SEO has a somewhat questionable reputation. In the past, people shared supposed tricks that would instantly get you to rank. But a lot has changed in the SEO world. So, are these tricks still true? Let’s take a look at what’s an SEO fact, and what’s SEO fiction!
The origin of this reputation
A lifetime ago, when Google’s algorithm wasn’t that good, you could trick your way into the search results. Putting down keywords in white (so nobody would see, but Google would crawl it) was an effective strategy back then. As was buying bulks of links from questionable sites. As Google evolved, these kinds of dirty SEO tricks started to backfire.
If you’re wondering whether certain tactics of old school or blackhat SEO still pay off, just think: does it give the user a better experience on your site? Does your website become a better result? If you can answer these questions with yes, then it’s probably a good SEO strategy. Anything that feels like a trick though, probably won’t be a good SEO strategy in the long run. So, let’s look at some SEO statements and find out if they’re fact or fiction!
SEO fact or fiction?
Fact or fiction 1: Content is king
Content is a very important aspect of any SEO strategy. After all, Google crawls texts and determines the ranking of your site on the quality of your texts. High-quality content also leads to lower bounce rates and more social media attention.
SEO fact: Content is king
Fact or fiction 2: Get as many links as possible
While backlinks are definitely important for your SEO strategy, you should be rather selective in which kinds of backlinks you’d want to attract to your website. To start, you shouldn’t buy large amounts of links. (Nor should you exchange links.) Secondly, don’t use any automated programs to get links. Moreover, don’t do guest blogging with very thin content and don’t go for links that are unrelated to the topic of your website. You shouldn’t have links from spammy sites whose only purpose is to advertise for gambling, viagra and porn (unless your website is about gambling, viagra and porn). Lastly, make sure there is real content behind the links you use. In a nutshell: you should never pay for links.
Fact or fiction 3: Keyword density should be sky high
Some people claim you should put as many keywords in your texts as possible. They hope that Google will notice the amount of keywords they’re using and therefore will rank the text highest in the search results. However, their text will become unreadable. So they shouldn’t do that! It’ll definitely backfire. Never write content that’s created for the search engines. Always write content with a real audience in mind. Invest in high-quality content that’ll generate long-term stable traffic to your website.
SEO fiction: keyword density should be sky high
Fact or fiction 4: You don’t need high-end technical skills to do SEO
Technical SEO is definitely an important element of an SEO strategy. And it doesn’t hurt to learn a bit of code (it could even be great fun). However, if you’re using WordPress and our Yoast SEO plugin, your technical SEO is pretty much covered. Our plugin is designed to take care of all the technical aspects of your SEO strategy.
SEO fact: You don’t need high-end technical skills to do SEO
Fact or fiction 5: Meta descriptions don’t matter
Google rewrites 70% of manually added meta descriptions. That means there’s a high chance that a meta description you added manually will be rewritten by Google. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to the content of your meta description. Meta descriptions provide critical information to both search engines and users. Moreover, it’s based on the SEO title and meta description that the user decides whether to visit your page. Neglecting them would be missing an opportunity to get more traffic to your website.
SEO fiction: Meta descriptions don’t matter
Fact or fiction 6: Social media can improve your rankings
Google doesn’t look at your website’s social media performance (like followers or shares) when ranking your content. However, a good social media strategy helps your rankings by boosting your traffic. A lot of traffic makes search engines deem your content as relevant. Furthermore, the difference between search engines and social media has been blurring. For example, both Google and Instagram can be used to find an answer to a question.
SEO fact: Social media can improve your rankings
Fact or fiction 7: Google will be replaced by AI
While using AI platforms as search engines might be relatively new, AI has been shaping the search engine experience for quite some time. For example, AI is what helps Google provide voice search and image search. And not only are some search engines introducing their own AI language models (like Gemini), they are also integrating AI models into the search engine results.
So while we don’t know exactly what the future holds, it’s clear that Google and AI found a way to work together instead of replacing each other.
SEO fiction: Google will be replaced by AI
Fact or fiction 8: SEO is all tricks
At Yoast, we propose an SEO strategy we refer to as holistic SEO. Holistic SEO means you focus on developing a long-term SEO strategy that focuses on all aspects of website optimization, in order to be the best result. Part of this strategy is to write awesome content, do great PR and social, make sure your website is properly secured and create a superb User Experience. And of course, your website should have technical excellence and an awesome site structure. That’s no trick. That’s just a whole lot of hard work.
SEO fiction: SEO is all tricks
Conclusion
The final SEO fiction actually says it all: SEO is not all tricks. Yoast believes that SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on creating quality content for your audience and becoming the best result. It is a lot of work, but it will definitely pay off in the long run!
The art of content creation has become increasingly sophisticated. The key to standing out is to produce high-quality content. You should craft it precisely, making it both engaging for readers and friendly to search engines. This is where AI-powered content generation tools like ChatGPT, Bing CoPilot and Google Gemini come in, offering efficiency and creativity. However, the true power of these tools lies not in their ability to generate content but in how we, as SEO content writers, instruct and refine their output.
Table of contents
Tip 1: Crafting the perfect SEO-driven prompt
Define your content goal: is it to inform, persuade, sell, or explain? Understand your audience’s needs and search habits to tailor your prompt effectively.
Choose a primary keyword that encapsulates your content’s essence and guides its direction. Then, break down the keyword to address search intent. List subtopics that delve into different aspects of your main theme, incorporating related secondary keywords.
Combine all these elements into a concise prompt. For example: “Create a detailed guide on primary keyword, covering subtopics, for target audience, integrating secondary keywords. Ensure the tone is desired tone, suitable for content type.”
Ensure clarity in your prompt to effectively align AI-generated content with your SEO objectives. This transforms your prompt into a strategic blueprint for SEO-optimized content tailored to your goals and audience.
Example prompt:
"Generate a detailed guide focused on 'Maximizing Small Kitchen Spaces.' Incorporate primary keyword 'small kitchen organization' within the introduction, headings, and conclusion. Cover subtopics including 'Creative Storage Solutions,' 'Decluttering Strategies,' and 'Multipurpose Furniture Ideas,' integrating secondary keywords 'space-saving kitchen gadgets,' 'decluttering tips for kitchens,' and 'multipurpose furniture for small spaces.' Target audience: urban apartment dwellers. Tone: Informative yet engaging."
Tip 2: Keyword optimization beyond the basics
Specify keyword placement for the AI, requesting inclusion in the introduction, subheadings, and conclusion to kickstart SEO-friendly content creation. Emphasize the natural integration of primary and secondary keywords throughout the text to maintain flow and enhance readability.
Encourage the use of keyword variations to broaden content appeal and reach. For instance, suggest including variations like “how to garden organically” alongside the primary keyword “organic gardening tips.”
Highlight the importance of contextual keyword usage to enhance content value and user experience. Doing so helps align with search engines’ preference for contextually rich content. Instruct the AI to incorporate secondary keywords in subheadings to improve the content structure for readers. This also enhances search engine visibility by signaling covered topics within the article.
Example prompt
"Create an article on 'The Benefits of Yoga for Stress Relief,' ensuring the primary keyword 'yoga for stress relief' is naturally integrated throughout the content, especially in the introduction, subheadings, and conclusion. Include secondary keywords 'stress-relieving yoga poses,' 'beginner yoga routines,' and 'yoga mindfulness practices' within specific sections. Focus on providing valuable information and insights on how yoga can help with stress relief, and use variations of the primary keyword to enhance readability."
Tip 3: Request structured content
Outline the content structure for the AI. Say you need an introduction, a set number of sections or headings, and a conclusion to provide a clear framework. Briefly describe the focus of each section or heading to ensure all content segments contribute cohesively to the main topic.
