Drive your audience away and quickly. This hurts your bounce rate and ultimately your chances of ranking. Here’s an article we recently published about the YouTube algorithm. Content optimization - screenshot of a blog post Notice how the text is broken up by headers images and callouts? That’s so our readers can get a break from reading. It also lets people skim an article and jump into the parts that interest them the most. Again whether you’re writing a new article or refreshing an old one make sure you’re giving the reader breaks in the copy. Images are a great way to keep an article flowing and they provide their own SEO benefits.
You can also use bulleted lists numbered lists block quotes and more to keep the article flowing. “Break up your text with bulleted lists images videos or even block quotes like this one. See how easy that is?” — John Shieldsmith Complete Iceland Phone NumberHack Writer As an added bonus breaking up the copy simply makes your content more pleasant to read. Double-check search intent before writing Just because a keyword looks promising doesn’t mean the intent is the right fit for your brand. This is why it’s important to search a term on Google before you start targeting it in a piece otherwise you risk wasting precious time writing an article that won’t perform well. For example say you want to educate your audience about pepperoni seeing as you run an online frozen pizza company.
While “best pepperoni” might sound ideal especially considering you’re writing a guide on how to make the best pepperoni this isn’t the case. Searching the term brings up a number of commercial articles all ranking the best pepperoni brands. Content optimization - screenshot of a googe results page By proceeding with the guide and using that term you’re setting the article up to disappoint readers who click the link as they’d likely be looking for the best pepperoni brand. This will hurt your bounce rate and again torpedo your chances of ranking. Make sure your intent is in line with your audience before you write a single word using our well-intentioned expert guide on keyword intent. Use relevant images Images keep your articles engaging but also help your