SEO is a term encompassing a number of procedures that when done with precision and proper planning will elevate a website quickly among its competitors in search engine results. Some of the important procedures include link building, content writing, directory submissions, blog commenting, internal linking, sitemaps etc. Among these, a very prominent part is played by content writing in a website’s performance. Besides web design, the content of a website is the first thing a visitor experiences and as such its vital for that content to appeal to him/her. Properly done content has the dual benefit of impressing new visitors and moving a website up the search rankings.

The content of a website needs to attract and hold the attention of a visitor and hence it is of the utmost importance for the content to be relevant to the website, attractive to read, well structured and repetitive. Relevancy is mentioned here because if the visitor doesn’t find what he is looking for, he’ll probably end up looking elsewhere. So while a business website needs to retain the focus of its content on its products, the same is true for websites related to any other field as well.

The content should avoid being dull and drab in nature and the structure should be such that it helps proper crawling by the search engine bots. Crawling is of the utmost importance as it determines the website’s standing in search results. If an article is about a particular keyword, its necessary for that keyword to be peppered throughout the length of the content for better crawling. Its important to remember here that the style of content writing for SEO differs from that of a writer or a journalist, wherein SEO content has to be to the point, with a simple flowing language.

A few simple tricks when followed will greatly aid in optimizing the website for crawling. The page title should be restricted to around 70 characters or a maximum of 10 words, with the keyword featuring prominently in the title. The content itself will be good enough at around 500 words or 3000 characters with the keyword featured as many times as possible but at the same time being well spread out. The meta- description and keyword too should be limited to 20 words with the keyword highlighted. Some websites keep revising their content and it is necessary for them to use the meta-tag REVISIT-AFTER as it ensures the search engine bots crawl the website periodically.

An active nature of the content on a website encourages the reader to ask questions or explore other parts of the website. Since the attention span of a visitor is rather small, its a good idea to start the content with the conclusions. Use impact words which draw the attention of the reader. Some other tricks include using small paragraphs, replacing these paragraphs with lists wherever possible, writing short sentences, incorporate sub-headings, include internal links to the website in the content and lastly making sure the content is free from errors, both grammatical and spelling-wise.

Author Bio: Mike Gates is a customer of HostGator. He has created web site to give tutorials on HostGator and to promote HostGator. You can get detailed information about hostgator benefits there.

Category: Internet
Keywords: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, online, marketing, internet,