For every writer who has been in the content marketing industry, optimizing their article is a blessing and a curse.
A blessing because your creativity is not reaching new audiences every day. A curse because you cannot ensure full creativity among all the optimization.
What to choose? Go all creative, and create something the readers will enjoy. Or, you can concentrate on optimization because what is the point of creativity if people do not read it?
This is a big debate in the content marketing industry. However, does it always have to be one or the other, or could we create a healthy balance between the two? In this excerpt below, we will be discussing the ways in which you can pick both.
All you need is a little planning and a little understanding of the two!
What Is SEO
Search Engine Optimization is an internet algorithm trick that increases the quality of your content for search engine algorithms. Whichever search engine you are targeting, with the right SEO implementation, you will be able to rank your articles.
This will help you gain more traffic for your blogs. However, will it guarantee traffic retention on your page if the content is not worth reading? There are so many SEO tricks, but do you have to use every one of them for your content?
This is where the balance comes in, and if you take help from the right content marketing agency, they can pick the best one for you.
Balancing Between Creativity & SEO
The reason why content creators and marketers are focusing on both creativity and SEO is because of the increasing bounce rate.
Bounce rate is when you are able to gain traffic but not retain them. This generally happens when you cannot retain the traffic coming your way. Either your content is not satisfying their curiosity, or it is not well written enough to spend time and read the whole thing.
1. Always Concentrate On Information
Do not stray away from the main subject of the content. The purpose is to provide answers to queries. A reader is not obligated to read your content because you have used all the SEO tools and ranked it high on the Google search engine.
So, understand their search intent, and provide the right information. Analyze your competitors, and provide extra information. This way, they will be inclined to seek your advice more. It is an excellent strategy if you want to turn your page into an authority site.
2. Do Not Stuff Keywords
Keyword stuffing was a thing of the past when everyone was experimenting with SEO. Certainly, Google algorithm crawlers will catch on to the keywords and rank your articles on top.
However, forcing keywords within your writing or placing irrelevant keywords just for the purpose of ranking will eventually increase your bounce rate.
Plus, keyword stuffing is also considered a black hat SEO now due to the increase in bad content. Google might de-index or even block your website for this practice.
3. Try To Answer Audience Query
Your audience is landing on your content with a purpose. They are looking for an answer, and they need immediate results. Rather than beating around the bush, the more straightforward answers you provide, the better.
You can pour all your creativity into that answer, and your audience will be satisfied. This also helps build trust and credibility with your target audience.
4. Aesthetic & Images Play A Role
Sometimes articles can rank through images, so why not be more creative with the aesthetic of the website, images, and infographics? You can even add directional videos and animations within the writing.
This will retain their attention even in the depleting attention span of the audience. It is not always about writing.
5. Increase Your Readability
Your readability is more important than ranking. If you have written good content, you can optimize it through off-page SEO techniques. For example, redirecting the audience to your article through social media and creating quality backlinks on other blog pages.
Once you start gaining more traffic, it will be picked up by the google crawlers, and your website will start ranking.
Write For Humans, Not AI!
At the end of the remember, you are not writing to impress the AI. You are writing for humans. Keeping audience satisfaction in mind is a great way to balance your creativity while sprinkling good SEO measures in your content.
You do not have to use every SEO trick out there.