Request the use of bullet points to enhance information digestibility. Prompt the AI to present key points or lists in a bullet format for improved readability where needed.
Conclude by asking for a summary highlighting the main points and including a call to action (CTA) to engage readers. Encourage actions like commenting, sharing the content, or exploring related topics on your website.
Example prompt:
"Draft an informative post titled 'The Ultimate Guide to Eco-Friendly Living.' Structure the content with an introduction that highlights the importance of sustainability. Include sections on 'Reducing Plastic Use,' 'Sustainable Eating Habits,' 'Eco-Friendly Transportation Options,' and 'Green Home Improvements,' each with relevant bullet points and examples. Conclude with a compelling call to action encouraging readers to adopt at least one eco-friendly practice."
Tip 4: Instruct AI for intent match
Understand why users search for your keyword: to learn (informational), find a site (navigational), make a purchase (transactional), or compare options (commercial investigation). Tailor your prompt to match the identified intent explicitly. For informational searches, request a comprehensive guide or tips; for transactional intent, focus on product details, benefits, and purchasing guidance.
Clearly outline the desired reader response in your prompt—what they should feel, know, or do by the article’s end. This guides the AI to create content that aligns closely with the user intent and desired outcome.
For content addressing common questions, direct the AI to structure part of the content in a Q&A format. Provide audience queries for the AI to address within the content. For prompts targeting commercial investigation or transactional intents, instruct the AI to incorporate comparisons, case studies, or scenarios. This assists readers in decision-making and directly addresses their underlying intent.
Example prompt:
"Write a comprehensive comparison article on 'Electric Cars vs. Gasoline Cars: Which is Better for the Environment?' Target user intent by providing detailed analysis and evidence on environmental impact, long-term costs, and performance differences. Include FAQs to answer common queries directly. Conclude with a recommendation section tailored to environmentally conscious drivers considering their next vehicle purchase."
Tip 5: Creating engaging titles with AI
Ensure your primary keyword features in the title to enhance SEO and indicate content relevance. For instance, if the keyword is “vegan baking recipes,” integrate this phrase naturally into the title. Instruct the AI to craft titles that inform about the content while intriguing readers to click, balancing clarity with curiosity or value. For example, consider a title like “10 Vegan Baking Recipes That Will Revolutionize Your Dessert Game.”
Ask the AI to provide multiple title options to explore different framing possibilities based on your keyword and content focus. This helps spark creativity and aid title refinement.
Titles with numbers and power words often perform well. Guide the AI to include these elements in some title options, such as “5 Mouth-Watering Vegan Baking Recipes for Every Sweet Craving.” Encourage title specificity by including details like the target audience, problem solved, or unique content. For example, “Vegan Baking for Beginners: Master Dairy-Free Desserts Step by Step.”
Opt for titles in the active voice for dynamism and engagement. Active voice titles are direct and compelling, such as “Uncover the Best 10 Vegan Baking Recipes Loved by All.”
Example prompt:
"Generate five engaging titles for an article about 'Indoor Herb Gardening for Beginners,' incorporating the primary keyword. Each title should invoke curiosity and offer value, possibly including numbers or power words. Examples of structure could include 'How To Start Your Indoor Herb Garden: 5 Easy Steps' or 'Transform Your Kitchen with These 7 Easy-to-Grow Herbs.'"
Yoast SEO Premium has an excellent AI title generator
Yoast SEO Premium features an AI-powered tool designed to generate SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions for your content effortlessly. It swiftly analyzes your articles to produce compelling, search-engine-friendly headings and summaries, improving click-through rates and saving valuable time. This intuitive feature streamlines content creation, ensuring your articles are primed for maximum visibility and engagement.
Yoast SEO Premium helps you write great titles and meta descriptions with AI
Ensure your primary keyword is prominent in the meta description to convey relevance to search engines and potential readers. If, for instance, your keyword is “indoor gardening tips,” feature it at the beginning or early on in the meta description.
Instruct the AI — or have Yoast SEO Premium do it for you! — to encapsulate your content’s primary benefit or value proposition in the meta description. Focus not just on what the content is about but why it holds significance. For example, “Transform your living space into a verdant oasis with these indoor gardening tips.”
Given the character limit for meta descriptions, emphasize crafting concise and compelling descriptions that prompt users to click through. Be succinct, engaging, and direct to entice readers effectively. Also, end the meta description with a call to action (CTA) to prompt reader engagement. Request the AI to include a subtle yet persuasive CTA, like “Start your indoor garden transformation today with our expert tips!”
Example prompt:
"Produce a concise answer section for 'What Are the Best Practices for Password Management?' Structure the content to answer the question directly within 50 words, suitable for a featured snippet. Follow with a bulleted list of top practices and a brief explanation of why each is important for securing online accounts."
Tip 7: Better AI prompts for featured snippets
Identify common questions related to your content’s topic to align with your audience’s needs. Direct the AI to structure content segments that directly answer these queries. For instance, for “vegan baking,” address questions like “What is vegan baking?” or “How to substitute eggs in vegan baking.”
Featured snippets favor clear, concise answers. Instruct the AI to provide direct responses, ideally within 40-60 words for paragraph snippets. This increases the likelihood of your content being featured.
Google often showcases lists and tables for how-to guides and rankings. Ask the AI to incorporate bulleted lists for steps, ingredients, tips, and tables for comparative data or statistics. Utilize headers (H2 or H3 tags) that align with identified questions to aid search engines in understanding your content’s structure. This alignment increases your chances of selecting your article for a featured snippet.
Example prompt:
"Write an article on 'The Importance of Hydration for Athletes,' suggesting points for internal linking to our previous content. Include placeholders like '[Link to "Best Rehydration Drinks"]' where relevant. Ensure each suggested link provides additional value and context related to hydration tips, benefits, and strategies."
Tip 8: Using AI for internal linking suggestions
Begin by comprehensively understanding your website’s existing content to guide the AI in suggesting relevant internal linking opportunities. This step ensures that the AI’s recommendations align effectively with your site’s content structure.
In your instructions, specify that you want the AI to pinpoint potential internal linking chances within the content. For instance, if discussing “Vegan Baking,” highlight related articles like “Vegan Ingredients” or “Eco-Friendly Cooking Utensils” as potential anchor points for internal links.
Direct the AI to propose specific phrases or keywords within the content that can serve as anchor text for internal links. Ensure the anchor text is contextually relevant to the linked article’s content. Things like this help the user experience and can make it easier for search engines to understand content relationships.
Emphasize the importance of seamlessly integrating internal links within the content’s context to the AI. Each suggested link should provide value to the reader. Links should offer additional information or related topics that enrich their engagement with the content.
Write better prompts by instructing the AI to create calls to action (CTAs) with internal links. For instance, “Explore our comprehensive guide to Vegan Ingredients for more insights on vegan baking.” This approach encourages readers to delve into related content, enhancing site navigation and user engagement.
Example prompt
"Write an article on 'The Importance of Hydration for Athletes,' suggesting points for internal linking to our previous content. Include placeholders like '[Link to "Best Rehydration Drinks"]' where relevant. Ensure each suggested link provides additional value and context related to hydration tips, benefits, and strategies."
Tip 9: Improve content depth
Begin by mapping out a range of subtopics that cover your main topic from various angles. This ensures your content addresses the breadth and depth of the subject. For instance, if your main topic is “Sustainable Gardening,” potential subtopics might include water conservation techniques, organic pest control, and sustainable garden design.
Direct the AI to dive deep into each subtopic, providing detailed explanations, step-by-step guides, benefits, challenges, and solutions. This level of detail enriches the content and positions it as a valuable resource for readers seeking thorough information.
