Text for SEO

More Than 5 Free Tips on How To Write Text For SEO

In this post, we will focus on writing your text for SEO using best practices such as headers, keywords, word count, and how improved text for SEO, and an automated Table of Contents will improve the readability of your page content.

Do you want your website at the top in search results? If so, grab a cup of tea and read on.

What is SEO?

When you write text for SEO, it’s important to understand what SEO is. 

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It is the process of optimizing your website’s text and metadata in order for search engines like Google to rank the value of the content on a page of your website.

Important areas of your page content to focus on for SEO.

  1. Page Title
  2. The first sentence in the first paragraph of the page
  3. Headers and Sub-headers
  4. Image Alt Text & Description (hidden text seo)
  5. Word Count: 600 words or more
  6. Page Description (what shows in previews of the page on social media
  7. Add a Table of Contents

How do we write text for SEO?

Whether you draft your content directly in your website, or in a text editor like Apple Pages, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word, this guide will help you write text for SEO using best practices.

Start with the Page Title

Your page title which includes your keyword, will be coded as an H1 tag (header 1) . When you draft your content in text editors, be sure to apply the Header Style to your text. Simply making your text larger and bold does NOT make it an actual header. It might look like that to you. But when you copy and paste that into your website, it will only carry over the proper h1, h2, h3 tags if you styled it correctly in text editors.

First Things First

Now that you have the keyword in your page title and your page is showing that title as an H1 tag, we need to include your keyword in the very first sentence of your first paragraph. This can be done in whatever way it sounds natural. You might start with the keyword, include it in the middle of the first sentence, or end the first sentence with the keyword.

Here are examples using this page’s “text for SEO” as the keyword:

  1. When you write text for SEO, it’s good to understand what SEO is.
  2. To write text for SEO, you’ll first start with the  Page Title
  3. Your page’s SEO works better when you write text for SEO as your goal.

Include headers and sub-headers in your Text for SEO

Having headers and sub-headers in your page will improve text for SEO and help Google see that the page content is valuable.

These also help break up the work for your site readers so they can “scan” your page to see what they first want to know more about. 

Use H2, and H3 for your subheaders on your page. Try to include that keyword into these subheaders.

Include headers and sub-headers in your Text for SEO

Image Alt Text, Description, and Caption

This is considered “hidden text SEO” because you can’t actually see it in the content of the page.

  1. Image filename
  2. Alt Text
  3. Image Title
  4. Caption
  5. Description
5 Opportunities For Image SEO
5 Opportunities For Image SEO

When adding images to your page, be sure to include your keyword into the Alt Text (2) and the Description (5) of that image.

This will help with website content relevance. The alt text is what shows if the image doesn’t load, and for screen readers. And the Description should explain what the image is… such as a screenshot, a dog, or a chart about the quality of Star Trek shows.

Most “About” pages include the organization’s teams and bio photos. Be sure to include the person’s name in the Alt Text and a description such as “Photo of Jane Doe, CEO of Everywhere.”

If your image includes a caption (text under-and-connected-to), be sure that it’s related to the file name of the image, the Alt Text, and the Description.

Word Count of 600 words or more

This is fairly self-explanatory, but if you want to write text for SEO, be sure your page’s text content is 600 words or more.

Extra Tips About Page Content-Length

  • Keep your sentences short and easy to read. Don’t write extremely long sentences.
  • We know you are smart but stick with commonly used words and phrases in your explanation of things.
  • Keep paragraphs no more than 4 or 5 sentences long. Adding some line breaks will help your reader’s eyes.

Page Description

Your page description shows in search results and also contributes to the value of your text for SEO on a page-by-page basis.

By default, your “excerpt text” is used as the preview text. Tools like Rank Math allow customizing this. 

Rank Math text for SEO

Add a "Table of Contents"

Similar to how your text editor automatically shows an outline of your document, using the text headers, this functional and convenient feature can be available on a website page or blog post.

This can be done by applying Header 3 or Header 4 as sub-dividers of your page content.

Sectioning your text helps the reader and breaks up the sometimes arduous task of reading a long page of text.

Just as a reminder, we are writing valuable content, which is different from writing non-fiction or Star Trek fan-fiction.

And Google loves pages with a table of contents.

More About Headers

How to apply the Header Style (making your text bold and larger does not make it an actual “header”)

Your text editor like Pages or Google Docs offers Header specific styling options. Be sure to use our text editor’s Styling option to apply the Header style where needed. Use the links below to “See How” for your text editor.
Headers in Word
I am using Word on my Mac, and your version may differ slightly, yet still offer the same functionality of applying the Header to the text.

Headers in Apple Pages

I no longer recommend Pages for your content. It doe snot paste headers into WordPress correctly.

Headers in Google Doc

Similar to Word, Google Docs offers an easy way to apply header style to your page headers.

Headers in WordPress

Using WordPress text editor, be sure you are in View mode, and not Text mode (I know, confusing isn’t it?) View mode will show you the “kitchen sink” of all formating options.

More About Text​

Let’s Talk About Text

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a complex and required aspect of a website. It tells the search engine like Google, what your page, and your whole website, are about. The higher quality and accurate content, the higher it is ranked towards the top of the search results.

Be sure that you write your blog posts and website content with the following in mind:

Power Word

A Power Word is something Intriguing, Emotional, or Sensory… like FREE, Exciting, or Mouthwatering Pizza. By adding the appropriate power word in your page title, not only will it rank higher, but it will also receive more clicks.

Page URL & Page Title

For example, if your Title is “5 Free Tips on How To Write Text For SEO” then the like to it should match or at least include the keyword(s) … website.com/how-to-write-text-for-seo/

Headers Contain Keywords

The H1 (Header One) is almost always the title of the page, and should be used only once on a page. The H2 and H3 are described above. Always include your keyword or phrase in your headers. If you need help writing quality headlines, read Your Headlines Suck, and Here’s Why.

Keywords in Body Text

Be sure that when you use your keywords, you include them with purpose. Stuffing a page with keywords is so 1997. Search Engines are smarter now.

600 Words+

It’s not as difficult to write a blog post or web page with 600 words or more. Simply create the outline of what is important, what is needed to share with your reader… and then fill in with conversational and relevant text so that it reads easily.  If you need more text, include what will happen if the opposite is done, or how what you wrote has helped you or your clients.

Include links

The value of your page is how it connects to other pages. Ask your associates to link to your page, and offer a way for you to link to theirs in your post. For example, here is an article exactly that talks about Why Links Are Important for SEO. See how easy that was?

Include links to other pages on your website. Links in text content are different than the links in your menu navigation. Linking to your own content also helps to have “sticky” site visitors. For example, if you need and want help with your site content, here’s an article to help you with that!

Key Words in Excerpt

Your page excerpt is also the preview you see on social media links like Facebook. It’s also the preview you will see on blog landing pages. Consider it like the synopsis and essence of what your page is about.

Accessibility for Websites

Google has started to push further into site content relevance with mobile-friendly measurements, and accessibility. Make sure your website is accessible for all site visitors with this convenient checklist to verify the accessibility requirements for your website. Let’s make your site ADA compliant!

Table of Contents

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