by Doreen Martel

Created on: January 05, 2011

When discussing website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) must always play a role. Regardless of how "touchy" the search engines are, most website owners or the writers who provide content for websites must understand how to write SEO friendly content. There are two aspects to SEO friendly content, both are important. The first is for the reader which should always be a priority. The second is for the search engines which must be taken into consideration for purposes of getting "found".

Writing SEO friendly content for readers

Learning how to write SEO friendly content for readers is not as challenging as it may sound.  Content should be well fleshed out, have a clear opening paragraph, solid information in the body and a strong closing paragraph.  In most cases, it is beneficial to have the text written in short, concise sentences and short (not more than 3-4 sentences) paragraphs. It is generally recommended that the paragraphs be separated by headers.

Another important aspect of writing reader and SEO friendly content is to use descriptive lists when possible. Readers love to skim what they are reading to cull out the portions that they are most interested in. While writers should avoid simply pasting a list into their articles, lists of "high points" are generally a good thing.

Writing SEO friendly content for search engines

Search engine writing must be done with specific goals in mind. For SEO friendly content, writers must focus on keywords. In general, long tailed keywords are the ones that will gain them the most attention with the search engines.  Search phrases that reader will look for will do much better in content than obscure references.  Writers should not only focus on what works for the search engine, but what can be done to attract readers as well.

Titles and paragraph headers also play an important role in writing SEO friendly content for search engines. Not only should the keywords appear in the title, but they should be included in headers whenever possible. It is important to remember that since the first goal is the reader, the writer does not want to abuse the use of keywords.

Summary

SEO is an integral part of website marketing. Writers that are able to produce SEO friendly content generally have plenty of work since most website owners do not write their own content.  SEO friendly content must focus first on the reader and then on the search engines. There is no magic formula to learn how to write SEO friendly content, but it is an important skill to learn.

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