Enhance the depth of your content by asking the AI to include relevant examples and case studies within the subtopics. These real-life illustrations add credibility and interest, making complex information more accessible and engaging to your audience.
Direct the AI to cover each subtopic comprehensively, addressing common questions, misconceptions, and practical advice. This not only aids in SEO by covering a range of related keywords but also provides value to the reader.
While instructing the AI to cover subtopics thoroughly emphasizes the need for clear, accessible language. Complex topics should be broken down into digestible sections. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images to enhance readability and engagement.
Ensure that each subtopic includes actionable advice or takeaways. This transforms the content from purely informational to practical. You should give readers clear steps or strategies they can implement in their context.
Example prompt:
"Develop an in-depth feature on 'Sustainable Travel Destinations Around the World.' For each destination, provide detailed insights into how it promotes sustainability, including conservation efforts, eco-friendly accommodations, and green activities. Incorporate real-life examples, hypothetical expert quotes, and recent studies supporting the benefits of sustainable tourism."
Tip 10: Enhance SEO-friendliness
Start by creating a broad content draft using the AI based on your initial prompt, covering all subtopics and including primary and secondary keywords. Treat this draft as the foundation for further refinement.
Review the draft thoroughly to enhance engagement, add detail, and improve flow. Focus on significant enhancements aligning the content with your goals.
Use specific prompts to refine content sections. For instance, if a section like “water conservation techniques” needs improvement, prompt for enhancements like including current technologies and efficiency practices. This targeted approach allows for precise improvements.
After enhancing content quality, shift focus to keyword optimization. Integrate primary and secondary keywords naturally throughout the text to add value and maintain readability.
Example prompt:
"Create an initial draft for 'Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2023.' After review, refine the content with a follow-up prompt focusing on enhancing sections that discuss AI in marketing and the rise of voice search, adding current statistics, expert opinions, and practical tips for marketers to adapt these trends."
High-quality example prompts
Here are three AI prompts to try that should give you good results to build upon:
Example prompt 1: Crafting SEO-driven content
"Create a detailed, SEO-optimized guide titled 'The Ultimate Guide to Organic Gardening in Small Spaces.' Start with an engaging introduction with the primary keyword 'organic gardening in small spaces.' Break down the guide into the following sections: Choosing Your Space, Essential Tools for Small Space Gardening, Selecting Plants, Organic Pest Control Methods, and Maximizing Your Yield. Each section should integrate secondary keywords: 'urban organic gardening,' 'small garden tools,' 'best plants for small gardens,' 'natural pest control,' and 'increasing garden yield,' respectively. Conclude with a summary and a CTA encouraging readers to share their small space gardening tips."
Example prompt 2: Keyword optimization
"Write an informative article on 'Top SEO Strategies for 2024,’ ensuring the primary keyword 'SEO strategies 2024’ appears in the introduction, at least three subheadings, and the conclusion. Use secondary keywords 'keyword research,' 'mobile optimization,' 'voice search SEO,' and 'content marketing trends' in different sections to structure the article. Each section should provide detailed insights and practical tips while not using the main keyword too much. Include bullet points for key tips and end with a compelling CTA to subscribe for more SEO insights."
Example prompt 3: Requesting structured content
"Produce a comprehensive post on 'How to Create Engaging Content for Social Media.' The content should start with an introduction emphasizing the importance of engagement on social media platforms. The body should be divided into sections covering 'Understanding Your Audience,' 'Crafting Captivating Headlines,' 'Using Visuals to Enhance Posts,' 'Incorporating Hashtags Effectively,' and 'Engaging with Your Community.' Each section should start with a subheading and include bullet points for the main tips. Conclude with a summary reiterating the value of engagement and a CTA encouraging readers to implement these strategies in their next social media post."
Conclusion
Careful prompt crafting enables the AI to generate high-quality, SEO-optimized content, paving the way for improved visibility and reader engagement. Use this guide as your roadmap to SEO content writing excellence, harnessing AI tools as valuable assets in your digital marketing endeavors.
What is the most important part of a post? The first paragraph! It’s the introduction of your article, and tells your audience what your post is about. But the first paragraph is also important to Google. That’s why you should give it extra attention. In this blog post, we’ll explain why an SEO-friendly introduction is so important, and give practical tips on how to write an awesome first paragraph. So read on!
Why should you write an SEO-friendly introduction?
People usually start reading at the beginning of an article. If your introduction is not compelling, people will click away. Google knows this too, because Google is trying to mimic a human. So if your introduction is bad, you’ll see a decline in your rankings. To avoid this, your first paragraph should be well written and optimized.
What should a good introduction do?
Because the demands of the first paragraph are higher than the demands on the rest of your text, your introduction should do at least three things. Let’s look at what these are!
1. Introduce the topic
The first paragraph should introduce the topic. Just by reading the introduction, readers should know the message of your article is. It has to answer the question: What do you want to tell people in this article?
The introduction of this blog post has the message: ‘the introduction of your article is very important to both your audience and Google.’ Because that’s what this article is about. It’s what we want you to remember.
SEO tip: use your focus keyphrase
Introducing the topic also allows you to use your focus keyphrase in the introduction. You should use the exact search terms that your audience uses. It’ll make your audience confident that your post will answer the question they asked Google.
2. Get people excited to read more
The second thing a good introduction should do: get people excited. To do this, you need a hook. Something that’s fun or catches people’s attention. Your introduction should make people want to read more. People should feel curious about what’s next and excited to have found such an amazing article.
3. Set expectations
The third thing an SEO-friendly introduction should do is set expectations. By reading the first paragraph of your post, readers should know what to expect. Because if your introduction is vague or boring, chances are high that people will click away.
Tips on how to write an SEO-friendly introduction
Think before you write
As we’ve discussed, your introduction is your most important paragraph. So, think about what you’re going to write! Think about your audience: who are you trying to reach? What will they learn from your article, or which problems are you solving? If you know the answer to these questions, your introduction will be much easier to write.
Of course, you can also write your introduction last. While it’s good to think about the focus of your post before you start writing, you can discover new insights while writing. After finishing your post, you’ll have a clear idea of what it’s about, which hopefully makes your introduction easier to write. It just depends on your preference!
Example
Let’s take this article as an example. Our desired audience is mostly writers and bloggers; people who want to create content in order to rank higher in the search engines. That’s also their main problem: their content is not ranking as high as they would like. This article is then part of the solution, because it gives people practical tips on how to improve the introduction of their posts.
Focus on the problem
You should mention the problem your audience is facing in the introduction. If people recognize the problem, they’ll want to read the rest of your article to see if it helps them find a solution.
Make it relatable
Hey, you! The one reading this post! If you address your readers directly, they’ll feel more inclined to continue reading. So, make your readers feel like you’ve written this post especially for them. Use ‘you’ and ‘your’ and ask them questions. It’ll make people feel like you’re talking to them.
Make it fun
Use quotes, statistics, stories, and anecdotes in order to make your introduction more fun to read. Quotes and statistics will make you more convincing, while stories and anecdotes make your article more entertaining to read.
Tip: if you use quotes or stories in your introduction, it’s nice to mention them again in your conclusion. This will make your article feel ‘complete’. Plus, it’ll help your readers to remember your story and your message.
Use a different font
You know the introduction should be well written, but did you know it should also be well designed? Make it stand out by using a different font or embolden the words. Your readers will immediately know that they’re reading the introduction. Plus, it will make the introduction look important (which it is!).
Use that focus keyphrase!
We’ve already discussed this, but it’s good to mention it again: if you want to write an SEO-friendly introduction, use your focus keyphrase in the first paragraph! You want your audience to recognize what they were searching for immediately. Because it will convince your audience that they’re reading the right post.
