Creating Contributed Content, Part 3: How to Maximize Impact with SEO

With a well polished, high-quality article in hand, per the guidelines of the previous installment, it is nearly time for contribution and publication. But one vital obstacle remains, of course, in that even the most masterfully written article must still be seen and read if it is to be of any use. There has never been more content in circulation than at this moment, and the competition certainly won’t be letting up soon. Fortunately, there is yet one more step a writer can take in order to maximize the readership and, thereby, the impact their contributed content will make: search-engine optimization (SEO).

By following a clear set of guidelines, writers can tweak their articles to adhere seamlessly with the search engines which every day bring content to the hands of the company’s target audience. This, in turn, can make a business’s content more visible, accessible, and credible. The overview below will discuss how SEO is able to do just that, as well as how writers can effectively implement it. Once optimized, writers can dispatch their articles with confidence that their work will get all the exposure—and have all the impact—it possibly can.

How SEO Can Magnify Impact

SEO offers three principle advantages: visibility, accessibility, and credibility. Visibility, likely the most obvious advantage, is the primary reason why writers tend to optimize their articles. SEO increases visibility by making articles more preferable to search engines, given relevant queries, so that it will feature nearer to the top of the results page. That translates to increased traffic and readership as more people are exposed to the content, which in turn broadens the reach and influence it will have throughout its lifespan.

The second advantage is equally straightforward, but is concerned with the readers themselves. By optimizing an article for specific, relevant keywords—as discussed below—it is made more accessible, so that a potential reader can easily locate the content they are looking for. This creates a more positive user experience, increasing the likelihood of a positive association being made with the business.

Finally, SEO can improve the article’s—and the business’s—credibility. Featuring near the top of relevant search results is likely to make potential readers trust an article more than if it were several pages down. Doing so frequently can also increase esteem for one’s business among readers and publishers in the long term, establishing it as an authority in its field. That advantage, taken together with increased accessibility and visibility, make the straightforward process of SEO a step worth taking for every writer.

How to Optimize an Article

The first and most basic part of the SEO process lies in the content of the article. Hopefully, by this point, the writer has a well-crafted article based on a timely topic—and will be relieved to hear that rewriting the content is unnecessary. Rather, the writer can take what is already there and optimize it, hence the acronym. This is done by reading over the article to identify certain keywords, which are likely but not necessarily already in the text, that are frequently used by the target audience to find similar articles via a search engine. For this blog post, examples may be SEO, how to, and maximize. Once those keywords or keyword-strings are identified, the article can be tweaked to include them in the title and in several places throughout the body. Using the right keywords will give search engines a clear and accurate idea of what the content is about.

With keywords in place, the article is already at a notable advantage. There are, however, a few more technical things which can be done to fully realize the potential of SEO. The first of these is using header-tags—such as H1, H2, etc.—to help search engines understand the structure of the article and prioritize it for more relevant queries. Including hyperlinks to relevant web pages will also aid in providing context to the engine, while linking to highly reputable sources can even increase the ranking and reputability of the article itself. Finally, adding a meta-description—that is, the text displayed beneath the search result—to your article, as well as alt-tags for any media, will provide search engines and readers with important information before they engage with the content. When all these items work together, the article is thoroughly optimized.

Conclusion

An article is of worth only insofar as it is read. It is imperative, therefore, that every article is optimized to reach as many readers as possible, as effortlessly as possible, with so much authority as possible. By employing the basic principles of SEO detailed above, writers can rest assured that their well-crafted content will go as far as possible.

And, with that, the article is ready for contribution. It will now enter a contest for attention and recognition which could hardly be more fierce among the plethora of content published every day. But with a well selected subject and angle, a thorough structure and professional style, and search-engine optimization, it is all but sure to stand out head and shoulders above the rest. All that is left to do, then, is to watch it make its mark.

Enjoy this blog on utilizing SEO? Be sure to check out our other blogs on useful and interesting public relations topics, like making legacy media count for your business.

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