15 SEO rules to apply when creating content

 Optimizing your natural referencing involves creating content. However, to write SEO-friendly articles and pages, it is necessary to respect a few rules…

To save time and efficiency, consider hiring an SEO writer who will know how to write relevant content for your prospects AND search engines.

Selection of keywords, tags and structured data, technical referencing, HTML improvement, duplicate content… discover 15 SEO rules to optimize your web writing!

SEO rule #1: 1 keyword = 1 page

The first of the SEO rules concerns keyword strategy. So that Google robots understand your content perfectly, remember this good practice: each page or blog article must be worked around a single keyword!

Using tools like Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner, find a phrase with high search volume and limited competition.

Once you've found the perfect term, use it in the main sections of your page: title, introduction, one or two subtitles, conclusion and meta description. Also place it in the text itself, without forgetting to integrate variants and synonyms to enrich the writing and improve your positioning.

The clearer the context is for search engine robots, the higher your content will come up in relevant queries .

SEO Rule #2: Choose your keywords carefully

Choosing keywords is a crucial step in the success of your natural referencing. How to select them appropriately?

• Put yourself in your target audience's shoes to list words or phrases they may use to search for your services or products.
• Use this list as a starting point for additional ideas.
• Select the main keywords you want to rank for: those that directly relate to your business.
• Create a list of secondary keywords on topics that revolve around your main activity or refer to additional services.
• Do not hesitate to search for and select long-tail keywords: they can be worked on through blog articles or guides.
• Evaluate the potential traffic and competition for each keyword: select those with a low search volume/competition ratio.

All you have to do is write content for each keyword listed.

SEO Rule #3: Create Content Regularly

Google likes websites that are constantly updating! Consider publishing articles, white papers, infographics and other content regularly on your blog. In addition to frequently attracting search engine robots to your pages, you will increase your traffic.

To keep up, entrust the production of your blog posts to a professional web editor .

SEO rule n°4: Take care of the H1 and H2 of your pages

When writing your content , think about optimizing the title and subtitles. The structure of a page is important for Google, which will first scan the H1, H2, H3… Internet users too! Very often, they review the outline of a piece of content before reading it completely.

Take advantage of the subtitles to provide logical, fluid and enjoyable reading. As for your main keyword, consider integrating it into the H1 and at least one H2.

SEO Rule #5: Write the meta description

In addition to improving SEO, the meta description helps increase the click rate.

Following a query on Google, Internet users obtain several results. They will often read the title and meta description to choose which page to visit… Your content must stand out from the crowd and encourage them to click on your link.

Here are the rules to follow for an effective meta-description:

• Include your main keyword.
• Do not exceed 240 characters, otherwise it will be truncated and lose its impact.
• Use an action verb: discover, click, visit, enjoy…

SEO Rule #6: Ban duplicate content

Among the essential SEO rules for creating quality content, let's talk about Duplicate Content! The latter consists of copying/pasting text from one page to another, or even from one website to another. Google doesn't like this practice (nor do your users) and you expose yourself to heavy penalties. Your site may even disappear from the results pages.

However, it happens that you write duplicate content without doing it on purpose: this is particularly the case with product sheets. Unfortunately, even if you create several pages for the same article (because it is available in different sizes, colors or materials, for example), you must write unique text each time.

Furthermore, if you wish to cite an author or another source, you can do so with the “blockquote” tag. This tells Google that you are citing existing content…

SEO Rule #7: Vary content

Even if blog articles represent the backbone of your SEO strategy, consider varying the content. White paper, buying guide, infographics, video, animations, webinars… These formats help you work on your authority and expertise, ranking factors recognized by Google. They also represent opportunities to work on your main keywords.

Furthermore, you can link this content to your articles and pages to strengthen your internal network (see rule no. 10).

SEO rule n°8: Enrich your product sheets

Optimizing your e-commerce for natural referencing requires enriching your product sheets. Don't just write a description, but also give tips and tricks for using your article well.

Furthermore, include high-quality images where the product is put into context. This will help Internet users to project themselves with your brand.

Furthermore, visuals also play a role in SEO! Completely fill out the titles, alt tags, alternative texts and captions of each photo to improve your positioning in Google (especially in the “Images” section).

SEO Rule #9: Optimize HTML for SEO

When Google robots crawl your site, they analyze the HTML code. If it contains errors or is difficult to read, they will not be able to index it correctly.

To this end, it is essential to integrate and optimize the main SEO tags, namely:

• The title tag: it indicates the title of the content to Google and is displayed in the results pages.
• Hn tags: mentioned in rule no. 4, they structure your page.
• The meta-description: see rule #5.
• The Viewport meta tag: it allows you to adapt your site to different screens. Since mobile usability is a key Google ranking factor, this tag is essential.
• The alt attribute of an image: it helps search engine robots understand the content of a visual.

Another tip for obtaining an SEO-friendly HTML code: minify this code to make it easier to understand, but also to lighten your pages and improve their loading speed!

SEO rule n°10: Work on internal networking

Internal linking consists of creating links between your content. The idea is to link articles or pages that deal with the same subject, in order to retain users on your website.

This mesh also facilitates the exploration and indexing of your pages, since Google robots will have a “path” to explore your site and analyze its main theme.

To easily implement this SEO rule, use the topic cluster strategy. This involves writing several pieces of content around a central subject, then making internal links between each article belonging to the cluster.

SEO Rule #11: Check Technical SEO

Just like internal linking, technical optimization improves crawlability by search engine bots. Make sure that the sitemap and robots.txt file are complete and completed:

• The sitemap defines the plan and structure of your website to help search engines understand which pages are most important.
• The robots.txt file tells robots which pages to index and which pages to keep private (like admin pages, image libraries, etc.).

SEO Rule #12: Use 301 Redirects

Are some pages obsolete or products out of stock? Do a 301 redirect to take advantage of the notoriety of this old content and redirect it to new pages/new products.

These permanent redirections optimize your natural referencing, while avoiding frustration among Internet users! By offering them another product or updated content, you keep them on your website.

SEO Rule #13: Increase Site Speed

An important ranking factor, the loading time of your pages influences your positioning in the results. When writing and formatting content, think about it by avoiding integrating large media.

Instead, follow these rules:

• Integrate videos from an external platform, rather than uploading them directly to your site.
• Prefer the .jpg or .webp formats for your images.
• Choose the 72px resolution, more than sufficient for the web.
• Display content as you navigate by prioritizing loading elements above the fold.

SEO Rule #14: Add Structured Data

A snippet of code used to classify the content of a page, structured data provides essential information to search engines, particularly regarding the format of the content.

They build on schema.org vocabulary and improve your chances of appearing in rich snippets.

There are around thirty enriched data to optimize your SEO, including:

• subscription,
• carousel,
• notice,
• job offer,
• podcast,
• recipe,
• video,
• product sheet,
• blog post,
• etc.

SEO Rule #15: Audit your site regularly

The last of the SEO rules is to regularly analyze your SEO strategy. Using tools like Google Analytics or Search Console, you can evaluate:

• The position of your content
• Traffic
• Incoming keywords to your pages
• Your most popular (and least viewed) content
• Possible link errors or broken links
• The loading time of your pages
• The bounce rate
• Click rate

All these indicators help you to continuously optimize technical SEO, the editorial line and your backlinks, to improve your positioning!

Our tip for properly applying SEO rules

Providing quality content to your visitors should remain your priority. Naturally, if you write articles designed for Internet users, you will also tick all the right SEO boxes!