Keep it readable
Readability is important for your entire article, and even more so for the introduction! Don’t make your first paragraph hard to read. Use short sentences, and avoid the passive voice.
In addition, an introduction shouldn’t be too long. It’s best to write one paragraph with 10 or 12 sentences at the most. You could divide an introduction into two shorter paragraphs; just don’t make the paragraphs longer than 12 sentences.
Short recipe for an SEO-friendly introduction
Let’s make this short and practical. Here’s the recipe on how to write an SEO-friendly introduction:
Start with a hook. A hook can be anything that catches the reader’s attention. You could state a controversial opinion, or ask a (rhetorical) question. You could share a statistic. Just make sure to write two or three sentences that entice your reader, and make them want to read on.
Introduce the message of your article. After your hook, write two or three sentences in which you introduce the main problem that you’re solving in the blog post.
Next, write two or three sentences about what people can expect in this article. A helpful sentence is: “In this post, we’ll discuss/you’ll learn…”
Love your site by writing SEO-friendly introductions
If you write content, you want your audience to read it! But you also want to rank high in the search engines. That’s why you have to make sure that the most important part of your text, the introduction, gets extra attention. Give your first paragraph a little extra SEO love, because it could make all the difference.
Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.
The paragraph length check in Yoast SEO (for WordPress or Shopify) tells you to write shorter paragraphs when they are too long. But why is this important? What does a good paragraph even look like? And lastly, what should you do to keep your paragraphs concise? Let’s explore!
Table of contents
Why your paragraphs shouldn’t be too long
Properly sized paragraphs play an important role in making your text readable. Big walls of text are not very nice to read, and they tend to scare off readers. Just imagine this entire article being one big paragraph! You’d probably have left the page before even reading the introduction.
Paragraphs also break down your text into bite-size and easy-to-understand chunks. This puts your readers at ease, because every time you end a paragraph, you give readers the opportunity to relax and think about what they’ve just read. It really helps people make sense of the entire text.
Easy to scan
Paragraphs also help readers to scan your text more easily. When people end up on a page, they rarely start reading the article from beginning to end. First, they want to see what they can expect. That’s why people generally scan headings and the first sentences of every paragraph before they start reading. So, if you break up your text into paragraphs that reflect the topics you’re addressing, people will quickly get a good grasp of what your article is about.
What does a good paragraph look like?
A good paragraph provides information on one well-defined aspect of the topic you’re discussing in your article. Consider the two paragraphs under the previous heading in this article, for example. They address why paragraphs make your text easy to scan. In addition, it’s good practice to start your paragraphs with a core sentence that summarizes the content of the paragraph. This will help readers decide whether a paragraph is interesting to read.
How long should your paragraph be?
This depends on the context, but a paragraph should generally be more than two sentences and fewer than 200 words. Anything more than 200 words becomes difficult to understand for most readers, which means you’re better off breaking it up into different subparagraphs.
And don’t underestimate how difficult it is to read long paragraphs! Sure, more experienced or skilled readers tend to be more forgiving. But that doesn’t mean your text wouldn’t benefit from shorter paragraphs. After all, presenting complex information in an accessible form is an art, not a shortcoming.
What does Yoast SEO’s paragraph length check do?
The paragraph length assessment checks the length of your paragraphs. We advise you to keep the length of your paragraphs below 150 words. If you do that, you’ll score a green light. You’ll get an orange light if your paragraphs contain more than 150 but less than 200 words. And if you exceed 200 words, your traffic light will be red.
In the case of an orange or red light, what should you do? Do you need to use fewer words to convey the same message? Do you need to cross out entire sentences? In most cases, the answer is no. Randomly deleting sentences will harm your text instead of improve it. It makes more sense to take a look at the structure of your text. Let’s explain!
The check shows a red light and corresponding feedback. If you click the eye button, the paragraph that needs improving will be highlighted.
How to keep your paragraphs short and crisp
If you have trouble limiting the length of your paragraphs, take a look at the entire text. Try to write down the main topics and individual aspects that you’re discussing. Let’s break down the heading and paragraph structure of this post as an example:
Why your paragraphs shouldn’t be too long
Long paragraphs are bad for readability
Easy to scan
Long paragraphs make it difficult to scan a text
What does a good paragraph look like?
A paragraph addresses one specific aspect of the topic
Paragraphs start with a core sentence
How long should your paragraph be?
A good paragraph has more than two sentences and fewer than 200 words
What does the paragraph length check do?
Describes the check and its feedback criteria
How to keep your paragraphs short and crips
Look at the entire text
Example
Example analysis
Conclusion
As you can see, the text is now neatly divided into different parts. It’s probably a good idea to do this before writing your article. If you notice one specific aspect is taking up more space than you expected, just consider whether you can break it down into two separate aspects. This is almost always possible. If it isn’t, you can get away with a long paragraph here and there.
Want to learn more about paragraph length? Our SEO copywriting course explains everything related to writing great posts. You can get access to this course and all of our other SEO courses with Yoast SEO Premium.
Conclusion
The Yoast SEO paragraph length check warns you when you write paragraphs that are too long. Because lengthy paragraphs make it harder for readers to read and scan your text. Good paragraphs discuss a single, well-defined aspect of the topic at hand. They start with a core sentence and generally shouldn’t exceed 200 words. If you tend to struggle with limiting the length of your paragraphs, consider breaking your article down into a schematic view. Then, consider whether you can break up larger paragraphs into shorter ones. Good luck!
Marieke was Head of Strategy and former CEO at Yoast. During her time at our company she wrote a lot. Topics that she loves writing about include SEO copywriting, site structure and readability.
Most people know that using clickbait headlines to get people to visit your page is a pretty bad idea. People don’t like it, and search engines and social media platforms don’t either. But how do you craft an enticing SEO headline without using clickbait? And what even is the line between a catchy title and clickbait? In this post, we will share some tips on how to create great titles without relying on clickbait. Hopefully, these tips can help you craft titles that are still eye-catching, but don’t leave readers feeling ‘baited’.
Simply put, the goal of clickbait is to get you to click, at any cost. To achieve that, clickbait headlines use dubious strategies, such as exaggeration, relying on shock value, sensationalizing, and misleading. They also often withhold key information about the content so that you’re compelled to fill the knowledge gap by clicking. Here are some examples of clickbait titles:
“Elon Musk absolutely hated this one thing about Steve Jobs”
“McDonald’s Just Made a Stunning Announcement That Will Completely Change the Future of Fast Food”
“Netflix’s Worst Nightmare Has Come True”
Why you shouldn’t use clickbait headlines
Needless to say, the actual content is usually far less exciting than the clickbait title makes it out to be. This leads to a high bounce rate and diminished trust. A 2022 study also found that people are less likely to share clickbait articles on social media. Not to mention that social media platforms such as Facebook have policies that penalize clickbait.
So, clickbait titles may work to get someone to click, but they’re unlikely to create actual engagement. And even clicks are not guaranteed. These days, people are more aware of clickbait tactics and are getting fed up with them. There are even communities dedicated to exposing clickbait articles, such as the Saved you a Click subreddit.
How to create a great headline without using clickbait
1. Write great content
You can’t have a great title without having great content. Otherwise, you’re guilty of what clickbait does – overpromise and underdeliver. So first and foremost, focus on writing quality content to create engagement beyond that initial click!
2. Make sure your title is descriptive
Since you want to attract people who will stay on your page, your title should give a good idea of what people can expect from the content. Of course, it can be hard to manage all expectations with a single line of text. But at the very least, you should always include your focus keyphrase in the title.
You should also make sure that the value of your content is clear from the title. What question does it answer? What information does it provide? Which problem does it solve? And what is the unique value it provides compared to other similar content?
