How to Write an SEO Friendly Article The Right Way and The Truth About Word Count - Always Updated To Keep You On Top

In the past, any heavyweight in your niche or sector that was willing to (and could) spend $50,000 a month on content creation and sneaky SEO optimization was assured to rank within the top three of results on every relative Google search.

$50,000 may seem a lot to spend for high rankings but consider the benefit; people automatically have more trust in any company ranked within the top three and if you’re selling a $197 product you only need to make two sales a day to recoup that SEO and content creation investment.

Most companies appearing in the top of all their related searches tend not to spend much money on other digital marketing because they feel it unnecessary (and at that point they’re probably right).

But Google realized that wasn’t fair to small and local businesses, who simply couldn’t afford to manipulate and buy their way to the top (in a round-a-bout way).

So, Google shrewdly updated their search bots and gave them new instructions to seek out real authority content that actual people enjoy reading. To count conversational expertise with a low bounce rate higher than any other content. And to pay attention to keyword density because if the content includes the related keywords (long-tail included) in more than 2% of the article, well, that’s going to be a strike against you.

After all, that most likely means that an article high in keyword density wasn’t written for real people.

These changes evened the playing field and sent all those big corporations that spent tens of thousands on search engine optimized content designed to manipulate the Googlebot from top three in the results to oftentimes page three. Every major company scrambled to rewrite their content and reclaim their page rankings. Some did, but not all.

External Links Must Be Relevant and Authoritative

Previously, the Google search bot scanned your content for external links and checked them against blacklisted domains. If the domain wasn’t blacklisted, the bot counted the links in your favor if you didn’t craft an article with mostly links. Link farming (as it was known) is frowned upon by Google and basically everyone else.

Now, the external links embedded in your content must be relevant to the content itself. And the search bot is going to give you the disapproving side-eye if you have more than two external links to the same source domain.

The Only Points That Matter for External Links

• Do the external URLs support the statements you made in your content?
• Are the external URLs high-quality websites with authoritative content?
• Do the sources you’re linking to prove the accuracy of your content?
• Are the links necessary and 100% related to your site and content?
• In short, you only want to include external links when they’re helpful and valuable to those reading your content.
• Never be repetitive. All external sources must be highly related to that specific content on that specific page. Think of it as a content-by-content decision and not a website-by-website choice.
• Try to keep the number of external links to only two highly targeted and relevant links per article.

The Word Count Makes A Difference for Different Reasons Now

Previously, the notorious Google search bot wanted to see lengthy keyword-laden content, but it couldn’t differentiate the good content written for real people by a caring and informed copywriter over the keyword heavy bulk trash that no one reads but has a high concentration of keywords.

The Google search algorithm has since grown up, and now it checks for authenticity and originality, keyword density, repeated phrasing or concepts (is your article essentially saying the same thing three times?) and word count. While it’s true that Google wants lengthy content of at least 800 words but these days, 1,200+ is considered the sweet spot for optimal SEO length.

Does my content really have to be 800+ words?

It’s math! You want to keep your keyword density to 1% preferably and never over 2%, so if you have a short article of only 500 words that mean you can only use your relevant keywords no more than five to ten times throughout the content. With 800 words, you’ve nearly doubled your keyword density without sacrificing your rankings or content.

After all the article needs to be natural with organic keyword use and most importantly you want readers to enjoy it and read most, if not all, of it to keep your bounce rate low.

What About Google News?

Getting featured in Google News results is an undertaking and challenge onto itself. It’s doable, and we’ve certainly helped some of our clients achieve strong Google News rankings. In short, if you want your content to stand a chance of being picked up by Google News you’ll need articles of 1,800 words with no more than two very related external links and double-check any photos or images you use because Google will verify their copyright status automatically.

What About Synonyms for Keywords?

Synonyms and associated terms are, if not more, just as essential, but they have to be natural. Your customers will search for sofa and couch, but it’s highly unlikely they’re going to search for davenport. When you’re writing, let the associated words naturally flow. Try not to look up synonyms online for your keywords, after all, Google search users don’t do that when searching. Don’t get too creative here – keep it conversational and realistic.

I don’t search for synonyms for keywords that I don’t immediately know off the top of my head because I figure no one is searching using those words, with one exception.

When I’m writing content, I will occasionally look up the most common British or Australian words for my commonly used American keywords. Keep in mind that you may be writing for a mostly local or regional audience (depending on your product, service, or client) but your readers will be coming to you from all over the globe, and you never know – one day you may decide to grow your market and expand into other nations.