Common on page SEO mistakes when writing an article

Having been an editor-in-chief for quite some time, I’ve come to very well understanding of the importance of SEO in an article. How did I learn this? By having to edit and correct articles that were submitted to me, not only language-wise, but also in terms of SEO, when that was needed. As a result, I’ve noticed a pattern of common mistakes in regards of SEO within an article.

Some of those mistakes, “omissions” rather, are easy to avoid. For some others, optimising them won’t come as easy. The first four “omissions” are easy to take care of. The other two require a little more effort. Below are some of the most common “omissions” I’ve gathered as well as the alternative solutions I recommend!

Internal links

Even though adding an external source that we previously used information from is pretty difficult to forget, what we often do forget to add to our articles are internal sources, meaning references to other pages of our own website. This is easy to forget while we’re writing. These useful links are called internal links! They are solid proof that our website is relevant and useful and, if clicked upon, increase the average session duration on our website.

Incorrect use of anchor text

The text that includes a link is called an anchor text. Search engines read that text and “understand” the contents of the page towards which we’re referring to. Consequently, the keyword or key phrase that we use, should be related to the page we’re referring to. Anchor words such as “Click here” or “Check this video out” are poor choices. A better choice would be this: Say you wanted to refer to a YouTube video. The optimised anchor text selection would be the title of the video itself, for example, “This is how to make lemonade” as an anchor and not “Watch how to make lemonade here”.

Omission of the alt text field

Alternative text is the word or phrase that is directly relevant to the focus keyword that we’ve already set for our article. Alt text may even be the same as our focus keyword. We type it in the corresponding field in our article’s picture settings. Alt text is used by search engines when a page takes a while to load and they use it as a description to people with vision difficulties. It helps with search engine results as well. It is advised to always fill in the alt text fields for all of our article’s pictures.

Incorrect use of headings

Headings are useful, not only for users, but also to search engines. Headings are “scanned” for keywords. Abstract headings that don’t utilise our keywords or synonyms of them, are of no use to us, nor do they help our article rank higher on SERP. For example, in an article about Miley Cyrus, an incorrect use of headings would be “Early life”. Some basic information is omitted and the following paragraph could be concerning anyone. However, the phrase “Miley Cyrus’ early life” is a much preferable choice, especially if your focus keyword is “Miley Cyrus”!

Extended paragraphs

A long paragraph, even though it enables us to make our point clear, isn’t judged as an asset by search engines. It’s challenging for the average reader to focus all of their attention and energy into reading a paragraph of 15 or more lines. Additionally, it’s something that the various CMS platforms usually won’t favour and will often suggest that we use shorter paragraphs. In general, writing short and to-the-point paragraphs will help us reach a higher on page SEO score.

Abstract article topic

It is legitimate and, literarily, very interesting, when the topic of an article is less restricted, not exactly fitting into any box. However, an article has, a priori, the purpose of informing someone of a certain matter. A specified subject and a clear focus keyword will raise our on page SEO score. On the other hand, a more essay-like article, exactly because its subject isn’t as strictly specified, won’t be easy to have the same focus keyword spread throughout its body.

These are some of the few things that we can correct and optimise in our articles in order for the SEO score box to turn green! Which of these methods do you use to ensure a high on page SEO score for your articles? Which mistakes or omissions have you noticed in the articles of others and what would you suggest that they do?