Examples
Example of a non-descriptive title: “Games for cats”
This title doesn’t give you a clear idea of what to expect from the content. Game ideas? An article about why games are important for cats? Something else? And what distinguishes this page from other pages about games for cats?
Example of a descriptive title: “5 games even the laziest cat will love”
On the other hand, this title gives you a good idea of what you’ll walk away with after reading the article: 5 game ideas. It also tells you what’s unique about these game ideas – they are suitable even for lazy cats. This specificity also means that the article is more likely to reach the right audience (such as people with lazy cats), who will be more likely to engage.
Though of course, this title is only a good title if it’s truthful. A small exaggeration is fine (you probably didn’t test your games with the laziest cat in the world, and that’s fine), but you should make sure that the content mostly delivers on the title’s promise.
A super descriptive title is not enough – you want the information to actually reach people’s brains. There’s a lot of information on a search engine result page, and a title that’s not immediately clear will probably not capture people’s attention. That’s why your title should as easy as possible to read for people who are scanning the search engine result page.
Example of a difficult to scan title: “Veterinary specialist explains why your cat always seems hungry”
This title is a bit long and contains the complex phrase ‘veterinary specialist’. The key information (why your cat is always hungry) is also at the end of the title.
Example of an easy to scan title: “Why is my cat always hungry? Vet explains.”
This title has two shorter sentences instead of one long one. The complex phrase ‘veterinary specialist’ is replaced with ‘vet’. Also, the key information is at the beginning of the title.
4. Create a curiosity gap, but don’t exploit it
Clickbait often explores the curiosity gap by withholding certain pieces of information from the title, so that you are compelled to click.
This is not necessarily a bad thing: if your article provides some interesting information, you want to convey that through the title and elicit curiosity. However, your content should provide more value than just giving an answer to a question that can be summarized in one word or sentence. This will not create engagement, and will make people bounce right back to the search results.
Examples
Example of a title that exploits the curiosity gap: “This one activity can do wonders for your immune system”
This title withholds information that can be summarized in one word (in this case: “yoga”) and that is the main topic of the article.
Example of a title that doesn’t exploit the curiosity gap: “How yoga can do wonders for your immune system”
This title still creates curiosity because you’re not saying how yoga can boost your immunity. But at the same time, you provide a little bit more information about the content. However, this title only works if there is some depth to the answer provided in the article. If the answer is something very obvious or that can be summed up in one sentence, people may leave feeling uninterested at best, and manipulated at worst.
5. Use evocative language
This won’t work for all titles, but if possible, you should consider using evocative language. Evocative language captures particular senses or emotions, which can appeal to people more than plain factual descriptions.
One way to do this is by using adjectives, for example, describing a pasta dish as “creamy”. You can also use a verb, especially one that addresses the reader directly. Even better if the verb can serve as a call to action, or describe the benefit someone might enjoy after reading your article. For example, “Learn sewing with these beginner tips”.
Be careful to not overdo it, though – appealing to strong emotions is a key feature of clickbait. So ask yourself whether your title really needs adjectives such as “mind-blowing” or “heartbreaking”. And try to avoid relying on eliciting negative emotions, such as fear or anger, as that can feel particularly manipulative.
Examples
Example of a title without evocative language: “Best books for people who don’t read a lot”
Example of title with evocative language: “Books that will make anyone fall in love with reading”
6. Use the Yoast SEO title generator
Let’s be honest – even if you know the theory of what makes a good title, it’s not always easy in practice. The good news is, you can ask for help. The Yoast SEO AI title and meta description generator, available in Yoast SEO Premium, helps you craft quality SEO titles and meta description. With a click of a button, you get multiple title (or meta description) ideas based on your keyphrase and content. It’s a great option if you want to save time or if you need a bit of inspiration!
Conclusion
Not using clickbait doesn’t mean writing boring titles. It’s all about balance – highlighting what’s great about your content, but without overpromising or deceiving. Often, you can already create a compelling title by focusing on the basics, like making sure your title is descriptive and easy to scan. But you can also use techniques like creating a curiosity gap or using evocative language, as long as your title remains descriptive and truthful. And of course, a great title can’t exist without great content, so you should focus on that first and foremost!
Agnieszka Szuba
Agnieszka is a developer and a researcher at Yoast. She is part of the team responsible for the Yoast SEO content analysis. She is passionate about anything language related, such as readability and inclusive language.
Your focus keyphrase is the keyword(s) you want your post or page to rank for. If you’re particularly eager to rank for a specific keyword, you’ll probably be tempted to optimize many articles for that keyphrase. But, that’s not what a focus keyphrase is for! You should only use it once. But why? And what if you desperately want to rank for that particular keyphrase? Don’t despair: we’ll tell you all about it in this post.
Why shouldn’t you use your focus keyphrase more than once? Because you don’t want to compete with yourself for a position in Google. This phenomenon is also called keyword cannibalization. By optimizing two different articles for the same focus keyphrase, you’re telling Google two things: that both are suitable for people searching for that keyphrase, and both should appear in the search results.
While having two articles rank for the same keyphrase isn’t necessarily impossible, you’ll find that it’s still very hard. Your site needs to have a lot of authority, especially if you want your two articles to appear in the top ten search results for the same query.
What if you already rank with one article?
If one of your articles already ranks, you may have enough authority to try and rank with a second one. However, if you’re not already ranking for a focus keyword, never use it twice! Instead, update and improve your original article. Then write another post that covers a slight variation of the keyword.
What do you do if you want to rank for a particular keyphrase? Imagine you’re starting an online store for horse feed. You probably want to rank for [horse feed]. Seeing as you’re just starting, that’ll be pretty hard. You might think you need to optimize all your posts for [horse feed], but as we’ve just seen, that’s definitely not the case.
So what should you do? Your keyword research will give you some ideas about which other terms to target.
In the Yoast SEO sidebar you can mark your content as cornerstone content
You’ll need to write a lot of posts, each covering a different aspect of your ‘head’ term. For instance, you could write and optimize articles for focus keyphrases like [best type of hay for your horse], [pasture management], [feeding thin horses], [feeding sport horses] and so on. These are called long-tail keywords.
If you link from these long tail articles to your ‘head term’ article about [horse feed], you’ll be telling Google which of your articles is the most important. This will help you with ranking your most valuable article. At the same time, you’ll also be attracting traffic for those long-tail articles.
Content for your store
So, what if you have lots of product pages for a type of horse feed? Let’s say you have a big assortment: feeds for thin horses, fat horses, feeds for sport horses etc. Should you optimize all your product pages with feeds for thin horses for [feeds for thin horses]? Nope. In this case, it makes more sense to optimize your category page for this term instead of all your individual product pages.
Can you use a focus keyphrase more than once?
Of course you can, but in most cases it’s not a good strategy to achieve great rankings for a keyphrase. If you want to rank for a keyphrase, dive a bit deeper into a topic. See what questions people have. Could you write long-tail articles about those questions?
Also, look at the other search results. Who is your competition, and what do they show? How can you distinguish yourself from them? When you’ve written your content, embed your articles in a kickass site structure to increase your chance of ranking!
What does the previously used keyphrase check in Yoast SEO do?
What to do if you already used your keyphrase more than once?
If you click on the link next to the red bullet, it will guide you to the other article you’ve written about it. Take a good look at the articles. Check which one performs best in the search engines, or gets the most traffic. Keep that article, or merge the best aspects of both articles in the one that ranks highest. The free Yoast Duplicate post rewrite and republish feature can help you with that!
Want to learn how to choose your focus keyphrase well?
