ‘publish’ button, you want to know what things like META title tags are, the META description, and also how to select the linking anchor text. If you don’t know what any of these terms mean, then you still have a long way to go.

Paying attention to the layout of your content also helps Google to determine what your content is all about. There are many specific guidelines that you must follow to improve the chances of your readers seeing your content.

• Link profiles matter

Search engines need to review your websites and content links to be able to link them. Google’s search algorithms need your help to make rank you. The effectiveness of the linking process depends more on the quality and quantity of links as the search engines define them.

If a search engine can determine that the links on your website are from authoritative or relevant sources, then that will work more in your favor. Many search engines, especially Google, regard each of these links as votes for your website’s content.

So, how can you get these links on your websites? Some time back, all you had to do was trade, by, or swap the links. But that’s not what happens today. Now, the best way to earn these links is to earn them. And you can achieve this by creating great content that easily attracts and engages your audience. This also helps to increase your chances of getting relevant links from other websites, media channels, social media, etc.

If, however, you acquire links that search engines consider to be manipulative, this will highly prevent you from ranking well. If anything, it can also end up getting you in trouble.

• Social media matters

Another crucial SEO tip that you need to note is that search engines also monitor social media activity. Search engines do this to determine which online content is more relevant and appropriate.

Safe to say that many search engines are in ‘relationships’ with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to name but a few. So, being active in your social media handles is also another effective way of ensuring an effective SEO strategy.

Long Beach SEO experts also agree that search engines can determine which online content is more popular based on their level of engagement. This can also drive a significant amount of traffic to your content.

Paid advertising has also been proved to have a positive impact especially when it comes to the click-through rates in the organic search engine results. Your website will rank somewhere at the top of in the search engine rankings. And this is what every online marketing or advertising business looks for when writing content about their business.

• Google can penalize you

Yes! If you thought it was a free ride when looking to publish any kind of content online, think again. Search engines have in the past and will continue to impose penalties on the online writers that do things that search engines don’t like. It’s very easy for you to get into trouble if you go against the search engines’ terms and conditions.

Google, for example, have penalties imposed by Google Panda and Google Penguin that have banned certain organizations and businesses from publishing content online. So, in as much as the names ‘Panda’ or ‘Penguin’ may sound cute, they can deal a significant amount of damage to your online advertising and marketing strategies.

It is, therefore, essential that you not be ignorant of some of the things that can get your website banned or penalized by these search engines. Familiarize yourself with all the information that the search engines you use deem as illegal or demeaning. In the process, you must also ensure you know exactly what to do to ensure effective SEO.

However, Long Beach SEO advise that it is better you know what you shouldn’t be doing and stay clear of them. Having this knowledge gives you the freedom to do pretty much everything else to make your online blog or article more attractive, educative, and informative.

• Rankings

Many new writers in the industry tend to stress more on the rankings of their SEO content than any other thing. However, Long Beach SEO professionals advise that your SEO rankings should be the least of your worries. This, however, doesn’t mean that the ranking of your SEO is not important. It only means that it is not that much important or the goal of your writing.

Many newbies in the SEO field look at the rankings of their businesses and think that they are losing this and that amount of their businesses because their websites aren’t ranked #1. However, the truth of the matter is that different SEO rankings produce different bounce back rates.

It is, however, important to note that your SEO ranking won’t make any sales. The rankings only provide a way in the door. And there is always the possibility that those businesses that come in at #1 may not be as prepared to sell as those businesses at #5 or 10 or even 20.

• Content is king!

By now, you must have heard over and over again from many Long Beach SEO experts that the content you put in your online blog or article is what matters most. And this is true in every way. It doesn’t matter how much you flower or sugarcoat your content. If it adds no value to your customers, then it won’t help you in any way.

Content is text. It is imagery. It is videos. It is sound, and it is all the other relevant stuff that the search engines can index. Know this. The whole Interweb ideology is gamed around content.

Content is the ruler and the final say of the whole thing. Even the SEO game will be meaningless without substantial content to back it up. All search engines love content. So, provided you create relevant and appropriate content, search engines will love you. And that’s exactly what you are rooting for.

• Online performance is crucial

All major search engines monitor how your website performs in regards to its search engine visibility.

What does this mean? Well, it means that you need to have a website that loads fast. The quality of the website coding also impacts this a great deal. And then there is the optimization of the images in your content. Your website images are always a HUGE factor in regards to site and page load times. Such factors are what you need to pay most attention to if you want to stand any chance of having your content more ‘out there.’

Your website also needs to consider other user experience factors such as being perfectly optimized for mobile devices. It must also be responsive.

The moment you cannot provide a positive user experience to all the users and in their various web optimized devices, then know that the content availability of your content will also suffer.

• Developing great content is only part of the job

Again, most Long Beach SEO experts agree that SEO writing involves much more than just creating great content that loads very quickly. Even though this is a very good start in the whole process, it’s only one half of it.

Now, you have to work just as hard to market and promote the content that you worked your butt off to create. You have to be super-active on social media platforms advertising and promoting your business, blog, or article, so people know that your work exists.

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are but a few of the social sites that you can use to get the word out about your content. Work on reaching your target markets so that you can amass more clients or users who engage with your work faster.

At this stage, you need to match your promotional and content marketing efforts to the content you already have. And try to get this information to the people you want it to reach.

You can even get others people to help you amplify your content. Today, the social media is crawling with ‘influencers’ whose work is to help you spread the word and reach more people in the shortest timeframe. Thing like ‘viral marketing’ and ‘relationship building,’ public relations activities, etc. can help push your work a lot faster than you know.

It is vital that you do not ignore this guideline under any circumstances. If you are really serious about getting your content to the world, then take at least as much time and energy promoting it as you did to develop it. As you do this, also work on developing more relationships with businesses and people that will positively impact on amplifying or promoting your content.

Final thoughts

Having gone through this content, you should know by now that search engines, as advanced and smart as they can be, still need you to do pretty much most of the heavy lifting. So, ensure you have all the nooks and crannies about SEO writing and how this world operates before you dive into it blindly. Otherwise, you will only end up spending countless hours and resources in getting your content out there and have it nowhere to be seen. Having said all these, good luck in your SEO writing endeavors.