A solid keyword strategy is indispensable if you’re aiming for your website to rank high. You should investigate which keywords you’d like to rank for, research what the competition is doing, then write excellent copy about your focus keyword. If you want to learn how to thoroughly perform keyword research for your website, read our ultimate guide to keyword research, or try our keyword research training; it’s one of the many courses you’ll get access to with Yoast SEO Premium!
Marieke was Head of Strategy and former CEO at Yoast. She is no longer part of Yoast, but during her time at our company she wrote a lot. Topics that she loves writing about include SEO copywriting, site structure and readability.
The title of your post or page usually gets the H1 heading tag. It’s only logical to give your post one title, right? Having more than one H1 is like saying: “Hey, this text is about two topics of equal importance.” Yoast SEO warns you with a red traffic light if you use more than one H1 heading. Here, we’ll explain why your post or page only needs one H1 heading.
In many CMSs like WordPress or Shopify, headings are ordered in ranks (or levels). The highest rank is H1, the title of your post or page. In the rest of the text, you use H2 – H6 headings. With them, you indicate the importance of each section and how it relates to the rest of the text. So, when a reader lands on your page, the headings help them make sense of the content. It helps readers to scan the text and learn how it fits together.
Search engines also “read” headings and try to understand the structure of your text. Instead of the regular text you and I read, they go to the HTML version of your site and read the HTML heading tags. The headings help them comprehend the relative importance of your text’s (sub)topic.
One or multiple H1s?
As mentioned above, the H1 is the title of your post (not to be confused with the SEO title). We would suggest using the H1 heading only once. We believe that’s the best choice because:
Headings help readers and Google understand your text. If there are multiple H1 headings, your readers and Google might get confused. People might get confused, distracted, or even frustrated when there’s no clear distinction between main and subtopics. As a result, they may leave your site.
Proper use of headings makes your text more accessible. Think of visually impaired people who use screen readers. These devices can use headings to navigate through your text. More than one H1 in one article complicates this, and without visual cues, it might confuse people even more.
Of course, using the other headings as much as you need is perfectly acceptable. Still, you should keep in mind that headings are hierarchical. For example, you should use H2 before you use H3 within a particular topic. Check out this extensive guide on headings and SEO if you want to use them optimally.
What does the single H1 heading check in Yoast SEO do?
The single H1 assessment of Yoast SEO (both in our WordPress SEO plugin and Shopify SEO app) checks whether the body of your text contains an H1 heading at any position other than the very beginning. If Yoast SEO detects an H1 heading in the body of your text, it gives you a red bullet in the feedback. Luckily, solving this issue is straightforward.
Yoast SEO lets you know when you’ve used multiple H1s in your text
Finding and changing your H1 headings
To ensure your post doesn’t have double titles, you’ll need to find all H1s in your text and change them to a lower heading level.
Changing an H1 heading in the classic editor in WordPress
If you click one of your headings in the classic editor, the clickable drop-down menu in the upper left corner will show the heading level you’ve selected. You can change it to another level by opening the drop-down menu and selecting another level. If the Yoast SEO feedback indicates that your text contains more than one H1 heading, check all your headings by clicking them. Then, select another level to change your H1 into H2 or another appropriate heading.
Changing an H1 heading in the block editor in WordPress
In the block editor, Yoast SEO helps you find the H1s quickly. Click the eye icon next to the assessment and see the H1 titles highlighted in the editor. If you want to change the level of your headings, click them. The menu bar above the block shows you the level of the heading. Then, select another level to change your H1 into H2 or another appropriate heading.
Change the header format by clicking on it
Changing an H1 heading in Shopify
When you go to one of your products or blog posts in the backend of Shopify, you’ll notice the ‘Title’ field at the top. This is where you fill in your title (which is automatically your H1 on that page).
In the description field below, you can write your product description or blog post and add headings by clicking the ‘Paragraph’ button above the content field. This dropdown allows you to add headings of different levels. If you get a red traffic light for your H1 assessment in Yoast SEO, find the wrong headings by clicking the eye icon. When you’ve found the H1 in your content, change it into H2 or another appropriate heading.
Click the eye icon to find the redundant H1s
Conclusion
Using headings in the right way helps your SEO. What you learned from this post is quite simple. An H1 heading is the title of your post. You don’t want double or triple titles, so use the H1 heading only once. If you need to remember, Yoast is here to help you!
If you’re on Shopify, the Yoast SEO app can help keep an eye on your headings and other important SEO elements. In addition, it gives you access to all of our SEO courses to master the art of SEO! When you’re on WordPress and ready to take your SEO to the next level, go Premium to get access to all the features in Yoast SEO and all of our SEO courses. This will help you further optimize your site for visitors and search engines.
Go Premium and get free access to our SEO courses!
Learn how to write great content for SEO and unlock lots of features with Yoast SEO Premium:
Whether you have a company website, a blog, or an (online) store, chances are you’ve got a lot to do. You’re probably busy leading your company, blogging, or making your customers happy with the necessary goods. SEO might not be top of mind at all times. Yet, you also know that higher rankings would most likely benefit your business. So, how do you do SEO efficiently? Here, we will give you some tips on how to save time in SEO!
Disclaimer: it’s a known fact that SEO also stands for Seriously Effortful Optimization, so you will only get to the top by putting in the work. You should focus on stuff that matters (creating excellent content, making your site fast, and providing the best user experience, i.e., doing holistic SEO). The biggest time saver is choosing the right SEO tools to help you perform these tasks.
Table of contents
1. Unlock time-saving optimization with AI
Embrace the cutting-edge AI capabilities of Yoast SEO Premium to streamline your content optimization process. This powerful feature effortlessly generates titles and meta descriptions for your content. It even extends its benefits to your product meta descriptions when using WooCommerce SEO.
By leveraging AI, you can say goodbye to hours spent brainstorming catchy titles and compelling meta descriptions. Let the AI-powered tool handle the heavy lifting, ensuring your content is search-engine friendly while freeing up valuable time. You can focus on delivering high-quality content to your audience while our generative AI feature handles the optimization.
Yoast SEO Premium uses generative AI to help you work faster
2. Improve existing content
Are you considering writing yet another post on topic X? Think twice. Before you write something new, please check which posts you already have on this topic. Do you find something similar that you’ve written two or three years ago? You can refresh the existing post instead of writing a brand new post. Add new insights, add a hook to current news, improve the quality, and merge it with another post on the same topic on your site. Update it, and you can even share it again in your newsletter or on social media.
This is beneficial in more than one way:
It will prevent keyword cannibalization: if you have multiple similar posts on the same topic, your rankings for that query can deteriorate.
And, of course, you’ll save time by reusing content. In most cases, rewriting and updating content takes less time than writing something from scratch.
If you want to refresh your content smartly to benefit your SEO, check out our blog post on updating your content in 10 steps. A tool that saves time in the updating process is Yoast Duplicate Post. This free plugin allows you to duplicate and rewrite an existing post as a draft. When it’s ready, you can just hit ‘republish’ (or schedule) it. No more copying and pasting or inconveniently working in docs!
Creating a new draft or clone with Yoast Duplicate Post
One of the first things many SEOs do when auditing a site for the first time is to check the internal linking profile of a website. You could write a thousand articles, but if they don’t get links (external and internal), not many people will find them, making all the writing you’ve done a waste of time. A good site structure can boost your rankings, especially if you structure your site according to the cornerstone content principle.
In a nutshell, the cornerstone content principle means linking related posts. And most importantly, link these posts to the best, most complete article you’ve written on that topic. This is the article that touches on all aspects of the topic. It’s the article that you surely want to rank with! Because this post (or page) gets the most internal links, it sends signals to Google that this is the most important post on that topic.
Internal linking with Yoast SEO Premium
Without any help, implementing this is a lot of work: finding out which posts are related, making sure they’re linked, and manually checking whether they all link to a cornerstone article. Fortunately, Yoast SEO Premium has an excellent feature to help you save time: the internal linking suggestions tool. It will find and show suggestions for related articles to link to next to the post editor in the Yoast SEO sidebar. Pick the ones that you think fit best in the context of your post.
Easily add contextual links with Yoast SEO Premium
Moreover, you can mark your posts as cornerstone content in the backend with Yoast SEO. If you’ve done this and you’re writing a related post, this cornerstone article will show up on top in the suggestions. So you won’t forget to link to those!
Of course, you need more than just internal links for SEO. Nothing beats getting an external link from a high-authority website to build your authoritativeness (part of E-E-A-T). So, building backlinks remains key to achieving good results in SEO. Unfortunately, there’s not a shortcut here. You’ll need outstanding and genuinely original content to earn backlinks nowadays. Plus, you must put effort into the necessary outreach to get the word out about the fantastic things you do, create, or write.
SEO can be overwhelming. You’re never done with SEO, and the tasks you want or need to do can pile up. As a result, you can lose track of everything on your plate, which can even lead to overwhelmed paralysis. It is stressful and not helpful if you want to save time. It’s good to get an overview of the SEO improvements you want to work on to prevent feeling overwhelmed or regain control. Productivity tools like Trello or Todoist can help you attain and keep this overview.
When you’ve organized your board, you’ll need to prioritize. But you might wonder: which tasks on your board come first? Well, as always in SEO, the answer is: it depends. Are significant technical flaws preventing Google from correctly crawling and indexing your site? The obvious answer is to start with that. Do you use huge images on your site, causing pages to load for ages? That might be a good starting point, too.
As for content improvements, it’s impossible to give one-fits-all advice. One principal recommendation, and maybe stating the obvious: make sure your priorities are aligned with your business goals. Are you focusing on getting more sales right now? Optimizing your product pages probably makes sense. Do you want to establish sustainable growth? Focus on the long-term with sustainable SEO.
Are you still feeling overwhelmed? Then, starting with more minor, easy-to-accomplish tasks might be a good idea. Getting into a flow of achieving things and moving cards to done can give that positive energy needed to take up the more significant tasks.
5. Optimize your post for synonyms and related keyphrases
What if you want to rank for multiple queries with one post? That would be a huge time-saver, right? The good news is that you can and might even already do. Of course, there’s one significant constraint: the queries must be very similar. For instance, if you write about sustainable hen houses, it might be worth optimizing for a synonym such as eco-friendly poultry houses too. Using synonyms is a best practice not only for SEO but also for readability. Generally, people don’t like repeatedly reading the same word in a text.
Using synonyms will also help Google to understand the topic better. You’re giving them more context on the topic, making it easier to identify which entity you’re writing about. The same goes for related keyphrases; it will provide Google with the context to show your post or page for the correct query. If you want to optimize your post for related keywords, our Semrush integration can save time finding these. It will show related queries to your focus keyphrase with search volume.
Related keyphrase suggestions by Semrush in Yoast SEO
In Yoast SEO Premium, you can set keyphrase synonyms and related keyphrases. The SEO analysis will consider these phrases when analyzing your text and give you feedback so you can also optimize for these phrases. As explained, this will result in more natural writing and a better understanding of the post’s topic by Google. And it can save you time because you won’t write essentially identical posts. As a bonus, you’re not creating duplicate content or causing keyword cannibalization.
6. Preview your social post in the admin
We think sharing your content on social should be part of your SEO efforts. When you’ve written a blog post and plan to share it on social media, you want to ensure it looks good on your timeline. But if you need to do that on the social media platform itself, it does take some time. You must go back and forth between platforms, adapt and upload improved images, etc.
A small but easy time-saving feature in Yoast SEO Premium is our social media preview functionality. It will show you what your post looks like when shared on Facebook or X. Does the image fit, and does the title look good? If you use it, you’re no longer in the dark about the appearance of your post on your timeline. And it saves you time switching between platforms and copy-pasting URLs.
Moreover, you can even set default templates for specific post types. For instance, at Yoast, we set those for help articles. We don’t share these frequently on social media, so we won’t create individual images for all these articles. But setting a good fall-back image prevents these posts from looking misfitted when shared by someone else. Read more about our default social templates.
Save time in SEO
So that’s it. These are our tips on saving time in SEO. It mostly comes down to focusing on what matters and using the right tools. Over to you! Do you have any tremendous time-saving tips? Please share them in the comments!
If you’re a user of Yoast SEO for WordPress or Shopify, then you’re probably familiar with the traffic lights in our plugin. Three parts of Yoast SEO use this system: the content analysis, the readability analysis, and the inclusive language analysis. The first checks whether your post or product pages are SEO-proof, while the latter checks if they’re readable for a general audience. The third checks if your content has language that might exclude people. Of course, these are interconnected, as readable content is crucial if you want your site to do well in the search results. Here, we’ll show you how to use the readability analysis.
What does the readability analysis in Yoast SEO do?
The readability analysis in Yoast SEO uses an algorithm to determine how readable your text is. We’ve crafted this algorithm to make it as accurate as possible without being too strict. It features several checks that will give you advice when you write your page. In other words, following this advice makes your text easier to read and understand.
It has been said that Yoast SEO suggests dumbing down your writing. Of course, that’s not the case. We merely want to help people write content that’s easy to understand. Just consider the following quote by content design hero Sarah Richards about making your content as readable for humans as possible:
“You’re not dumbing down, you’re opening up.”
By simplifying content, you’re automatically growing your audience as more people grasp the message of your content. Also, you’re not writing your content just for people anymore. Because virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri must also be able to work with it. Even Google increasingly uses well-written content for rich results like featured snippets, not to mention all the AI tools that love good content.
The current readability checks are available in Yoast SEO:
Transition words: Do you use transition words like ‘most importantly’, ‘because’, ‘therefore’, or ‘besides that’ to tie your text together? Using these words improves the flow of your article as they provide hints to the reader about what is coming next.
Sentence beginnings: Do any of your consecutive sentences start with the same word? This might feel repetitive to your reader, and that can be annoying. Always keep your sentences varied, so your article is readable and free of obstacles. Unless you want to prove something or use it as a writing style, of course.
Word complexity: It would be a shame if you write something and your readers can’t fully grasp it, right? The more uncommon and complicated words you use, the harder it might be for your visitors to understand your writing. Thanks to the feedback from this assessment, you can easily identify complex words and change them accordingly. We’ll highlight them for you so you don’t have to spend time looking.
Paragraph length: Some people tend to use extremely long paragraphs. Doing so makes your text look daunting as it becomes just one big blob of text. Break it up, use shorter paragraphs and don’t forget to give your core sentences some thought.
Subheading distribution: Similarly to long paragraphs, texts without subheadings are difficult to scan, which makes them rather daunting. So, we check if you use enough subheadings to guide your readers through the text and help them find what they’re looking for.
Sentence length: Sentence length is one of the core aspects that can make a text hard to read. If most of your sentences are too long – over 20 words – people lose track of your point. Readers often have to jump back a few words to find out what you mean. This is very tiring and inefficient. Try to keep the number of words in a sentence in check. Shorten your sentences. Aim for easy understanding, not a complex literary masterpiece.
Passive voice: Using a lot of passive voice in your text makes it appear distant, and your message will be less clear. Your sentences become wordy and difficult because the sentence structure is harder to understand. Whenever you use the passive voice, always consider whether a better, active alternative is available.
Transition words: Do you use transition words like ‘most importantly’, ‘because’, ‘therefore’, or ‘besides that’ to tie your text together? Using these words improves the flow of your article as they provide hints to the reader about what is coming next.
Sentence beginnings (doesn’t apply for Product pages): Do any of your consecutive sentences start with the same word? This might feel repetitive to your reader, and that can be annoying. Always keep your sentences varied, so your article is readable and free of obstacles. Unless you want to prove something or use it as a writing style, of course.
Paragraph length: Some people tend to use extremely long paragraphs. Doing so makes your text look daunting as it becomes just one big blob of text. Break it up, use shorter paragraphs and don’t forget to give your core sentences some thought.
Subheading distribution: Similarly to long paragraphs, texts without subheadings are difficult to scan, which makes them rather daunting. So, we check if you use enough subheadings to guide your readers through the text and help them find what they’re looking for.
Sentence length: Sentence length is one of the core aspects that can make a text hard to read. If most of your sentences are too long – over 20 words – people lose track of your point. Readers often have to jump back a few words to find out what you mean. This is very tiring and inefficient. Try to keep the number of words in a sentence in check. Shorten your sentences. Aim for easy understanding, not a complex literary masterpiece.
Passive voice: Using a lot of passive voice in your text makes it appear distant, and your message will be less clear. Your sentences become wordy and difficult because the sentence structure is harder to understand. Whenever you use the passive voice, always consider whether a better, active alternative is available.
Lists(Product pages only): Using lists in your product pages enable your customers to scan the content on the page, and help highlight the benefits and features of your product. Try to include at least one list (ordered or unordered) in your product description.
Supported languages
The readability analysis is available in many languages. Check out the languages Yoast SEO supports for an overview. We’re continually working on adding new languages.
How to use the readability analysis in Yoast SEO
The readability analysis
You can find the readability analysis in your Yoast sidebar in WordPress and Shopify. In WordPress, you can also find the readability checks in the Yoast SEO meta box underneath the post or page you edit.
It’s very easy to use the analysis to improve your content. You can start writing the article you want to write. The readability score is calculated in real-time, so you can look at it while you write. However, if you want to stay focused, you can also choose not to look at the score while writing your first draft. That way, you can write without being distracted and make the final tweaks afterward.
The readability score helps you by giving you a green, orange, or red traffic light per check. If you get orange or red traffic lights, click on the eye icon to determine where improvements can be made. Easy peasy!
Everyone has their own writing and editing process, and this way isn’t necessarily how you should use it. You have to find out what works for you gradually. Practice makes perfect!
It’s good to note that the word complexity assessment is a Premium feature. If you’re using the free version of Yoast SEO, you’ll see this feature being greyed out. Upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium now to unlock this feature!
The readability analysis in the Yoast SEO for WordPress metabox
Should all traffic lights be green?
We often get this question: no, not every traffic light has to be green. What you should aim for, though, is a green, happy traffic light overall — the one in the tab that reads “Readability”. An orange traffic light for one of the checks, like in the screenshot above, is fine. Your article will still be able to rank even if it doesn’t pass all of the tests. This is merely an indication, not a necessity.
We want everyone to be able to read and understand content, but we also know that there are industries where the language used is different from what most people would use. That’s perfectly fine. Find out what works for you. Need help? Please read our ultimate guide to SEO copywriting.
Try it out!
The readability analysis and content analysis of Yoast SEO help you write excellent, SEO-proof articles and product pages that are easy for anyone to grasp. In doing so, you ensure that every piece of content you write is ready to start ranking in search engines while staying enjoyable for readers. Don’t have Yoast SEO yet? Do you want to use our Premium plugins’ excellent additional features? Find out about all the benefits of Yoast SEO for WordPress and Yoast SEO for Shopify!
We’re in the smartphone era, which means a large part of your audience will use your site via mobile. So, what does this mean? Do you need to write differently if you’re copywriting for a ‘mobile’ audience? In this post, we’ll share some useful tips on how to write awesome texts that are great for both desktops and mobile devices.
Why is copywriting for mobile different?
Even with responsive website designs, reading on a mobile device is still different from reading on a desktop. Since phone screens are smaller, text will appear longer because it takes up more space, and people have to scroll to read everything (which will make it feel longer to read).
What’s more, lots of people use their mobile device ‘on the go’, while also doing other things. This means their attention span and concentration are limited. They’re easily distracted, so you want to grab their attention with short and concise content when you’re copywriting for mobile.
Tip 1: Always focus on your audience
While it’s good to focus on the question ‘how can I write good texts for smartphone users’, you shouldn’t lose track of the most important question: ‘what does my audience like?’ Because phones won’t read your content. But your audience will! That’s why it’s good to keep an eye on your audience’s interests, and write about those topics.
Tip 2: Make your fonts large enough
Font size is important for your mobile UX. You want your texts to be readable without folks having to squint or pinch and zoom; especially your base font – your paragraph font – should be readable. So don’t use your desktop font size on your mobile site. At least, not without checking how it looks on mobile first. And while you’re at it, check it for tablets too.
How many font sizes should you use?
Be aware that your mobile site will look messy when you use more than three font sizes. The size differences will be much more visible. That’s why we advise limiting the number to two, maybe three, sizes.
Don’t use too many long sentences. As we’ve said before, people who search on their phone want fast and short answers. To illustrate, a sentence of 25 words takes up two lines on an average desktop screen. But on a phone screen, those 25 words will be four lines. That’s twice as long!
Not to mention, long sentences make reading your text much more difficult. This is true for desktop as well, but it’s even more important when you write for a mobile audience. So, try to address your audience’s specific pain points with your copy and quickly offer a solution.
Tip 4: Add subheadings
Mobile users often skim texts. So, if you want your content to be easy to read, break it up with informative subheadings. These subheadings will guide your readers through your text, making your message much easier to digest. They’re almost like road signs, guiding your users to the good stuff.
Tip 5: Check your white space
Don’t be afraid to let your words breathe. Since phones have smaller screens, you don’t want your text to look cramped. By giving your content some room, it will be easier to read. Plus, if you have sufficient white space between sentences, people will be able to easily tap on clickable elements with their finger.
If you’re unsure how much white space is enough, you should check on multiple devices how it looks. And feel free to ask other people what they think!
Tip 6: Keep an eye on text-structure
If your text is well structured, people will more easily understand the main message of your post. If it’s not, people might get lost and tune out. So the structure of your text should be flawless.
A well-structured text has two things:
Paragraphs that follow each other in a logical order.
Sentences that are connected to each other, usually by transition words. These words will help people understand the meaning of your text.
Remember, copywriting for mobile is all about writing texts that are easy to read. So, pay attention to your text structure and make sure it makes sense.
With shorts and reels and all types of short-form video trending right now, you’d be a fool not to use some type of multimedia on your mobile site. So, use high-quality visuals that underline or amplify the main message of your text. And mind the file size! Nobody likes a slow-loading website.
And remember: using images or videos isn’t just about making your site look good. You want them to enhance your user’s experience.
Short and sweet
If you want to use videos on your pages or posts, keep in mind that they need to be short! Mobile users are like speed daters, they want to know who and what and why fast. A short video will keep them hooked and on your site.
And of course, don’t forget to add captions. People who search on their phone are usually outside or on public transport, so they can’t turn on their volume. By using captions, you’ll ensure that people will be able to watch your video.
Conclusion: readability is of the utmost importance on mobile
Copywriting for mobile is not that different from writing for a desktop. In both cases, you need to write for a real audience. However, ‘mobile’ texts demand an even better readability than ‘desktop’ texts, because reading from a mobile screen is more challenging than from a desktop. But if you make sure your readability is top-notch, your texts will have loads of readers, both on mobile devices and desktops.
Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.
